Contents

• More about square footage
• Everything’s New – forms edition
• Important links

More about square footage

Square footage will be a mandatory field in the new Regional MLS^® System once we make the final cut over to Matrix.

There will be two parts to the Square Footage field:   the measurement, and how you got the measurement – that is, whether you measured it yourself or used another source.   The five options for the source of the measurement on the Residential Data Input form will be:

• Builders’ floor plans
• Floor plans
• LBO provided
• Other
• Public records

Builder’s floor plans
If the house you are listing has a builder’s floor plan, it is acceptable to use it.  You should be aware, however, that the floor plan from before the house was built may differ from the actual floor plan that was built.  While you can cite the builder’s floor plan, it may be worth your while to do a quick check to make sure the rooms are reasonably accurately represented.

Floor Plans
There are a number of companies you can hire to measure square footage, draw floor plans and provide other services for a fee.  A quick internet search gave us four companies close to the Hamilton-Burlington market area:

• Measure Masters
• Measured Up
• PLANiT Measuring
• Planitar

A more detailed search may produce the names and website of other companies that measure square footage.

LBO provided (or measuring for yourself)
For those of you who will take your own measurements, you should know there is no standardized way of measuring the square footage of a house in Canada.  There are, however, a number of recognized methods to measure square footage.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), with the National Association of Home Builders, developed an American National Standard for Single-Family Residential Buildings.  Their document has a good description of what goes into measuring square footage, although it doesn’t provide a lot of examples of measuring various types of houses.   Read the guideline.

The Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC) has developed guidelines that are widely used; they can be found on REALTOR Link^® under the MLS^® tab or here. They are very similar to the ACRE method developed by the now-defunct Alliance for Real Estate Education (ACRE) and which is still included in the reference guide OREA issues in the Ontario licensing course.   The ACRE method includes examples of a few more types of dwellings than the Appraisal Institute’s guidelines.

An internet search for how to measure square footage brings up a number of sites – appraisers, bloggers, ANSI and more.   There’s no question it would be easier if there was one, approved way to calculate square footage and a website to explain it, but there isn’t.  If you check out those sites, however, most refer to one of the recognized methods mentioned above – ANSI, AIC or ACRE.

What is probably most important, if you are measuring square footage yourself, is that you choose one of the recognized methods, understand the calculations and use that method consistently.   If there are any discrepancies, you should be able to show that you diligently adhered to a legitimate way to calculate square footage.

Public Records – MPAC reports purchased through GeoWarehouse
MPAC offers two reports that provide square footage – the Residential Floor Area Report and the Detailed Level 2 Report.  (The links will take you to samples of the reports.)   You can purchase the reports through the GeoWarehouse Store for $5 and $8 respectively.

Other
If you use any other source than those listed, you have to explain in the comments section of the listing what your source is.

The most important thing to remember when you are determining the square footage of a property you have listed is that you have to do your own due diligence to ensure the information is reliable – you measure yourself, you have a professional measure or you use public or reliable builder’s plans.  It is not enough to rely on the word of the seller or use the information from a previous listing; you should be checking the information yourself so you know it is accurate.

When you are engaged with buyers and sellers as they purchase or sell a home, remember:  you are the professional, so RECO will hold you to a high standard, the court will hold you to a high standard, sellers and buyers will hold you to a high standard and RAHB will hold you to a high standard.

Everything’s New

Members have been asking exactly what the differences are between property information forms used for Fusion and the data input forms that will be used for Matrix.

If you look at the new Regional residential and commercial data input forms (there are links to the new forms below), they look completely different than the forms you are used to.  It makes sense, because you can’t go from the five forms used for Fusion to two forms for Matrix, and expect everything to remain the same.

Once RAHB makes the transition to Matrix, you will have to use the data input forms for Matrix – the property information forms for Fusion will not give you the information you need to broker load your listing information.

It would be a good idea, then, to get to know two Matrix Regional MLS^®  data input forms before you need to start using them.   Read the instructions and the guide that preceed the data input form; become familiar with which fields are considered mandatory; get a feel for the general layout of the form so that you are familiar with it when it comes time to fill out your first one.

Check them out now – but remember you can’t use the new forms until you are able to broker load listings into Matrix.

Residential Data Input form
Commercial Data Input form

Important links

Matrix – http://matrix.onregional.ca
Matrix Transition Guide – http://www.rahb.ca/email/TransitiontoMatrix.pdf
CoreLogic’s Matrix 6.12 Quick Start Guide – http://www.marketlinx.com/download/pdf/Matrix_6.12_Quick_Start_Guide_CAN.pdf
New Regional Residential Data Input Form – http://www.rahb.ca/email/ORTIS_RES_EXPLAIN.pdf
New Regional Commercial Data Input Form – http://www.rahb.ca/email/ORTIS_COM_EXPLAIN.pdf

** Remember – do not use the new Regional Data Input Forms until you are able to broker load in Matrix **

Contents

• Matrix requires new password
• Internet Explorer Users!
• Tips for Using Matrix
  • Special Keys
  • New Picks in Matrix
  • Listing Displays in Matrix
• Important links

Matrix requires new password

As of Wednesday, January 6, 2016, users of the Regional Matrix system have been required to change their passwords.

If you haven’t logged into the Matrix since January 6, you will find that when you log in, you will be redirected by Clareity Security to the “Change Password” page, where you will change your password.   Your new password must contain a minimum of six letters and at least one number; your entire password must be between six and 10 characters.

In addition to choosing a new password, you will be asked to answer three security questions.

If this sounds familiar, this is the same process you went through to choose your Fusion password when RAHB began using Clareity Security three years ago.

Please note:  This new password is only for Matrix.  You will continue to use your current password to access Fusion.

Internet Explorer Users!

Microsoft will end support for Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 on Tuesday, January 12, 2016.  Microsoft will support IE 9 only on Microsoft Vista computers.

This means that Microsoft will no longer be providing updates for these versions of Internet Explorer and significant security vulnerabilities may exist for users who continue to use them.  Clareity Security software solutions will still permit logins from these browser versions, but limited support may be available because of Microsoft’s actions.

If you don’t want to work with a browser that is no longer supported, we recommend you switch to Google Chrome or Firefox.

Preparing for Matrix

Special Keys

There are some special keys that will help you when you use Matrix:

• The plus symbol + or minus – symbol will indicate “greater than” or “less than” values.  Example:   10+ for more than 10 and  10- for less than 10. (Enter 10 for exactly 10.)
• If you are looking for a range, enter it as 10-50 (as an example)
• The asterisk * is a wildcard.  Example:  enter p* in the Street Name search field to get all the streets beginning with the letter P that meet all the criteria you have entered (region, city, etc)
• The question mark ? can be used with a letter or number as a length delimiter.  Exampe:   p?? will return pow, pwr, pan, pic, pro, pub.
• The exclamation mark ! means “not”.Example: !3 in a field will give you all responses except those that equal 3.
• To select more than one item, hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard while clicking on the desired items with your mouse.
• To remove a selected item, hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard while clicking with your mouse and the item will deselect.

New Picks in Matrix

Addition of ‘Reserved Spaces Field’
On January 19, 2016, an additional field called ‘Reserved Spaces’ was added to the Matrix system for Residential Property types.  This field was added to accommodate previous listings from other MLS® systems which permitted text in the ‘Garage Spaces’ field.  With text being allowed, some agents were inputting not only the number of spaces, but also the space assignment numbers (e.g. “2,A123,B456” where 2 would be the number of spaces and A123/B456 would be the assigned parking spot numbers).  Following the addition of the new field “Reserved Spaces”, the ‘Garage Spaces’ field data will be copied to the ‘Reserved Spaces’ field and then the ‘Garage Spaces’ field will be changed to a numeric entry only field.  The reason for this change is to allow for a more accurate and flexible way to search for parking/garage spaces using the numeric input fields.

In summary….

Before
Driveway Parking Spaces <numeric character input>
Garage Spaces <freeform character input>
Result:  no easy way to predict what might be typed in the ‘Garage Spaces’ field, making it very difficult to search.

After
Reserved Spaces <freeform character input>
Driveway Parking Spaces <numeric character input>
Garage Spaces <numeric character input>
Result:  easier to search the ‘Garage Spaces’ field now that is a numeric value only.

Also  new!  Garage Types – New pick value
On January 19, 2016, the value ‘Oversized’ was added to accommodate oversized garages which are commonly referred to as a “1.5 Car Garage or a One and a Half Car Garage”.

Please note these changes are only in Matrix – this does not affect your listing entry into Fusion.

Listing Displays in Matrix

In Fusion, you are used to looking at listing details on “Reports”.  In Matrix they are referred to as “Displays”.  Here are the displays available to you in Matrix:

1. Member Single Line – allows you to print MLS® number, status, Property type, address, municipality, neighbourhood, city, sqft, beds, baths, DOM, list date
2. Member Thumbnail – allows you to print MLS® number, address, city, property type, age, DOM, sqft, price, beds,  baths, lot size, taxes, municipality, neighbourhood, heat, water, sellers, listing  salesperson, listing brokerage, REALTOR® remarks
3. Member Full – allows you to print with or without header and footer, as well as listing information, rooms, open house dates, listing history and photos
4. Member Full with signature – allows you to enter listing directly into Matrix and print off report to have the Sellers sign. Using this option allows the member to avoid double entry of manually filling in in the listing form AND input in Matrix (available only once we cut over to Matrix)
5. Member Full One Page with tabs – same as Member full, but also includes the selection of room sizes in imperial and metric
6. Member Full One Page – allows you to print valuable listing details, excludes rooms and sizes on a one page report
7. Client Thumbnail – allows you to print address, city, MLS® number, property style/type, heat, water, beds, baths, garage, sqft, age, pool, neighbourhood, listing brokerage, status
8. Client Full – allows you to print listing details not in conflict with privacy laws
9. Hotsheet – allows you to print change date, changed info, MLS® number, address, price, city, Property sub type, style, beds, baths, sqft, DOM, listing brokerage

Please note:  personal reports you have created in Fusion will not be migrated over to Matrix.

Important links

Matrix – http://matrix.onregional.ca
Matrix Transition Guide – http://www.rahb.ca/email/TransitiontoMatrix.pdf
CoreLogic’s Matrix 6.12 Quick Start Guide – http://www.marketlinx.com/download/pdf/Matrix_6.12_Quick_Start_Guide_CAN.pdf
New Regional Residential Data Input Form – http://www.rahb.ca/email/ORTIS_RES_EXPLAIN.pdf
New Regional Commercial Data Input Form – http://www.rahb.ca/email/ORTIS_COM_EXPLAIN.pdf

** Remember – do not use the new Regional Data Input Forms until you are able to broker load in Matrix **