The following Market Dynamics Reports now show Bank Owned Properties:

• Sold Properties
• Under Contract Properties
• New Properties Listed
• For Sale Properties
• Expired Properties

Bank Owned View
Click here to enlarge this chart.

The Bank Portion view shows the number of distressed properties that are in foreclosure; or in foreclosure and subject to short sale; or owned (REO) during the applicable time period.

Non-Bank Owned View
Click here to enlarge this chart.

The Non-Bank Portion view shows the number of non-distressed properties that were free of any bank mediation during the applicable time period.

Easily add the percentage by checking the box to the top right of the graph.

The contact manager error is common in browsers that have multiple pop-up blockers enabled. Google and Yahoo toolbars must be disabled before trying to fix the issue. See below:

Quick and Easy Steps:

1. First click the ‘View’ option at the top of the browser. view screenshot

2. Hover over ‘Toolbars’. view screenshot

3. Uncheck anything but ‘Standard Buttons’, ‘Address Bar’ and ‘Links’. view screenshot

4. Now click ‘Tools’ at the top of your browser. view screenshot

5. Select ‘Internet Options’. view screenshot

6. Go to the ‘Security’ Tab. view screenshot

7. Click once on ‘Trusted Sites’ so it’s highlighted. view screenshot

8. Click the ‘Sites’ button, below. view screenshot

9. In the trusted sites window uncheck ‘Require Server Verification’. view screenshot

10. Then add *.fnismls.com to the website box. view screenshot

11. Click ‘Add’, then ‘OK’ view screenshot

12. Click on ‘Custom Level’. view screenshot

13. Scroll down to the heading ‘Miscellaneous’. view screenshot

14. Above ‘Miscellaneuous’ set ‘Java Permissions’ to Low Safety. view screenshot

15. Change or keep all options above set to ‘Enable’. view screenshot

16. Press ‘OK’ out of security settings

17. Press ‘OK’ out of internet options

Finally, restart your computer. That should do it. If you still get the error then you might have more than one popup-blocker running. If that’s the case, give us a call at our Technical Support Center at 925-295-1270 and we can help you from there.

General Disclaimer

CCAR does not guarantee the reliability or quality of any of the products, links, software, or hardware of the vendors mentioned in CCAR Help Blog articles. Nor do we have a vested interest in any of those entities whatsoever. You hereby acknowledge that any reliance upon or use of any of the aforementioned shall be at your sole risk. CCAR reserves the right, in its sole discretion and without any obligation, to make improvements to, or correct any error or omissions in any portion of the information presented on this site.

I need my old file back, what do I do?

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General Disclaimer

CCAR does not guarantee the reliability or quality of any of the products, links, software, or hardware of the vendors mentioned in CCAR Help Blog articles. Nor do we have a vested interest in any of those entities whatsoever. You hereby acknowledge that any reliance upon or use of any of the aforementioned shall be at your sole risk. CCAR reserves the right, in its sole discretion and without any obligation, to make improvements to, or correct any error or omissions in any portion of the information presented on this site.

Your Technical Support Staff will be making the necessary changes to the system this evening to remedy the above error.

For more information¸ visit…http://www.realtor.org/narlservredirect.nsf/pages/NT000016EA?OpenDocument&WT.mc_id=LS060210&CAT=Rcom

by Richard Tausch

“Understand how, why, and what you can do.”

First understand that CCAR has a firm policy of not allowing the distribution of a ‘bulk‘ email address list. CCAR does not allow or facilitate the distribution of such a list under any circumstances. Our members‘ privacy and ability to conduct business uninterrupted by unsolicited nuisance messages is of paramount importance. CCAR invests resources specifically in preventing this behavior, and in educating members how to best avoid being a target of such behavior.

So, while CCAR has never and never will distribute our members email addresses in bulk format, SPAM still happens. Understanding why, and what you can do, is a big part of preventing as much SPAM as possible.

‘Normal‘ events can easily lead to your email address being added to SPAMMING lists. ‘Normal‘ events would include things like registering for a service of some sort (credit reporting, updates from your favorite catalog, virtually anything where you supply an email address). Not all services and vendors are the same, of course. Some of these folks will sell address lists, others will simply not guard them very safely, and some will do an exceptional job of guarding your privacy. All of that can of course change over time. There is really no way of knowing for certain when it is sensible to provide an email address, and when you are asking for trouble. A good strategy to help with this to an extent is to have several email addresses, at least one of which you keep sacrosanct and never ‘give away‘ online in this fashion (see below).

However, ‘normal‘ events are not all that professionals like REALTORS® have to deal with. The particulars of the real estate business make it both relatively easy and desirable to SPAM its practitioners. Understanding that YOU ARE A TARGET, in many ways more than the average internet user, can help you minimize the problem to an extent. Not only are you a target, most practitioners have painted a convenient bulls-eye directly on their web presence. Let’s take a step back to understand this.

You have a website. You want exposure and leads (this is why you have a website of course), so you place your email address and link it to a ‘mailto:‘ command that when someone clicks it will generate and email to you. Your email address is thus typically displayed in both plain text on the page (‘Click here to email me at something@somewhere.com‘ for instance), as well as being embedded in the html code on your page.

Now, the way that people find your website is typically by searching for it. Search engines facilitate this by first ‘crawling‘ or ‘spidering‘ the web to see what is out there. In doing so, they sample all of the text on your webpage, especially the links (like the mailto: link). Most of the time this is a harmless, and even beneficial thing. However, if someone wants to build a ‘bulk‘ list of email addresses for REALTORS® in the bay area, the same techniques make it relatively easy to do so. ‘Spidering‘ for web sites that discuss real estate, allow you to search the MLS, mention one or more city in the area, and have a mailto: link will give me a list to harvest from. Processing the content on those pages to end up with every email address from every page that fits that category is then relatively simple.

Best practices at this time is to avoid placing an actual email link, or your email address in plain text on your website. A picture of the text of your email address, for instance, is much preferable. A form that consumers can fill out on your page that then sends a message to you without ever exposing your address is ideal. Even simply typing your address with some obvious separator characters will help immensely (for example, something (@) somewhere (.) com).

Additional tips and techniques can be found below. Thank you for taking the time to understand that while you may receive a solicitation to your email to purchase a ‘bulk‘ list of addresses, CCAR has never and never will sell, give away or facilitate the distribution of such a list.

Preventing Spam (or at least trying to)

Q: Is there a way to prevent junk mail from flooding my email?

A: Good question, but there isn´t an easy answer.

We suggest to never Opt Out when provided with the option. It only confirms the validity of the email address originally sent to and often it increases the level of junk that shows up.

There are lots of suggestions on how to handle SPAM, but the best ways aren´t going to work for REALTORS® as they naturally want to expose as many ways for potential clients to contact them as possible, so hiding contact information (email addresses) isn´t an option (hiding email addresses reduce the harvesting and population of SPAM lists).

The next best solution is that you may want to use a SPAM guard type software or 3rd party mail filter. There are many on the market and we haven´t done a head to head test on what products work better than others, so we cannot make any specific suggestions. The key components to look for are:

Accuracy, ease of use and automatic updating

Other quick suggestions:

Try not to send funnies or chain letters to your friends. When your friends send them to you, either ask them not to or create a free email for that purpose only. Because eventually one of those emails will fall into the hands of a list harvester and all the email addresses embedded inside (everyone it was sent to previously) will be added to SPAM lists. Don´t sign up for anything on the web using your primary email accounts. Create a few free email addresses and use them for different purposes.

Here´s to happy computing,

Richard Tausch

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General Disclaimer

CCAR does not guarantee the reliability or quality of any of the products, links, software, or hardware of the vendors mentioned in CCAR Help Blog articles. Nor do we have a vested interest in any of those entities whatsoever. You hereby acknowledge that any reliance upon or use of any of the aforementioned shall be at your sole risk. CCAR reserves the right, in its sole discretion and without any obligation, to make improvements to, or correct any error or omissions in any portion of the information presented on this site.

]]> http://www.ccarhelp.com/2010/04/16/spam-happens/feed/ 1 http://www.ccarhelp.com/2010/04/15/right-tools-right-now-2010-smartphone-survey-report-at-no-cost/ http://www.ccarhelp.com/2010/04/15/right-tools-right-now-2010-smartphone-survey-report-at-no-cost/#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:00:11 +0000 Jared White http://www.ccarhelp.com/?p=1825 Take advantage of the Center for REALTOR® Technology’s “2010 Smartphone Survey Report” for FREE through the Right Tools, Right Now initiative. Discover what smartphone is best for you with this report highlighting members’ smartphone usage, perceptions, and needs. Visit REALTOR.org/RightTools for details. 

Read more…http://www.realtor.org/prodser.nsf/RightTools/TechnologyServices?OpenDocument&wt.mc_id=RT1167&WT.mc_id=LS041410&CAT=Tech

Beginning April 19 we will transition to a new provider for this free wireless MLS service. When you log on to Wireless MLS, you will automatically be directed to the new wireless product, reInsight Mobile. The new system provides enhanced features and has a much better look and feel than the current wireless product in addition to saving money for the association.

While you won’t find ‘today’s hotsheet’ on the new mobile MLS, you will be able to perform this type of search using “Status Date” as a criterion. More information coming soon!