I was reading through the instructions and I see where it says to export “All status” activity for the “Last two years”. Why?

When we tell people that they need to export ALL status activities and for the last two years it isn’t unusual for us to get one of the following two responses:

• Why should we include all status activities? We don’t look at Withdrawn properties in our area.
• Why should we look at activity that is two years old?  Certainly, were not going to price properties based on data that is two years old are we?

First of all rest assured, we are NOT going ask you to price properties based on two year old data.  The reason we request that you look at all status activities is so that you can see an accurate representation on the Odds of Selling.  The Odds of Selling is a basically the number of homes that have sold in the area compared to the number of homes that were for sale.  Gathering the Withdrawn (or Cancelled) and Expired data will help us to get a complete picture of all the homes that have been for sale.  When the market was going strong, it was not unusual for Realtors to ignore the Withdrawn and Expired data.  There are even some MLS that do not allow you to export Withdrawn or Expired data.  In today’s environment, when so many homes that are put on the market are not sold, it is important that we have a complete picture and measure of all the activity.

The reason we recommend that you export data from the last two years, is so that we can get an idea of the trends that are occurring in the area.  This will allow us to see what’s been going on in the last two years and see if the market is improving or not.  It also allows us to get a complete years picture and complete pattern for both the “Time to Sell” and “Buying Pattern” graphs.

When using the Visual Pricing System, how much data should I be exporting?

We find that the best results can be obtained when you are exporting between 50-100 data points from your MLS.  Of course, that is including all status items over the last two years.  [Don't be too strict on the actual number if you have 35, or 130, just go with it.]  Why 50-100? We find if you get too much data, then the graphs are too cluttered and you’re not able to see real estate patterns that may exist.  On the other hand, if you have too little data, the same problem exists.  There is not enough data to really see if any patterns exist.

So what do you do if you need more data?  In most cases if your starting off your search by looking at a neighborhood, it is likely that the neighborhood may be too small to have enough data.  So if you need more data, you need to expand your search.  You can expand your search by adding in nearby neighborhoods that have comparable properties.  Additionally, many MLS’ now have a map function where you are able to ‘locate’ an address and then create a search “net” of properties around it.  You may select a circle with a radius of .5 mile around the located properties.  The picture below shows such an example.

Be sure that when you’ve identified properties that they are comparable to the subject properties.  In some areas, where you can get a diverse set of properties nearby, we recommend that you also take a look at the year built and/or the size of the lot.  Homes that are built near the same timeframe have comparable features and floorplans (generally).  Contrarily, homes not built at the same time frame can be quite different.  For examples, homes built in the 1970’s are drastically different than homes built in the 1990’s.  Also, homes on acreages, may not be comparable to homes that are on 5,000 Square Foot lots.

So what do you do if you need less data?  Of course, you could have the situation where if you select all the activity in the neighborhood, you could get too much data.  This can happen when you are looking at activity in a very large neighborhood and can be common in large cities.  To restrict data there are several things you can do.  You can make use of the Map Search function we discussed in the example above, where you need more data.  Just limit the data to properties that fall in the neighborhood and that are within .5 mile of the subject property (or so).  You may also decide to restrict the properties to just the properties that have the same floorplan.  While in many subdivisions, homes were built around the same timeframe, you should also consider restricting the properties to homes that were built around the same time.

How you select your data is obviously very important to your end results.  This is one of the key reasons why the Visual Pricing tool is so effective. It uses and leverages your Real Estate expertise when coming up with your results.

Reading in lots of data into the Visual Pricing System.

Before you decide you’d like to read in lots of data, be sure you know why.  In most cases, this is not what you’d want to do.  However, in cases where you’re trying to get an overall market view of things, reading in lots of data is exactly what you want.  Several of the graphs will provide you a great overall picture of the market (Odds of Selling and the Pond are perfect examples).

If you’re reading in lots of data into the Visual Pricing System you need to be aware of the “Enable Multiple File Read” option.  Most MLS will restrict the amount of data you can export at any one time.  This has a lot to do with their ease of use goals and some concern that someone may take their data and use it in a way that is not consistent with their policies.  That being the case, there is no restriction on the amount of data that the Visual Pricing System is able to make use of. 

The “Enable Multiple File Read” option will allow you to read in multiple files.  You can enable the option by using the “Add-in –> Focus1st –> Configure” menu item.  When you have that option enabled, and you read in a file, the program will ask you if you’d like to merge the new file with the existing data or if you’d like to replace the existing file.  This enables you to read in previous files, save the current Visual Pricing System and then merge in new data at a later date. 

This is great for situations where you want to track activity over time and don’t want to re-export older data.  You can start with a previously saved Visual Pricing System and just read in the new data.  In this situation, the Visual Pricing System will merge MLS numbers and save the most recent MLS.  For example, if an older version of the same MLS number is present, when a newer version of that same MLS number is read it, it will replace the older.  That assures that you obtain the most up-to-date status and detailed information for each property. 

I’m having difficulty downloading files from the CLAW MLS.

The instructions for downloading data from the Combined Los Angeles West MLS area (CLAW) are show by selecting this link.  We have some folks who are able to follow the instructions until they get to the “EXPORTED FILE CREATED” page.

Here the instruction state, “To export your file, right click (once) on the file name below.  Then Left-Click (once) on the ‘Save Target As’ menu option.  This operation does not work when you are doing it in some browsers.  We do know that the Chrome browser is one of those.  So if this is your situation, you will need to do the following:

1. First open the exported file.  You can do this by double-clicking on the link.  Once you do that a screen will open and the exported will be there.  The screen will like the following:

2. Next select all the data on the screen and copy the data into the clipboard.  The following shortcuts will help you.

To select all the data, while in the screen, hold the ‘Ctrl’ button down and press the ‘A’ key.  When you’ve selected all the data, it will be highlighted.  Once you’ve selected all your data, hold the ‘Ctrl’ button down and press the ‘C’ key.  You now have all the data saved in the clipboard.

3. Now open the notepad.  To open the notepad go to the Computer’s ‘Start” button and in the ‘Search programs and files’ area, type ‘Notepad’.

Then run the ‘Notepad’ utility.  Once the notepad utility opens hold the ‘Ctrl’ button down and press the ‘V’ key.  This will paste the information in the notepad.  Now use the ‘Save As’ feature in the Notepad to save out the file.  Be sure to remember where you save it.  This is the export file you will use to read into the Visual Pricing System.  The picture below shows the ‘notepad’ application icon.

I’m using Paragon 5 and the Firefox browser on my MAC, and can’t seem to find my export file. Where did it go?

We just encountered an interesting situation when someone was exporting data from the Spokane, Washington area.  The Spokane MLS is Paragon 5.  They were very familiar with the PC version and they decided to move to a MAC.  Additionally, they were also using the Firefox web browser.  When they exported data to a CSV file, they were unable to find their CSV file in the download directory.  In looking at the download directory they found the following display.

As you will see in the downloads directory (we sorted the directory based on the data modified) the most recent files are called “m1htnVfq.exe.part” and “y_osILXE.exe.part”.  We searched the download directory for any spreadsheet files and were unable to find them.  So we decided to see if the Visual Pricing System on the MAC were able to read the data in the “m1htnVfq.exe.part” file.  And the Visual Pricing System on the MAC was able to read in the data.  The exported data from Paragon 5 was contained in the “m1htnVfq.exe.part” file.  We then logged into the MLS using Safari (which the users said was very slow) and the export did result in the “spreadsheet.csv” file being created.

So if you are using Paragon 5 and Firefox on the MAC, be aware that you may have end up with “goofy” file names.  That being the case, everything will still work properly.  The Visual Pricing System for the MAC will still be able to read the file and do its job.  You just have to look for these “goofy” file names and track the date modified to make sure you are reading the most recent file.