In our last blog post, we discussed who the CRMLS Compliance team is and why they exist. But it’s still possible you have the wrong idea of what Compliance is all about. In this blog — the second in our Compliance series — let’s take a look at some of the most common misconceptions about the duties and responsibilities of the CRMLS Compliance team and see if we can clear things up.
1. The CRMLS Compliance team spends all their time combing for violations and issuing citations.
You might think Compliance is like a highway patrolman with a radar gun, looking to see if anyone is driving one mile above the speed limit. The truth is compliance spends almost no time looking for listing violations. Rather, nearly all our violation reports are sent to us by the agents and brokers who use our system. Further, just because a listing has been reported doesn't mean that a citation is in order. All violation reports are investigated by trained compliance analysts under the oversight of our compliance leadership, and on average only 11% of reports result in a citation. The rest of the investigations end with a correction or a warning, or are closed as no violation/duplicate report (a duplicate report being when there's more than one report filed by different people for the same violation). Our compliance team spends much of their time offering
services other than working on violation reports. These typically include duties such as offering customer service in the support chat, providing member training and education, working with our marketing and communications team to create compliance content, supporting association staff needs, assisting our broker resources and association support departments, helping our IT and development teams and more.
2. Compliance is just a money-making scheme.
Nobody likes getting a CRMLS citation notice or fine. Truth is, we don’t like giving them either. We have a saying in-house; “we would rather provide an education than a citation.” But there are certainly cases where after thorough investigation we must issue a citation and fine. So where does all that money go? Importantly, half of collected fine amounts are retained by CRMLS to help fund the Compliance operations such as staffing and support systems, and the other half is sent back to the AORs as direct payments to support their end of the Compliance process. Keeping the biggest MLS in the world clean and compliant is a costly endeavor for CRMLS and your Association but Compliance does not earn any profit from fines. The value of accurate data and the reliability it provides to you and your clients has always been our highest priority, and we consider our costs to be a worthwhile investment to that end.
3. There's no way to reach compliance.
The CRMLS online compliance support chat has trained compliance analysts that are ready for live conversations Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM PST. Yes, real live people are waiting to help you! If you’d rather pick up the phone, you can reach out to our Customer Care department for basic compliance questions as well. If Customer Care isn't able to answer your question, they can direct you to our Compliance Chat or email for further assistance. Should you need support outside of operating hours, users can utilize the support ticket feature. All tickets are reviewed within 1 – 2 business days of submission. While the CRMLS Compliance team does not have a support phone line, our chat feature ensures that we can have a fair and accurate record of the service provided to you by our compliance analysts.
With these misconceptions cleared up, we hope you have a deeper confidence in the value that the CRMLS Compliance team brings. Knowledge is power, and we want to empower you to proceed confidently with all things MLS-related. Let’s continue the Compliance conversation and debunk some additional misconceptions in our next blog post, coming soon! Â
This Post Has 5 Comments
Thank you for taking the time to put this message out there!
Greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
Laurie Wickham
Luxre Realty
#01978924
I need more information about the remarks section in the MLS. Where can I find out about what is and is not allowed.
Thank you,
Hi Amy, the remarks section is too large of a topic to unpack in a comment like this, so we encourage you to reach out to CRMLS Customer Care at 800-925-1525 or online at https://go.crmls.org/support/
day tips should be sent to phone numbers daily or emails.
i agree Manuel