Important Bright MLS Update: Feedback and Advocacy Leads to Progress

To move forward with improving the data, technical and functional aspects of the Bright MLS system, DAAR and NVAR are working jointly in a work group to help advocate for improvements to the system. For more information, view this recent video from DAAR President Phyllis Stakem and NVAR President Christine Richardson.

As part of that effort, DAAR REALTOR members are encouraged to provide feedback on data, technical, functional, structural and performance aspects of the system to DAAR via this form https://dullesarea.wufoo.com/forms/m1hmy3ve0osmknx/.  The information gathered will be used to advocate for changes with Bright MLS leadership moving forward.

Here are some of the changes  recently made or in progress (Thank you NVAR for writing a lot of this itemized update):

1. Days on Market (DOM) methodology. IN PROGRESS. Bright is making changes to the way the Days on Market was calculated on listings of the status “Contingent No KO” in the previous MRIS market. 529,442 active and historical listings with the former MRIS “Contingent No KO” status will be mapped to Bright’s “Pending” status. DOM will stop accumulating on the day of that status change and be updated historically. 54,425 active and historical listings that were in MRIS that were of the status “Contingent with KO” will remain mapped to Bright’s “Active Under Contract” status and the DOM will continue to accrue.  These changes are being developed and tested and are expected to be complete by early February.

2. Subdivision searching. RESOLVED. The ability to search by ‘legal subdivision’ has been restored. And the “wildcard”, or asterisk, search is still available. See the most recent updates here.

3. Required Fields. RESOLVED. The mandatory flood zone field is now optional.

4. Transaction Brokerage/Sub Agency. RESOLVED. These fields, which caused great confusion in our market, have been removed in Virginia.

5. Rentals. IN PROGRESS. Bright is aware that rental listing options do not track with rental listing agreements. They are working towards Q2 improvements for rental listing options.

6. Improved Reports. PARTIALLY RESOLVED. Bright is bringing back the gallery report as well as the Appraiser Parcel One Page Report and the Price Analysis Report

7. Public Records sources. IN PROGRESS. Bright is working to investigate and correct missing or inaccurate information in Bright Public Records. Recently their team updated current owner addresses for 18,922 records in Loudoun County. The team is continuing to research other counties to determine if owner addresses are missing and will update those accordingly as well. The problem appears to have stemmed from a faulty file format from Bright’s vendor.

8. Customer Service. IN PROGRESS. Bright has increased its customer service staff by 25%. Those new hires are undergoing training now and will be available to assist members as soon as that training is complete. This will bring the customer service staff total to 50. An additional round of hiring is also in the works.

9. System Performance. ONGOING. The system performance issues experienced the first week of January have been resolved. The cause was a Matrix system server that was not configured to support the level of search demand during peak times.

10. Improving Listing Numbers Identification. RESOLVED. Retained the geographic county identifier on listing numbers so you could easily identify which state and county a listing was located in by the listing number.

We look forward to your continued feedback with respect to your experience and identification of issues that will help make the MLS better for everyone.