FlexMLS The Client Interface

It’s been quite a bit since I wrote about the new FlexMLS that will be coming to the Phoenix Valley. If you’ve been following my posts and discussions by others, you know that is an exciting opportunity for the Realtors in the valley. We know that this will only help us to provide a better service to our clients. In this post, I will be reviewing the Client Portal, how to set up in the Agent Back-end interface and show you some of the highlights of the client’s portal.

We start off by creating a client in the CMA and set up their Portal information:

Here you can see that you have the option of turning the portal on and off, changing the user name and hey, you can change the password as well. You have a link to see their portal and send them the link via eMail. All right there, very handy. You can also see the last time they logged into the portal and a scorecard of how they are rating the listings they see. On the right hand side, you can choose which functions/options they see in their portal. If you have a client that isn’t comfortable with technology, you may switch off a lot of the options to make it easier on them to take in.

Here is an example of the email that is sent to your user, outlining their user name, how to reset their password and the link to the portal. Simple, clean and direct:

After clicking the link, we see the login screen, clean, simple, just enough personalization, but nothing over the top. And look, there is the I forgot my password link for your clients to help themselves with:

Next, we have the client dashboard, again, simple, clean (do you see a theme here). They can see all the searches and reports. A quick scorecard of their Favorites/Possibilities/Rejects. Messages from their agent (notice the RSS icon!!!) and a place to work with their profile.

Okay, so our client will usually start by looking at the searches, so that’s what I do, click the Yorkshire Estates search:

My favorite part is the smiling, neutral and sad faces, makes it easy for clients to pick and click their favorites/possibilities/rejects. This page is also customizable with sort order and columns. Notice in the upper right corner the tabs (List, Detail, Photos, Map, Compare, Message), can you guess what they do? Let’s go to detail first:

Everything you wanted to know about the listing (well almost), this is everything that we have in the MLS listing (minus Realtor only fields). Well, I’m a visual person, so let’s look at the pictures:

Now, we’re currently limited to 6 pictures, but once we make the switch we are limited to…. infinity… what, more pictures than anyone can handle. Awesome. Note to Realtors that only put one or just a couple of pictures out there, you are doing your clients an injustice, step up and start providing more pictures. Okay, looks good, but where is this property, does it back a busy road? Let’s find out, clicking Map gives us:

Wow, a really interactive map, impressive. Satillite overlay, colors, other listings, this looks great, even helpful. Okay, let’s click the compare tab:

In this situation, it took all listings in the result and built a graph showing the Average, Median, Low and High prices. A quick reference of DOM and if I had solds in the search, information around that as well. I love graphs and I think this helps show information to the clients. The last tab is the message tab, let’s see what that gives us:

Here the client can communicate with the agent about a specific listing, asking questions, saying they want to see it, this will be displayed on the agents dashboard as well as getting an email. A great way to incorporate communications into the portal. The only thing left that I want to show today is if you select a couple of listings and then click Directions in the upper right hand corner, you will get something like:

Cool, this will make my life easier and it leverags google maps, where I can eMail, save, send to my phone, whatever I want. This will be a safer for agents and their clients. With google maps, you can drag around the addresses to make better/faster routes.

Well, that wraps up another view of FlexMLS and hopefully gets you excited about the future of MLS in the Valley of the Sun.

Related posts:

1. Client Feedback on the new FlexMLS System
2. FlexMLS Beta Testing Review
3. ARMLS FlexMLS Conversion and Blackout dates
4. How to Increase your Client’s Chance of Selling with Pictures
5. Client Testimonial: Peter & Sam