Bulletins – Hawaii Information Service

Too busy answering e-mail to blog? Kill two birds with one stone. Even though e-mail is supposed to be quick, easy, and convenient, chances are you spend a good portion of your day keeping up with your inbox.  If you’re investing the time to craft informative responses to potential buyers and sellers via e-mail, why not let the rest of the world benefit from that work?

Consider recycling a few of your e-mails as blog posts. For example, pick messages that include good questions from clients along with the response that you send them, publishing them as a “Q & A.”  (Just be sure to delete any names or contact information!)  Chances are several people will have the same questions, and by publishing them on your blog, people seeking those answers will be brought to your blog by search engines.

Periodically tapping into your e-mail will not only help you meet your blog quota for the week, but it’ll also ensure that your blog is also current and topical, addressing real issues your clients are currently facing.

Our office will be closed on the Independence Day holiday,
Friday, July 3, 2009
Normal Office hours will resume on Monday, July 6, 2009.

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Final Billing Reminder!

Absolute deadline for billing change requests is Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 3:00 PM
Please contact us by this deadline, if you would like any changes to your billing.

• If you need to change your payment account information, please click on this link for the Exhibit C – Pre-Authorized Payment Agreement.  Print and complete this form, sign it and fax it to (808) 524-6874.  Please note that your broker does not have to sign this form if you are only changing your account information.
• If you need to change your payment frequency, please notify us by one of the following methods.
  -Call HIS Accounting at 1-800-628-3121, ext. #454, or
  -Send an email to Accounting@HawaiiInformation.com or Deb@HawaiiInformation.com

Once your credit card is charged or your account is debited, there will be no refund.  It is Participant’s (PB, BIC or DR) responsibility to insure that all of  his/her fees due and those of his affiliated associate and support subscribers are paid by the 10th day of each month or service may be interrupted to the entire office on the 11th day.  If any of Participant’s associate subscribers is not able to pay for his/her fees, the Participant has the following options.

• Release the agent, placing their license inactive with DCCA, and provide a copy of the release form to HIS.  The agent’s signature is not required.
• Loan the agent sufficient funds to pay the fees due.
• Pay the fees due on behalf of the agent.
   

Participant is responsible for managing the roster for his/her office.  Fees will continue to be billed for each of his/her affiliated subscribers until the DCCA form is received by HIS.  As always, we appreciate your cooperation.  Mahalo!

NOTE:  The due date for submitting DCCA change forms notifying us that you have placed your license inactive or have surrendered your license was on June 25, 2009.  We cannot terminate current MLS service and billing without the DCCA change forms.
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Waiver Applications/Renewals are also due!

Waiver applications are due by Tuesday, June 30, 2009.
 
Do you have licensed agents, assistants, or other staff that qualify for an MLS Waiver? Waiver applications and renewals are DUE NOW! Please read this important information about waiver applications.

Waiver applications for the July 2008 to June 2009 period will be automatically expiring on June 30, 2009. Anyone who is under waiver and want to continue accessing the MLS service under a waiver application must submit a new waiver application by June 30th of each fiscal year. This affects all licensed support subscribers, property managers and time-share agents. Waivers are also required for each partner or officer, director or shareholder who has a license, but does not engage in sales activity. Click here to obtain the Waiver Application form.
Please fax the Waiver Application forms to 1-888-628-3121.  Should you have any questions, please call 1-800-628-3121, ext #454, or send an email to Accounting@HawaiiInformation.com  or Deb@HawaiiInformation.com
 
Please note that Waiver Applications are subject to HIS Board of Directors approval.

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Normal Office Hours: Monday – Friday:  8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
 

In case of emergency……

You may leave a message in our emergency voice mailbox by calling the main office number and pressing * (star).  Leave your message and your contact information and our phone system will notify our on-call staff that there is an emergency message.  Call 1-800-628-3121, if calling from the neighbor islands or 599-4224, if calling from Oahu.
 
Hawaii Information Service
Dole Office Building, 680 Iwilei Road #777, Honolulu, HI  96817
Phone:  1-800-628-3121, if calling from the neighbor islands, 599-4224, from Oahu
Fax:  1-888-628-3121, if faxing from the neighbor islands, 536-4699, if faxing from Oahu
www.HawaiiInformation.com 

Below are the online classes scheduled for the month of July.  To sign up immediately, simply click on the links below.  Space is limited so please RSVP soon!  If you are going to participate/watch as a group, only one person needs to sign up. 

Remember, after you have participated, please make sure to fill out the survey or e-mail me your feedback so we can continue to improve upon our training efforts!  Mahalo. 

July 1st to 4th

Basics: Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/775604042 
 
Customizing & Downloads: Thu, Jul 2, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/578008706  
 
Searching & Formats: Wed, Jul 8, 2009 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/153720426

July 5th to 11th

Update CMA, Farming, Labels & Roster Download: Sat, Jul 11, 2009 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/232075250  
 
 July 12th to 18^th

Prospecting, Contacts & Calendar: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/330830163
 
Basics: Thu, Jul 16, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/222938386  
 
Customizing & Downloads: Thu, Jul 16, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/764147427  
 

July 19th to 25th

Prospecting, Contacts & Calendar: Thu, Jul 23, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/826181106
 
Maps: Fri, Jul 24, 2009 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/270538794  
 
Searching & Formats: Sat, Jul 25, 2009 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/280518898  

July 26th to 31^st 

Update CMA, Farming, Labels & Roster Download: Wed, Jul 29, 2009 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/761857202  

Basics: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/797029379  
 
Customizing & Downloads: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/460379027  
 
Maps: Thu, Jul 30, 2009 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM HST
Registration Web Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/830466691  
 

Instructions on how to register for the above webinars:

• To register, please click onto the applicable link located below the class.  The link will then take you to the registration site.
• Please complete all the required fields marked by a red asterisks (First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone, Organization AKA Office Name). 
• Click “Register Now” to complete the registration process.  Once registered a confirmation email will be sent to your email address to confirm your registration along with a unique web ID number and instructions on how to login to the session on that day. 
• If you need login assistance, please feel free to contact our Customer/Technical Support team at (800) 628-3121, press # and then 457. 

System Requirements

• PC-based attendees – Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
• Macintosh®-based attendees – Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Questions? Comments?  Please feel free to e-mail me at erin@alohaliving.com or call directly at (808) 748-8759.

Below are the updates and changes that make up REsearch Version 4.2.3:

Emailed Links

The ability to provide listing information via e-mail is a useful one, but there were often problems in how the e-mail reports were formatted. Given the wide variety of e-mail clients out there (and their inconsistent standards support), the data was frequently jumbled or simply unreadable.

As of REsearch 4.2.3, the system will instead provide a simple, custom link.  The recipient only needs to click that link to be taken to the property information you prepared for them, presented exactly as expected in any web browser. 

Note that these links to custom information will expire after 30 days. If clicked after expiration, a message will direct people to contact you, the original sender.  This will ensure recipients are always viewing current data and will encourage them to keep in touch with you, as well as conserve space on our servers. 

This approach opens up even greater possibilities with future REsearch development. For example, we’ve plan to support greater interactivity with the listing information presented, such as allowing clients to rate properties and to easily send notes and questions about properties directly to you. 

With this first step, we look forward to further enhancing agent/client communication down the road. 

Property Reports

Next to Public Records and Listings you’ll see a new icon –

This new icon will take you to a list of other important property information.  We plan to keep expanding this list with more and more great information we find.  Currently it will offer the following:
 
 Sex Offenders (By Zipcode) – If you’re working with a family,  safety is extra important.  This information can assist in helping you to find them the perfect home.
 Census (By Zipcode) – Great information for providing your client statistics.
 Bing Maps (Formerly Virtual Earth) – This will flag your property on Bing Maps.  You can do so by using the address or by the X / Y coordinates.
 Google Maps – This will flag your property on Google Maps.  You can do so by the address or by the X / Y coordinates.
 
IE 8 Compatibility
 
We have fixed some more issues regarding IE 8 that our users were experiencing.  We should be fully IE 8 compatible now; please inform our Customer Service staff if you run into any issues.
 
Updated Forms
 
Many Hawaii Association of Realtor (HAR) forms have been updated and should now be current.
 
New Training Page
 
The schedule for our live, online, instructor-led webinars can now be found inside REsearch, under the REtools menu. Register for classes in advance to receive e-mail reminders.
  

Additional Items of Note 

Fixed…

• An issue with REsearch email program not accepting underscore characters in addresses.
  Fixed Short Sale Calculations on the Closing Cost Estimate Calculator.
• An error with the Rent vs. Buy calculator.
• A problem with Vacant Land pulling properties with structures.
• An error users were experiencing while loading photos.
• An issue with logos causing ‘Page Cannot Be Displayed’.
• An issue with map rubber band tool not working with TMK accounts.
• An error on the brochure format when there were no map coordinates to show.
• The name searching on the PVL Licensee search.
• Member accounts where customizing email address was not working.
• An issue with the contacts tab not displaying properly.
• Missing middle name in roster.
• An issue with taxbill street address not working properly.
• An issue with missing sales information on Market IQ
• The Map Error which Aerial image was not toggling off.
• An issue that allowed agents to reports sales under future dates.
• An issue with the New Parcel/CPR search function not working properly.
• The office association order when reporting sales on multiple listing/selling agents.
• The Script Error when resending prospect emails from the contact history.
• An issue where Sales were not ordering by date on TMK records. 
• An issue where some users were receiving a ‘Page Cannot Be Displayed’ when trying to login to REsearch.

Changed…

• “Foreclosure” to “Pre-Foreclosure” for better understanding.

Added…

• New search option ‘Search Condo Guide’ allowing quick and easy searching for Condo Guides.

Updated…

• The Rules and Regs document in REsearch
• The Condo Guide Reports
• The Sub-division list
• The Webinar Schedule

We will be transferring some of our servers currently located at a remote location to the HIS offices on Friday, June 26, 2009, from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m. While this transfer takes place, access to the Bureau of Conveyances (BOC) documents, videos, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) will not be available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Customer/Technical Support Team by calling 1-800-628-3121, or send an email to TechSupport@Hawaiiinformation.com.