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You Can’t Get There From Here
The “MLS” concept has been around
for many, many years. To facilitate the process of matching buyers
with sellers, listings in El Paso and Teller County were
geographically divided into marketing “Areas.”
Up until 1988 brokers could
select the Area. For the past 18 years the computer system has
assigned the Area based upon the listing property tax schedule
number.
Unlike the old computer systems,
the PPMLS TEMPO® system does not require an Area or other
geographical indicator to perform a Search. However, if desired,
there are many methods to locate listings in your buyer’s desired
locale:
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Area Search: The Area
paints a very broad stroke. Remember that the Area boundary
lines are just approximations and sometimes actually divide
or isolate a neighborhood that lies on or near the border.
Unfortunately, some brokers rely solely upon an Area when doing
a Search and risk not showing their clients properties that may
actually meet their needs. Note – the “BSA” assignment has
helped to alleviate this situation, but it’s still not an exact
science! You may need to search more than one Area to find all
the listings in the neighborhood.
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County: If you want
all Areas within a county, then do this search. But if you are
just doing an Area(s) Search, you do not have to designate the
corresponding county; the computer already knows which county is
associated with an Area.
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Top and Side Coordinates:
These are grids that are one square mile. Useful for covering
large areas that cross several Area boundary lines, for example,
eastern El Paso county. These numbers appear on the top and
side of our maps.
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Subarea: When a
listing is input, the user is required to select a Subarea from
the table stored in the TEMPO® system. Consequently, Subarea is
available as a Search option. Note - if you are aware of a new
neighborhood or subdivision that is not in the system let RSC
know; don’t just select a subarea that is “close.” What you
input will affect another broker’s ability to retrieve matching
listings!
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Search By Map: This
TEMPO® system feature is gaining popularity. It locates
properties by using the Latitude and Longitude associated with
an address. Search by Map can even be incorporated into Saved
and Custom Searches for use with Prospect Auto-Notify and Client
Web. Keep in mind, however, that not all properties are
geo-coded, so some properties that otherwise match would not
be picked up in the search.
CONCLUSION: You may need to incorporate several techniques to find
all the properties that will match your client’s needs.
Lat and Long
The TEMPO® system will attempt to
“geo-code” each listing. The system uses a combination of
information; address, city, county, state, zip, zip4, etc. to assign
the listing a Latitude and Longitude. If information is missing,
for instance a street number, RSC staff will attempt to manually
geo-code the listing so that it will be retrieved in a Search By
Map. When you input
your listing, be sure to include as complete and accurate
information as possible so that it can be geo-coded.
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