Upcoming Training Classes 

Interested in learning about MLX Professional? Already have MLX Professional and need some training? 

Free Online Webinars:

MLX Professional Productivity Tools
This 60 minute course will cover Contact Management, Task Manager, Client Gateway, and Agent Webpage options.

• Mon, Sep 28, 2009 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EDT   Register to attend this session

• Wed, Sep 30, 2009 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT  Register to attend this session

MLX Professional Agent Web Page

This 45 minute course will teach you how use the configurable Agent Web Page options.  We will discuss options available to those that may already have a web page and those that wish to use the MLX Professional Agent Web Page as their primary web presence.

• Tue, Sep 29, 2009 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT   Register to attend this session      

• Thu, Oct 1, 2009 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EDT  Register to attend this session   

Classroom Training

If your board is not listed below, please contact your board for a training schedule.

Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® Members:

• Classes held at MarketLinx's office. Registration required.
• Class schedule and online registration at: http://www.lasvegasrealtor.com/

Mid-Florida Regional MLS

• Class schedule is available on the Events Calendar section of the MFRMLS website at www.mfrmls.com

Middlesex County MLS Members:

• Please contact the board for a schedule

• Classes are held at the MSX MLS Office at 77 Hamilton Ave., Fords, NJ

• To register, submit the following info in an e-mail to Louise Frank. 
• Identify the class name and date, provide your full name, company name (or broker code), and your phone number.
• 24 hour cancellation notice required. 

RMLS of Florida Members:

• Training schedule is available at http://www.rmlsfl.com/training.php 

Southeast Florida MLS Members:

• To check our Fort Lauderdale facility class schedule, visit http://www.mlxhelp.com/. 
• Check with your local SEF board to see if there are any upcoming classes scheduled at your board office

User Guides

MLXchange 5.0 User Guide with MLX Professional (11 MB)
This user guide covers all the main features and functionality of MLXchange 5.0 and MLX Professional. 

 

Other Useful Guides:

Five Steps to a Healthier PC

Optimizing MLXchange

 

Telephone/E-Mail Support

AnswerLink's standard hours of operation are M-F 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM your local time. 

• Live chat online help & misc. resources: http://www.mlxhelp.com/ 
• Toll-free: 1-888-825-5472
• Broward County Members please call: (954) 492-1200
• If your board provides their own MLS support services, you will have to contact your board for assistance.

Online Training

Setting up your MLX Professional Website

Using the MLX Professional Agent Website Setup options, you can customize your personal Agent Website, complete with your own template, featured properties, and branding. The Agent Website template is also used for your Private Client Web Pages.

Additional tutorials are available at http://www.mlxhelp.com/ 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's the difference between MLXchange and MLX Professional?

A: MLXchange is paid for by your monthly MLS dues. MLX Professional, on the other hand, is an optional add-on that you can subscribe to on a month-to-month basis. Many Boards/MLS have purchased site licenses for all their Members and include it as part of the regular MLS service. MLX Professional includes an Agent Website with private Client Web Pages, Internet lead capture, e-mail templates, and enhanced client and task management - all 100% integrated with your MLXchange MLS system. 

Q: How do you unsubscribe from MLX Professional?

A: If you subscribe to MLX Professional on a month-to-month basis and wish to unsubscribe, you can do so at any time by clicking on Settings, Personalize and then MLXchange Add-ons and follow the instructions to unsubscribe. If your board has a site license for MLX Professional, you are not able to unsubscribe. MLX Professional is part of your regular MLS system.  

Q: If I unsubscribe from MLX Professional and then decide to re-subscribe, will all my information be lost?

A: If you re-subscribe to MLX Professional using your same member ID, all of your previous information will automatically appear when you re-activate your subscription. 

Q: What is the MLXchange e-mail address use for?

A: During the MLX Professional subscription/upgrade process, you will be prompted to update your contact information which includes an MLXchange e-mail address. The system will automatically insert the Public ID as the prefix for the e-mail name. Since Public IDs are typically a string of numbers, they are meaningless as an email identifier and difficult for branding and remembering (for example, 534948@sef.mlxchange.com). 

You can change the prefix to something more memorable, such as your name or company name. E-mail prefix names are available on a first come, first serve basis, so a user could actually setup something like southfloridahomes@sef.mlxchange.com. Once saved, the e-mail address CANNOT be modified. If you do not plan on using the MLXchange email address, you still need to set it up. However, if you do not plan on using the MLXchange e-mail address, be sure to change the system default e-mail settings. See below.

Q: Why am I no longer getting e-mail replies in my regular inbox?

A: Default e-mail address: 

During the upgrade process, the contact information defaults to the new "MLXchange" email address as opposed to your primary e-mail address. If you use the new MLXchange e-mail address, your reply e-mails will go to your MLXchange Message Center, not to your primary e-mail address inbox. 

If you wish to have your reply e-mails go to your primary e-mail address, be sure to change the default under Settings, Personalize, Contact Information. You can change this setting whenever you want.

Q: Why does the information under the Scheduled Client Interaction and the Client History on my client information not show on the Private Client View Website?

A: Click on Tools, Personalize, select Agent Web page Setup and then Site Rules. Make sure that you have a check next to Allow clients to view the ‘Tasks’ section on Private Client View at the bottom of this section. Go back and click on a Client and click on the button to view the private website. 

Q: What are the requirements for a listing to show up in the Featured Properties section of my Agent Website?

A: In order for a particular listing record to appear on your agent Website, or in the results of an IDX search (if available), it must pass four tests:

• The MLS Site must be globally IDX Enabled
• The Listing Office record must indicate IDX = Yes
• The Listing Record must indicate IDX = Yes
• The Listing Status must be Active (A) or Attorney Review (AR)
• Other local IDX/Broker Reciprocity rules may also be in effect.

Q: What will my website address be?

A: MLX Professional includes a domain name. You can personalize the first part of the address (i.e. http://YOURNAME.sef.mlxchange.com). The "boardcode.mlxchange.com" portion can not be changed. 

You also have the option to use an existing domain name. To do this, enter your domain name in the field provided under Advanced Options in the Domain Setup area of the Agent Web Page Configuration section. NOTE: After you have done this, you must also ask your domain registrar to redirect visitors from your domain to your MLX Professional Agent Website. (Your domain registrar is the company that sold you your domain name.) 

Click here for a list of FAQs

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Tips & Tricks

MLX Professional Check-List. After subscribing to MLX Professional, make sure that you take advantage of all the powerful features! Please refer to the user guide for instructions.

• Customize your Website/Private client Web page template
• E-mail your clients their Private Client Web page links
• Customize your e-mail template library 
• Use your Lead Capture "smart link" on your other Websites

Customizing Your MLX Professional Website & Private Client Gateway Pages

Using the Agent Web Page Setup options, you can customize your personal Agent Website, complete with your own template, featured properties, and branding.

To access the MLX Professional Agent Website configuration options, you must be logged into MLXchange. Click the Settings link near the top of the screen to access your Website configuration options. Click Personalize to expand the section, and then click Agent Web Page Setup. The Agent Web Page Configuration screen appears. From here, you can perform all the different actions required to set up and customize your MLX Professional Agent Website, including broker branded templates.

Adding Links to your MLX Professional Website

There are two ways you can add links:

1. Turn your Buying/Selling Tips page into a Resource Page. Simply change the title of the section (i.e. Useful Links, Community Information, etc.) and add headings and related links in each section. 
2. Use the Advanced Mode HTML editor to customize your Home Page. You can use Web design programs like Front Page to design your Home Page to include a custom layout and links. 

Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines

To make it easier for Internet search engines to find your MLX Professional Agent Website, click Advanced Options to expand the section. Under Search Engine tools, enter your Website Title, Description and Keywords.

Tip: The keywords you choose for your website will have a large impact on how your site will perform in search engines. Try to figure out what words you might enter in a search engine to find a site like yours.

Search Engine Submission

In order for the public to find your Website, however, it’s important that you submit it to the most popular Internet search engines. Done manually, this can be a very laborious and time-consuming process. Thankfully, there are several free services on the Web that can automate the process for you. AddMe.com and SubmitExpress.com are two examples of sites that offers free search engine submission services. If you want, you can choose to pay for more sophisticated search engine submission technology and/or ongoing search engine submission services.. There are plenty of companies that offer free and paid optimized packages.

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What to do with an existing website

If you already have a Website that draws traffic and generates e-mail leads, you will probably not want to abandon it to use your MLX Professional Website exclusively. There are a couple of different things you can do to make your existing Website work with your new MLXchange Professional Website:

1. Integrate the two sites. You can continue using your existing Website as your home page, and simply add links to it that let Web visitors navigate directly to specific parts of your MLX Professional Website, e.g., the property search engine (if available) and your featured properties page. You can determine the URL of a specific page of your MLX Professional Website by right-clicking on the page and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu. The potential drawback to this method is that, if the two sites look quite different, it will be obvious to the visitor that they are navigating between two different sites. This can largely be overcome, however, by framing the content of the MLX Professional Web pages within your existing site template.
2. Redirect visitors automatically. MLX Professional allows you to automatically redirect people from your established domain to your MLX Professional Website while still showing your domain name in the browser's address bar. To do this, enter your domain name in the field provided under Advanced Options in the Domain Setup area of the Agent Web Page Configuration section.

NOTE: After you have done this, you must also ask your domain registrar to redirect visitors from your domain to your MLX Professional Agent Website. (Your domain registrar is the company that sold you your domain name.) If you administrate your own domain, you can set up the redirection yourself using one of three methods:

The preferred method is to add a CNAME record to your zone file that points your subdomain (e.g., “www.realtysuperstar.com”) to the MLXchange Website “mls.mlxchange.com.” Do NOT point to your secondary domain (e.g., “alanthompson.mls.mlxchange.com”). This option can usually be found under advanced domain settings. Please contact your registrar if you cannot locate this option.

If method 1 is not available to you, then you should be able to simply forward your own domain to your Agent Website at “alanthompson.mls.mlxchange.com” (for example). The disadvantage of this method is that “alanthompson.demo.mlxchange.com” will appear in the browser address bar, not your own domain name.

Some domain registrars offer the option to “frame” your domain forwarding so your domain name (e.g., “www.realtysuperstar.com”) will appear in the browser address bar. In other respects, this option is essentially the same as option 2. This is not a desirable method, however, because it prevents site visitors from book marking specific pages within your site. Free Web services are available that will allow you to automatically redirect visitors from your existing site to your new MLX Professional Website.

Domain Name/URL Tips

It's a good idea to have your own branded domain/URL. In today's Internet era, a domain name is just as important as a telephone number. Choose something that is unique, memorable, and easy to communicate (i.e. no weird spelling, no hyphens, etc.). You may also want to consider a domain name that can follow you around in case you change MLS boards or companies (i.e. brand your name). Because domains are very inexpensive to register, you should consider registering your domain for multiple years. 

Using Private Client Web Pages (Client Gateway)

While your MLX Professional Website is great for advertising your listings, it truly excels as a customer communications tool. The private client Web pages can be used as a customer service portal for your existing clients, as well as a powerful tool for convincing prospects to choose you as their agent. Imagine the following scenario:

MLX Professional forwards a new lead to your pager. Expanding the Property List section of the new client record that the system has created, you see that the prospect is interested in a listing that she saw on your Website. After looking at the prospect’s preferences, you perform a search and add several similar properties to her Property List for display on his or her private client page. You quickly preview the Web page and then e-mail the page link to the prospect with the click of a button.

Only a couple minutes after you received the lead, you pick up the phone and call the prospect back: “Hi, Ms. Smith? This is Stacey Jones from ABC Realty. I see that you are interested in a property that you saw on my Website. I’ve taken the liberty of preparing a list of other properties that might interest you, and I’ve set up a private Web page for you where you can view these properties when you’ve got a chance. All you have to do is click the link that I e-mailed to you a few moments ago….”

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Managing Your E-mail

When you start using MLX Professional, you get a new e-mail address. You are allowed to choose the portion of the e-mail address before the “@” symbol. The portion of the e-mail address that comes after the “@” symbol is automatically determined by the name of your MLS board and cannot be changed. For example, if your name is Brad Goodman and Southeast Florida is your MLS, your e-mail might be brad.goodman@mfr.mlxchange.com.

The more you use your MLX Professional e-mail address, the more value you will get out of the system. By using this e-mail address for all client communications, MLX Professional is able to automatically associate all correspondence with the appropriate contact record. All e-mail that you send from MLXchange will show this new e-mail address as your return address.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you wish to have your reply e-mails go to your primary e-mail address, be sure to change the reply-to address default under Settings, Personalize, Contact Information. You can change this setting whenever you want.

Generating “Smart” Leads from Other Websites

When a buyer requests more information on your Agent Website, an e-mail is sent to your MLX Professional e-mail address. This is no ordinary e-mail, however, because it contains special XML tags with information about the buyer and the property in which he or she is interested. MLX Professional uses this information to automatically perform a variety of time-saving functions—when the program receives one of these “smart” e-mail leads, the New Leads counter on the home page is incremented, the attached contact information is automatically converted into a new client record, and the property of interest is automatically added to the client’s Property List.

Your Agent Website uses a page with special HTML code to create these “smart” leads. This same page can be added to other Websites to enable the generation of smart leads using a special link. To find this link, log in to MLXchange and click Settings, then click Agent Web Page Setup. Click the Domain header to expand the section. Here you will see your “Contact Me” Web Inquiry Form Link. 

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Tips on customizing your MLXchange system:

One of the most important things you can do as a REALTOR® is customize your MLS system. By taking the time to set up your own searches, result formats, preferences, and custom reports, you can increase your efficiency by creating a system that lets you work the way you are used to working. More importantly, customizing MLXchange is an easy way to differentiate your services and stand out in today's competitive market.

Choosing your start-up page:

While most people prefer to begin at the Home page, you have the option of going directly to a specified screen when you first log in to MLXchange. For example, people like to go immediately to the main Search Criteria screen when they launch the program. To change your start-up page:

1. Click Settings in the top right corner of your screen.

2. Click Personalize and then click Personal Defaults. 

3. From the Start Menu list, select the page that you want to load when your MLXchange starts up.

4. Click Apply. You will now automatically go to the selected screen every time you log in to MLXchange. 

Adding useful links to your MLXchange Home page:

MLXchange enables you to set up your Home page to display links to your favorite Websites. Once you've set up your links, you can access them quickly at any time. To create a new link:

1. Click Settings in the top right corner of your screen.

2. From the Settings screen, click Personalize and then click Personalize Home Page Resource Links. The Resource Links page will appear and will give you detailed instructions on adding links.

Creating your own search templates:

A Search Template is a group of visible fields that you use to enter search criteria. Simple search templates expose only a few basic fields for entering criteria, while the most complex template would make every possible MLS field available. 

MLXchange has a number of default search templates you can copy and customize to suit your specific needs, or you can create a new search template from scratch.

To add fields to an existing Search Template:

1. Click the Search main menu at the top of the page or click Search for a Listing from the Home page.
2. Click Quick Add to Search to quickly add more search fields without having to create or edit a search template.
3. Select the field names and enter the desired values.
4. Click Add.
5. To save the modified template, select Save Template from the Action list and click the arrow button.

Note: To save changes to a default template, you will be prompted to save a new copy of the template using a different name.

To make a new Search Template from scratch:

1. Select Template Manager from the Action list and click the arrow button.
2. Click New (or click Copy to copy an existing template).
3. Enter a Template Name.
4. Select the fields that you want to appear in the search template.
5. Change the positions of the fields by using the up/down arrows.
6. Click Finish when you are satisfied with your list of fields.
7. Click Done. Your new template will now appear in the Search Template list on the Search Criteria page and can be used any time you want.

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Customizing your column layouts

You can customize the column layout on the Search Results page to show only the columns of information that you want. To make a new column layout:

1. Conduct a search on the Search Criteria page and click Results.
2. Select Column Manager from the Action list and click the arrow button.
3. Click Create new column report.
4. Select the fields that you want to appear in the column layout from the available grid fields list. 
5. Change the order of the fields by using the up/down arrows.
6. When you are satisfied with the list, click Finish to save.
7. To change the default sort order for a column format you have created, select the column layout from the Available Column Reports list and click Change field sort order.
8. You can sort search results using this column format by up to three columns. Select the columns by which you want to sort, and specify if each column should sort by ascending or descending value. Click Save when you are finished.

Adding quick links to your favorite reports

You can define a set of favorite reports to appear as quick links on your Listing Detail page.

1. From the Listing Details page, click on Edit under the Reports section on the left hand side of your Listing Details screen.
2. From the list of Available Reports, select the reports you wish to add to your Favorite Reports section. In the Favorite reports list, you can change the order of the reports using the up/down arrows.
3. Click Finish. Your reports will now appear under Favorite Reports, giving you quick and easy access to the reports you use the most.

Customizing your reports:

Do you want to customize your reports to include your photo and company logo, or would like to change the entire layout of a report? Using the MLXchange Report Manager or Designer Tool, you can do just this. The Report Manager is available under the Reports tab. The Report Editor makes it easy to change your layout, add custom text, colors, add, delete and move fields, etc. For more advanced editing, you can use the Designer Tool application, which can be downloaded from the "Tools" section of MLXchange. The application is fairly large, so it may take a bit of time to download. Be sure to read the Designer Tool training workbook (available from the Help section of MLXchange).

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