Metrolist Changes

Posted by John Lockwood on March 29th, 2008

Our local multiple listing service, Metrolist, recently made several changes to their search pages and database structure.

We all know how people like change.

Some of these changes are probably to the good, but looking at the database structure, it’s uglier than it ever was.  Whether a property is a short sale, for example, used to appear in two places, either one of which might be correct.  Since the change, whether or not a property is a short sale appears in one field if the property is active, and another if the property is sold.

Well, that’s fine, I get it — sometimes you’re talking about a flavor of the status “Active” and sometimes all you need to do is record history.

Some of the changes actually make things a little bit easier, though having five new varieties of “Active” isn’t one of them.

I do wish corporations wouldn’t write like corporations.  It doesn’t help to enter the system and get a message:

“MetroList is working harder to give you the tools to work smarter!”  What is this, an Anthony Robbins seminar?  No doubt someone will tout the six sigma benefits of the new design.

Meantime the changes broke some existing code of mine.

It’s time to go move some code around…