Quick Start Guide for the TREB Connect Interface

Quick Start Guide for the TREB Connect Interface
Connect is a joint venture started by the Toronto Real Estate Board, the REALTORS® Association of
Hamilton-Burlington, the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS®, and the Ottawa Real
Estate Board. The initial four Boards have been joined by many more from across Ontario. Connect
offers all REALTOR® Members, Unlicensed Assistants and Brokerage Administrators from
participating Boards the ability to search and view active listings and recent sales history of all other
participating Boards in their own local MLS® format. Security is paramount and minimum standards
must be maintained.
Connect is not an MLS® system – it provides access to more information in an efficient manner.
Search forms on the system are dynamic and will change depending on the specifics from each
participating Board. Reports from the various Boards will differ according to local requirements and
naming conventions (e.g., abbreviations), and field values will vary as well. Printing of reports in
either Client or Broker format is available; however, there is no email functionality. One photo per
listing is available; however, additional photos for active properties may be linked from
REALTOR®.ca. Access is read only.
LOG IN
Access for TREB Members is achieved by automatic pass-through of log-in information when users
click the Connect link on the LINKS menu in Stratus. The user will be prompted to accept the Terms
and Conditions of the site each time they wish to gain access.
MENU OPTIONS
Once logged in, the user is presented with the principle search criteria. A series of menu options
extends across the top of the application window. On the top left hand side, the options include:
 Listings Search
 REALTOR® Search
 Office Search
 Open House Search
Clicking Listings Search will cause the main Listings Search criteria page to be displayed. Clicking any
of the REALTOR® Search, Office Search, or Open House Search links will result in a new window
being opened, and the appropriate REALTOR.ca search page will be presented.
On the right-hand side, the options include:
 Help
 Print
 Log Out
The Help option can be used to find out more information regarding the various features of
Connect. The Print option utilizes the standard Windows print dialog to facilitate printing the
contents of the displayed web page. Log Out is, of course, self-explanatory.
The Connect interface provides access to data from many other real estate Boards/Associations. By
clicking on the available Board/Association radio button options, TREB Members can select from the
following:
 Bancroft & District Real Estate Board
 Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® Inc
 Cambridge Association of REALTORS®
 Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors
 Cornwall and District Real Estate Board
 Kingston & Area Real Estate Association
 Kawartha Lakes Real Estate Association
 Kitchener-Waterloo Association of REALTORS®
 London & St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® / Tillsonburg District Real Estate Board
 Muskoka Haliburton Orillia – the Lakelands Association of REALTORS®
 Oakville, Milton and District Real Estate Board
 Ottawa Real Estate Board / Renfrew County Real Estate Board
 Peterborough and Kawarthas Association of REALTORS®
 Quinte & District Association of REALTORS® Inc.
 REALTORS® Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound
 REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington/Niagara Association of REALTORS®
 Rideau-St. Lawrence Real Estate Board
 Southern Georgian Bay Association of REALTORS®
 Toronto Real Estate Board
 Windsor-Essex County Real Estate Board.
On the main Search Listings screen, the search is also narrowed by selecting one of the seven
Classes from the following list:
 Residential
 Lease
 Commercial
 Farm
 Lots and Land
 Multi-Family
 Condo.
The resulting presentation of selection criteria will vary depending on the Class that is chosen. The
available criteria will also vary slightly from one Board/Association to the next within the same
Class; however, the selection process has been designed to be as uniform as possible.
To the right of the Form Title, which defines the Board-specific search screen by Class, there are
four command buttons: Clear, Preview, Count and Submit.
The Preview button can be used to recall a summary of the criteria that have already been selected up
to that point. Clicking the Count button will present that same information along with an additional tally
of how much each selection is constricting the final search result.
Clicking the Submit button will call up the Results screen, which consists of one line reports for the
listings that are matches for the selected criteria. The Clear button can be used to reinitialize the
criteria fields, when starting a fresh search is desired.
The Results screen is very similar to the standard Stratus Results screen; a list of one line reports
presented with a row of command buttons above the column headers. Note that for performance
considerations, Connect limits search results to 100 listings. In such cases, the following message
will be displayed:
With Connect, Members have the ability to search and view two years of Active, Sold, Conditional
Sold and Pending Sold information for all listing Classes except for Commercial, which have four
years of history.
The command buttons across the top of the Results screen include View, Map, Photos, Narrow
(greyed out at first), <<First, <Previous, Next>, Last>> and <Revise Criteria. Clicking the Revise
Criteria button or on the Criteria breadcrumb allows the user to return to the Listings
Search>Criteria screen to perform modifications to the active query.
Note that on the Results screen, the list of records can be sorted by clicking on any of the field
headers.
• View – Generates a collection of reports that the user can step through (all checked listings).
Command buttons for <Return to List, Map, Photos, Virtual Tour, More Photos, <<First, <Previous,
Next>, Last>> and Revise Criteria remain available in this mode. Clicking the More Photos button
opens a new REALTOR.ca window with the listing of that property displayed, and the user can
subsequently view multiple photos of the property there. Note that the listing must be Active on
REALTOR.ca for this feature to work.
• Map – Utilizes Microsoft Virtual Earth to plot locations of the listings on a map. Performing a
mouse-over on the map’s icons results in basic info pop-ups being generated for those listings. A
pop-up message box will note any listings that could not be plotted before the map is actually
displayed. Command buttons for <Return to List, View, Photos and Revise Criteria are available
here. The Locate box can be used to locate Places of Interest, by typing the search criteria and
hitting Enter on the keyboard.
• Photos – Clicking this button generates a web page presentation of the principal photos of all
listings. Clicking on any photo will generate a larger photo of that property. Clicking on the large
photo will then return the user back to the photo list. On this page, the selection can be narrowed
by activating the check boxes for the desired listings and then clicking on the <Return to List button.
Command buttons for View, Map and Revise Criteria are also available on this screen.
• Narrow – Clicking this will eliminate those listings which have not been checked off. If nothing has
been checked, then nothing will be eliminated.
• Expand – This will become visible once the Narrow button has been used. Clicking it will return
the listings that were eliminated by the Narrow button back to the one line report screen. Note that
more than one level of narrowing can be recalled by using this button.
The <<First, <Previous, Next> and Last>> buttons function in a manner that is essentially the same
as the familiar Stratus interface.
Note that the number of records displayed on each results page can also be set using the available
Page Size drop-down list box. The available options are 20, 50 and 100, with the default having
been set to 20. The total number of listings returned by the entered query, as well as the page
number is displayed to the right of the command buttons.
SELECTING CRITERIA
The process of selecting criteria for the various searches is essentially the same as Stratus, with
some very minor differences.
At the top of the form, one or more MLS® numbers can be entered and used to zero in on desired
listings. It is important to note that when conducting an MLS® number search, the results that are
returned by this query will be constrained by whichever of the seven Classes has been selected at
the start.
Also, at the bottom of the form, there is the “add a field” option that allows the user to select one
or more fields from the provided drop-down list in order to dynamically customize their query. As
the fields are selected, the appropriate data entry boxes are added to the criteria screen, along with
their identifying label, whether they happen to be textboxes, list boxes or drop-down lists.
If insufficient criteria have been selected for the system to successfully perform a query, the labels
of the required fields will turn red after the submit button is clicked. Also, messages at the bottom
of the screen in red font will outline the query’s mandatory field requirements, so that the user can
address the shortcomings.
The command buttons for Clear, Preview, Count and Submit are repeated at the bottom of the
screen in order to minimize the need for scrolling.
DISTRICT MAPS
At the top of the screen for many of the Boards, there is a hot link providing access to Board District
Maps. Here, the interactive district maps for the Board being searched can be found.
UNIFIED SEARCH
In some areas, there are listings from multiple Boards and Associations. Finding all suitable
properties can be a daunting task when searching by a single Board or Association, one by one. The
Unified Search uses a map-driven interface which draws in listing information from all Boards and
presents that information in a single screen, in a unified format.
The Unified Search is available from the Connect interface. At the top of the screen, click Unified
Search. A new Browser tab will open with the Unified Search.
On the Unified Search screen, the search is narrowed by selecting one of the following Property
Types:
 Residential
 Condominium
 Lease
 Farm
 Land
 Multi-Family
 Commercial
Additionally, select any combination of the following criteria:

MLS#: enter one MLS# only



Price Range: adjust by dragging the minimum and/or maximum sliders to achieve the
desired price range.
Status: select Active and/or Sold
Location: enter the name of the Municipality or Address or Postal Code to narrow your
search area.
Clicking the Search button will call up the Results Screen, which consists of a map with markers for
each property that matches the criteria. These properties will be listed by any of the participating
Boards and Associations. You can drag the map and zoom in or out to modify the search area.
At the top of the map, are controls to switch between the default Map View or Grid View, which
displays basic listing information in a one-line report format.
Viewing Details in Map View


Click on a marker.
In the pop-up description, click More Information.
The information available in the detailed report varies from one Board to another.
Reports can be viewed in a REALTOR® Report or Client Report format. Individual listings can be
emailed or printed, using the corresponding button at the top right of the screen.
Viewing Results in Grid View


Click the View button to the right of a property you wish to see in Detail view.
Select one or more listings, using the check boxes, to Email or Print listings.
To return to the Connect main page, close the current Browser tab.