by Baldev S. Gill, Chief Executive Officer
More than a year ago, CREA partnered with LoneWolf to deliver a new WEBForms® platform to REALTORS® across Canada. Since then, Realtors across our province expressed dissatisfaction and frustration with a tool they rely on day in and day out.
We, along with nine other BC real estate boards, set out to collect more concrete feedback on CREA WEBForms® by conducting a survey of our members in June. More than 1,000 Realtors from around BC expressed significant dissatisfaction (nearly 76 per cent respondents) with CREA WEBForms®. They were most dissatisfied with the tool’s ease of use, auto-populating forms, reliability of the system and completion of forms.
One BC Realtor who reflected numerous similar responses, said, “The entire process is frustrating and draining. Forms have to be triple-checked and, even then, often self-populate incorrect information. It is not intuitive. Full of glitches. Realtors have created workarounds to deal with WEBForms®, which makes no sense.”
A letter signed by the 10 BC real estate board CEOs and the detailed survey results were shared with CREA’s Board of Directors and management.
CREA responded to our province’s input by scheduling a Zoom call with each Board CEO to discuss with the WEBForms® CREA and LoneWolf team members, how BC Realtors could be better supported.
CREA agreed to make improvements to the platform and form a new working group with representation from boards and associations across Canada, including the FVREB – the real estate board that pioneered and managed WEBForms® right up until the move to the new CREA WEBForms®.
New improvements to CREA WEBForms®:
The following enhancements were highlighted by CREA.
Improving Ease of Use
- Updated forms are now automatically replaced in your templates with all content retained. Click here for a video from CREA on how to set up templates.
- Page numbers are now automatically created instead of requiring manual entry.
- BC Forms Guides will be introduced this fall to coincide with the release of BCREA’s forms update, making this transition easier for Realtors.
- A new Clause Manager will be introduced later this year, enabling date and time pickers to be inserted directly into clauses. In addition, clauses copied from external sources will maintain formatting, and a full-text search will be added in the clause library.
- Enhancements to the Form Editor are currently being made to make it easier to insert clauses throughout documents.
Consistent Display of Information
- New pages are now automatically added to the bottom of a form to fit any overflow text.
- Work has been done to reduce the impact of automatic font resizing and we are working closely with our partner, Lone Wolf Technologies, to further refine this solution, including mitigating font resizing issues when forms are printed or emailed.
Auto-populating Board/Association MLS® Systems Information
- In consultation with members from various regions, hundreds of forms were updated. A comprehensive list of the many adjusted forms can be found on the WEBForms® Status Hub.
- In the case that further errors and omissions concerning cross-population between your MLS® System and WEBForms® are discovered, they will be addressed at the highest priority and with urgency.
More information and CREA support:
- CREA has a weekly webinar, pre-recorded webinars, a quick start guide, a library of tutorial videos and a searchable online help guide on CREA WEBForms®.
- Reach CREA’s Member Support team by emailing support@crea.ca or calling 1-888-237-7945. CREA’s WEBForms® Extended Member Support Hours are Monday to Friday 5 am to 9 pm and Saturday and Sunday 5 am to 7 pm, Pacific Standard Time.
New CREA WEBForms® Working Group with representation from FVREB:
In addition to making improvements to WEBForms®, CREA formed a new WEBForms® Working Group (WWG) to serve as a sounding board for any WEBForms® release impacting workflow or major functionality.
Members of the WWG will have access to planned releases while they are still in testing mode and will work with WEBForms® in a test environment. Access to the test environment will enable members of the WWG to provide critical feedback on product advancements and update support staff on future changes before changes are released.
CREA says the goal of the WWG is to:
- catch bugs and programming issues before members experience them in a business setting;
- ensure that WEBForms® meets the long-term business needs of members;
- gather feedback on development that impacts product workflow and functionality; and
- gather feedback and guidance from real estate boards on how to enhance communications, training, support processes, and identify significant issues.
CREA invited each board and association to provide a representative to join their WWG. A member of the former FVREB WEBForms® team was invited to join CREA’s WEBForms Working Group.