Hello,

 

The real estate system that I designed and produced for ABC Real Estate was the product of several years of development.  It is a pretty large system.

 

They have several facets of their system.  If you have a minute, I will give you a brief overview.

 

1) The primary system is the business office system which is where the staff enters the new listings and sold properties and tracks agent sales commissions, referrals, splits and brokerage earnings.  It is a very comprehensive back office system for tracking information and reporting.  There are several automated functions that reduce staff time and speed up the process. 

 

2) The Office Intranet is an internal website that has many features built for the Agents use.  It is also tied into the primary system.  The agents use this system to enter property showings for activity reporting, schedule open houses, request graphics, check their email, etc.  Information the Agents enter is saved into the primary system for use in reports and updates the website in some cases.

 

3) The Website is tied into the primary database and thus, the website is automatically updated as new listings, open houses, price changes, etc. and photos are entered into the back office system. 

 

4) The Multiple Listing Service search engine is also tied into the primary system, as well as, tied into the Dallas multiple listing service database.  Here is where website visitors can search the MLS listings for homes in the desired area and price range.  The data and the photos for the MLS are automatically downloaded into their system from MLS.

 

If you wanted to start with only a business office system, depending on the complexity of what you want, the custom development cost would probably be reasonable for the basic system.  It could be more, or it could be less, due to your specifications.  You would be able to review the work as it progressed.  This would be an open database design, which means that you would need to have the database software Microsoft Office Access 2003 installed on your computer and you could make changes to the system later if you wanted to. 

 

Also, I am in the process of building, a system for Family Crest Realty, http://www.familycrest.net in Washington state.  The system I am working on for them is strictly the website system that uploads the MLS data and the photos to the website and synchronizes with the Northwest Multiple Listing Service NWMLS database and photos in Washington state.

 

Thank you for your inquiry.

 

If this information interests you, contact me at info@workplacemail.net 

 

Chris Rowlett

Redstone Datacenter, Inc.

"Over 10 Years of IT Service"

5495 Beltline Rd, Suite 290

Dallas, TX  75254

v. 214.435.4703

info@workplacemail.net

 

 

Hi,

 

1)       I don’t have software that I can send to you.  The current software is heavily customized for the client, with their name and address, etc., imbedded into various areas.  But I can prepare screen shots of the software that you can review.  I should have those images posted to a website later today.

2)       I can adapt an export file that can be uploaded to your website automatically with the associated property photos.  I would need to work with your web designer to get the configuration he requires.  You might have him take a look and glance over the property catalog features there to get an idea of what we can do.  Also, of the features that we provide to clients is how many times their property was viewed on the website in an activity report.

3)       For this agency, CRM is handled in a different database, which is basically an Excel spreadsheet for each Agent.  The agents are very closed minded about where their contacts are stored.  These spreadsheets are updated by the agents and staff and used in postcard and letter mail merges.  We don’t do any email blasts in this firm because of the type of clients.  However, CRM could easily be added to the system.

 

 

Typically, a working relationship with a client begins with an understanding of the work to be done.  Once we decide on the work, I create a small project schedule and begin work.  As soon as possible, I send you a copy of the work, for your review.  You will be able to see the progress as it occurs.  This assures that you are getting the product that will be satisfactory to you.  If you want to change or add something, early in the development is the time to do so. I don’t require a retainer, but I do require payments to be made weekly as progress is made, and invoices are submitted.

 

If you would like, you could either email a PDF file or fax copies of the documents that you are considering using with this system.  I could review that paperwork to see what you are currently using and how that would flow into the system. 

 

The screen shots are here:  http://www.redstonedatacenter.com/realestate.asp

 

 

 

Chris Rowlett

Redstone Datacenter, Inc.

"Over 10 Years of IT Service"

5495 Beltline Rd, Suite 290

Dallas, TX  75254

v. 214.435.4703

info@workplacemail.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

It sounds like that business office system might be a good fit for us.    Having the website automatically updated when listings are entered or changed in the database is very attractive.  Currently, we replicate a lot of work because we have to enter property information separately in the website, in our property files, in the tear sheets that we give to clients and in our tracking forms.  Doing it once would be great.

 

I’d like to get an idea of how we would work with you to get the solution built and working.  Specifically:

 

1. Is there a way that we could play around with the systems that you’ve built to figure out what exactly we need (i.e. we don’t even know enough to really know what is possible/feasible, so seeing what someone else has would be helpful).
2. Would you adapt our website or would we have to start over? If the website would be adapted, would you work with our webmaster to do it? Our guy is in the US. 
3. Does the system have CRM capabilities? We have been looking at a few and one of the ideas floated was using an Access based system.

 

Thanks again for your help.

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Mary from our office will send you a .pdf with a full listing file for one listing in each of our three property categories to show you how we set up our files (and therefore what information we would want in our property database).  We handle sales of unrenovated buildings, renovated apartments and rentals.  Each has its own database requirements.  A full listing file from each will give you an idea of the paperwork that we set up for each listing.  If we set up a database, we will certainly add a few additional fields. 

 

I’m a real newbie to CRM software and would be interested in your thoughts.  Our office policy is that all contacts belong to the firm, so we don’t have the problem of agents being proprietary.  Conversely, we would hope that we have some control over the database so that agents can’t walk out the office with our list.  Our main concern would be being able to mine our own database and make sure that sales people are diligently following up on leads.  Would you recommend using Access or a stand alone CRM solution?

I put the screen shots up.  This should give you some ideas about what you may want for your agency. 

 

http://www.redstonedatacenter.com/realestate.asp

That’s all good news. I try to be of service to my clients.  Clients tend to leave, if you don’t provide good work.

 

The system that you are looking at is very large, so you will probably not need all of that information.  That client has 6 full time administrative staff people to manage all that data and take care of the Agents.   Some of the fields of information tie into the website and the intranet.

 

The upload to your website can be built-in to the system. And if everything is organized properly, you will press a button and the upload of the data and the photos will happen automatically. 

 

The ability to upload to your website requires the following things: 

1) The data that you want on the website has to be in the Access database.

2) The photos that you want on the website have to be “web ready” . Your webmaster knows these requirements.

3) The web ready photos must be stored on a computer in your office that is accessible by the Access database program, usually your file server.

4)  The web ready photo files must be organized in a way that the Access database can find them.  For example, we put our web ready photos in a folder on the file server called “Website Photos” and the file name for each group of photos, for a home, are named with the property number then A B C D E F. 

5)  The website must use an organized format, similar to a database table, for storing the data for each property and retrieving the photos.  For example, a specifically laid out text file.

6) The data file and the photo folder on the website, must be accessible by FTP.

 

You will not need MS Exchange unless you decide to incorporate some of the more advanced features where the system is tied into email.  We use MS Exchange for the Agents because MS Exchange includes Outlook Web Access which the Agents use for email.  There is a nice benefit to using Outlook Web Access, however, your costs will go up dramatically if you decide to use MS Exchange.  MS Exchange pretty much requires a Tech to keep it running.

 

I think I was assuming that you would want a basic system. 

 

After you decide what features you want, I can better determine how well we can stay in the budget.  It should not be a problem.

 

You can always add things on later if you want to.  That is what most clients do over a period of time.  That is the nice thing about a custom system.

 

The only requirements that I can think of are

 

1)       A file server that Microsoft Access can use.  As far as I know a Linux server is ok.

2)       This will be an open system so the program Microsoft Access will have to be loaded on each computer (except the linux file server).

3)       A broadband internet connection would be nice for the website upload.

4)       A data backup system to keep a daily backup of your Access database and your photos

 

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