Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
requirements
Contents
Overview
Introduction to Evansdale Realty
Why use databases?
6 great reasons to use databases
What is a database?
Relational databases
Spreadsheets
General purpose database software
Simple desktop systems
Database servers
Software for the real estate office
Products
Capabilities of real estate software
Features
Real estate data products
Check your learning
Summary
Overview
Since the first databases were introduced into the real estate industry, their
use has evolved to the point where most offices could not function without
them.
Specialist software has been written to meet the requirements of all aspects
of real estate operations. The explosive growth of the Internet has created
new opportunities for agents to perform their work more efficiently and to
expand their business.
This topic describes database systems and how databases are used in a real
estate environment to perform work functions. We will look at the various
software applications in common use.
In this topic youll learn to:
Examples
When a receipt is entered into a computer database the system can update
the cash book, carry out daily banking, process journals and update the
ledger account, thus reducing the manual work.
The end of month rollover procedure balances all accounts, and prints
cheques and statements for the owners in a few simple steps. A property
manager can attend to other tasks while overseeing the end of month
procedure, with only brief inputs required along the way.
At the end of the month, every account has to be balanced and we
must produce reports for the each owner and tenant.
I can remember the time before we had good databases on personal
computers. The end of month rollover in the property department
took us a couple of days , and we needed more staff.
Ellen Chu,
Property Manager,
Evansdale Realty
These days most of the leg-work is done by the computer, and the
rollovers can be completed in a few hours.
Example 1
Lets say your agency is managing several rental properties for the owner
Mr Jones. He calls wanting to know whether the arrears have been paid. You
cant recall the details, but you can find Mr Jones in the database, select the
property in question and call up the account details. You can advise Mr
Jones immediately, and perhaps send off a report via email or SMS. This
quick response and high level of service makes the agency look good to Mr
Jones, and increases the chances that you will retain him as a client.
Example 2
Agents are now able to produce marketing material such as open house lists,
property brochures and direct mailing material in-house that previously
were sent away to printers or not produced at all. This has allowed them to
be more responsive to eventsfor example, being able to list a property
today and have an acceptable quality colour brochure available to give to
purchasers tomorrow.
Example 3
You have a property listed which adjoins some empty land at the back. A
prospective purchaser wants to know if the land is a national park. Your online property information service lets you call up a map of the land and
check the ownership of the adjoining properties.
In real estate, more than most professions, we succeed or fail by
our standards of service. Database technology makes it easy to
keep in touch with clients and meet the clients individual needs.
Sarah Hampden,
Manager,
Evansdale Realty
Example
Below is an excerpt from section 25 of the Regulation:
(3) The following particulars must be shown on a receipt:
(a) the date of issue,
(b) the number of the receipt in numerical sequence,
(c) the name of the licensee and the words Trust Account,
(d) the name of the person from whom the payment was received,
(e) the name and ledger reference number of the person on whose behalf the
payment was made,
If the agent is using a modern trust accounting system designed for use by
real estate agents in New South Wales, the system would ensure that each of
these data items appeared on the receipt.
Dave Mathews,
Assistant Property
Manager
What is a database?
Relational databases
In a relational database, all of the information is held in structures called
tables. (These tables are technically known as relations and this is what
gives the relational database its name).
For example lets say you need to store data on all the properties your
agency has for sale or for rent. You might start with something like the table
below.
Properties
Key
Suburb
Address
Price
Bedrooms
Newtown
21 Cross Street
419000
Rose Bay
33 Trial Street
723450
Cardiff
12 Gimp Road
501004
Brennans Pt
56 Ship Drive
450000
10
The columns of the table are known as fields. For example the fields
of the properties table are called Key, Address, Suburb, Price
and Bedrooms.
The set of related data fields in one row of the table are known as a
record. For example the first record of the Property table is the set
{1, Newtown, 21 Cross Street, 419000, 2}. This table has four
records.
Primary key
Each table must have a primary key. The primary key is simply a way to
uniquely identify each record. In other words, no two records can have the
same primary key. Often the primary key is just a number that is
incremented for every new record added to the table (an autoincrement
field). This guarantees that it will be different for every record. The Key
field in the properties table above is the primary key.
Queries
The main use of databases is to store information so that is can be efficiently
retrieved in different ways. A query is the name given to a database search.
Queries may be restricted to one table, for example (in English).
Get all addresses from the property table where price is greater than or
equal to 500000 dollars.
Complex queries may extend over many tables.
11
Spreadsheets
Some of the early databases for personal computers consisted of individual
tables that were used in isolation. The tables could not be combined in the
ways that are typical of relational databases. This type of simple database is
sometimes called a flat-file database.
Flat-file databases are not much used these days, but most of the features of
a flat-file database can be found in modern spreadsheet software such as
Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc. The data is simply entered in the
spreadsheet rows and columns, and can be sorted and searched. The screen
shot below is from Microsoft Excel, where the user is sorting a table of
properties by price.
Spreadsheets can be effective for small data sets, and where you only want
to use one data table at a time. They may help in the storage of data where
some records are kept manually and some electronically. The spreadsheet
can be used for commonly used information such as ownership details, and
could contain a reference for the paper-based filing system.
But spreadsheets are not true databases. They are optimised for doing
business calculations rather than storing large amounts of data. They do not
provide features such as relating many tables, forms to ease data entry,
customised reports, protection of data integrity and so on.
12
Database
Servers
Simple
Desktop
systems
Online/web
databases
13
Database servers
Commercial-quality database systems can store essentially unlimited
quantities of data, and are technically advanced in transaction processing,
security, speed and scalability. Examples include offerings from companies
such as Oracle, Sybase or Microsoft. There are also free, open-source
alternatives such as MySQL or PostGreSQL.
This high-powered commercial software is realised as a type of program
called a server. Servers are like specialists that are designed to do only one
type of job, but do it very well. A server receives requests from other
programs (known as clients) asking it to carry out some task (eg to search
for a particular term in the database). The server does the task, and returns
the results.
One server program can handle requests from many different programs, so a
server is normally set up centrally on a computer network, and requests are
sent and received over the network. Servers are usually installed on fast
computer equipment which has been tuned specifically to host the server
software. (For this reason, these computers are often also called servers).
The diagram below shows an example of this client-server architecture.
Client application 1 is running on a users computer (it could belong to a
salesperson in the real estate agency). The user requests something to be
done, such as searching for the name Smith. The server program does the
search, and sends back the records requested.
Server computer
Database Server program
Request
Response
Client
Application 1
Client
Application 2
Client computer 1
Client computer 2
14
It ensures that everyone will see the latest version of the data, because
all requests to change the data have to pass through the same server.
Multi-tiered applications
Once we have taken the step of removing the database from the users
computer, its very common to go further and centralise more of the
application into a server. These designs are known as multi tiered.
The three layer design shown below is often used, where:
The user interface consists of the screens that allow the user to enter
data, make requests, view reports and so on. Its really just the
outside face or shell of the application that the user interacts with. So
now the part running on the users computer is very simple.
15
User
Interface
Server computer
Business
logic
Server computer
Database
server
16
Web applications can have even more advantages than the server based
applications. The advantages of client-server architecture are retained here,
because the design is essentially identical in this respect.
Usually, web applications like real estate databases are sold as a service by
companies that specialise in the field. Therefore the client company gets a
turnkey system which is ready to use, and does not dont need to worry
about backup or data integrity all this is done by the company hosting the
web site.
One drawback of pure web applications is that there is a single point of
failure. If the Internet connection fails or the website goes down, then the
customer may be left without service.
Jackie Mansour,
Reception/Sales
Support
Sometimes when its busy, Im the only one in the office but I can
still answer some questions just by consulting the database. We also
have a kiosk that allows the client to search and view the current
listings.
We also consult online databases to find, for example, comparative
market analyses and sales histories.
17
A real estate agent could conceivably design and develop their own database
system using the generic database applications, but this would be very
unusual. Agents have neither the time nor the inclination to develop a
system from scratch. Instead they will purchase software that has been
specifically tailored to the needs of the real estate industry.
In this section we will look at some of the products available, and the
features that real estate agents require in their database systems.
Products
Several companies specialise in software for the real estate office. Some of
the available products in this field include:
Consoles Gateway
The products are designed to support the tasks that agents perform every
day, and they will assist the agent in meeting the legislative requirements in
their State.
Beware that the legislation regarding trust accounts is different for
each state. Before buying software for a real estate business, check
with the provider that their software conforms to the regulations in
your particular State.
Note also that software from the U.S. or other countries will not
meet the legislative requirements for Australian States.
Dave Mathews,
Assistant Property
Manager
Usually the software has separate modules for different functions, and the
agent purchases a licence to cover the specific functions required. These
systems can typically support property residential sales, residential property
management and tenant management. There may also be modules available
to support strata management, commercial sales and commercial property
management.
18
Note that although these products have been made more friendly and
intelligent by additional layers of software, they will each contain a general
purpose database system at their core.
It is unusual these days to find a stand-alone desktop application for the real
estate office. This is because many of the advantages of these systems derive
from sharing data, or combining the data entered by the various users. Most
of the products will use a central database server, plus client software
running on the users computers. Some products such as Console Gateway
are web-based, with an offsite database.
Keep track of important dates such as rent due dates, lease expiry,
inspection dates, and generate daily appointment and tasks lists.
Help the agent to input, store and manage property inspection data.
19
sales agent holds deposits in trust from the purchaser. This software will
typically:
Assist in helping the agent recommend a realistic sale price for the
property to the vendor, by listing comparable properties in the same
area.
Keep notes about the progress of a sale, and record interested people
and offers.
Alert the agent to critical dates during the sale of a property, such as
cooling off period, date of contract exchange and settlement.
One strategy used by agents is to add properties to the database as the agent
comes into contact with the property through a market appraisal or other
contact with the owner. Other agents will add every property in their service
area into the database and maintain up to date information on all listing and
sale activity.
Features
Now we will look at the typical features of this class of software. The details
of each package will vary, but typically will include the features listed
below. Note that we list the aspects here separately for the purposes of
explanation, but the best software will integrate these aspects into a
seamless product which closely fits the way agents do their work.
20
Contacts management
The agent needs to keep track of information about many people including
vendors and purchasers in a sales context, and owners and tenants in a
property management context.
Of course, the contacts will belong to a certain categories, such as owners,
prospective buyers, tenants and so on. Some systems allow you to refine the
categories, so that you might have subcategories for prospective buyers of
active, casual and inactive.
Trust accounting
As we mentioned, trust accounting software keeps track of the funds that are
held in trust by the real estate agent, for example the deposit from the sale of
a house, or rent monies. This software is often quite complex and usually
includes other features for rental or sales management in addition to the
purely accounting function. Trust accounting software assists the agent in
complying with the legislation regarding trust accounts, such as the relevant
sections of the Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 (NSW).
Often the trust accounting software can interface with electronic banking
systems, used for example to transfer funds into landlords accounts or to
debit tenants accounts.
21
Historical sales data can be analysed to give trend data that may
inform the agent about the market conditions.
Reporting
A variety of reports can be printed, which may include:
Security features
All systems of this type will require a user name and password for the user
to log in and access the system. This prevents unauthorised access to the
data by outsiders.
There is also the question of how much of your personal data you wish to
share within the office. Typically at least several people will be using the
same database in a networked environment. The past sales data, property
data and contacts data are potentially available to everyone in the office.
Sharing this data could lead to a more efficient operation overall, and that
may be the choice of some agencies.
However the agency may be set up so that the agents are competing for
sales. In this case, agents may wish to keep their hot leads to themselves.
In most products it should be possible to configure which parts of your data
you wish to share, and which you want to keep to yourself.
22
Provision for easy backups. Ideally the software would allow for fast
incremental offsite backups via the internet. Of course, if the
software is web based, this is taken care of already.
Time management
Time management is crucial for real estate agents as many aspects of real
estate business are built around rigid schedules.
For example, the agent must be aware of:
critical periods and dates in property sales, such as the cooling off
period, contract exchange, settlement
These systems can schedule appointments, reminders and alarms for all
these crucial events, and allow the agent to add their own personal
appointments manually. They also allow for notes and diary entries.
The system can generate and send emails or SMS text messages
about new listings.
23
24
Sales history
Photographs
Mapping data
Private individuals looking for a house will also access these sites to do
research, such as:
25
Here is a check-list of the things you should now know or be able to do. Put
a tick beside each one you feel confident about.
I can
describe what a database system is, and the types of database systems available
explain how databases are used in real estate
list the typical features of real estate databases
describe the advantages of database systems in real estate
describe the information requirements of the real estate industry
access a local or online database system
How did you go? If there are some areas youre not sure of, you may like to
revise them before attempting your assessment tasks.
26
Summary
This topic provided an overview of database systems and how databases are
used in a real estate environment to perform work functions. It looked
specifically at the various software applications in common use across the
property industry.
27