Sector
IT support for estate agents and lettings agencies
Estate agency is a mobile business pretending to be an office one. Negotiators are out most of the day, property data has to reach the portals reliably, and the branch is a place people pass through rather than sit in. That shapes what the IT has to do, and it is not what a conventional office setup delivers.
The software an agency runs
Agencies typically run a CRM built for the sector, Reapit, Alto, Jupix, Dezrez or Street among the common ones, feeding Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, with a lettings or property management layer alongside it if there is a managed portfolio. Add business email, a diary that everybody depends on, and increasingly a portal for landlords and vendors.
The failure that costs money is a portal feed silently stopping. A property that is not on Rightmove is not being marketed, and it is entirely possible for that to run for two days before anybody notices. Monitoring the feed rather than the server is the useful thing to do, and it is a slightly unusual ask that most general providers do not think of.
Multi-branch and mobile working
Multiple branches with a shared CRM raise the ordinary questions, consistent access, sensible permissions, and a network at each site that does not depend on somebody local knowing where the router is, plus one specific one: what happens at a branch when its connection drops. For an agency, that is a branch that cannot access the diary or the property records, which is a branch that cannot work.
Mobile is the bigger half. Negotiators need the CRM, the diary, photographs and keys logged from a phone, at a property, reliably. Devices need managing so that a phone left in a car does not become a data incident, and access needs revoking the same day somebody leaves, which in a sector with meaningful staff turnover is a recurring job rather than a rare one.
Starters, leavers and device access all sit under our managed IT support.
AML, client money and record keeping
Agencies carry anti-money-laundering obligations, and the records supporting customer due diligence have to be retained and produceable. Where an agency holds client money there is a further set of requirements around segregation and reporting. Neither is an IT problem in itself, but both depend on records being stored somewhere durable, access-controlled and backed up, rather than in a folder on a branch machine.
The other data risk in this sector is volume of personal data about people who are not your clients: applicants, tenants, viewers. It accumulates quickly and it is rarely subject to any retention discipline, which is worth fixing before somebody makes a subject access request.
What we would look at first
The audit for an agency usually turns up the same three things, in roughly this order.
Devices that were never properly enrolled. Negotiators accumulate phones and tablets, and in most agencies at least one of them belongs to somebody who left. Managed enrolment with encryption and remote wipe is a small piece of work that converts a lost handset from an incident into an inconvenience.
Portal feed monitoring, which almost nobody has. Watching the feed rather than the server is the difference between noticing a stalled listing within the hour and noticing it when a vendor rings to ask why their property is not showing.
And retention. Applicant, tenant and viewer data accumulates faster in agency systems than anywhere else we work, and it is rarely subject to any deletion schedule. Agreeing one, and having it actually run, is a small project with a genuine risk reduction behind it.
Get in touch
Tell us how your estate agents business runs
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Questions we get from estate agents
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
Can you monitor whether our portal feeds are working?
Yes, and it is a more useful thing to monitor than the server. A feed can stop silently and run for two days before anybody notices, and a property that is not on Rightmove is not being marketed.
Do you support Reapit, Alto, Jupix, Dezrez or Street?
We support the devices, accounts, connectivity and network those systems depend on, and we deal with the vendor directly when the fault is inside the application.
What happens if a branch loses its internet connection?
It should not stop the branch working, and designing for that is part of the job, usually a failover connection at branches where a day offline is genuinely costly. We will tell you honestly which of your branches justify one.
How do we handle a negotiator leaving?
Same-day revocation across the CRM, email and mobile devices, plus recovery of anything held only on the handset. In a sector with real staff turnover this needs to be routine rather than exceptional.
A phone was left in a car. Is that a data breach?
With managed devices, encryption and remote wipe, generally not, which is exactly why the management is worth having. Without them, it may well be, and the assessment becomes considerably more awkward.
How long should we keep applicant and viewer data?
Long enough to meet your AML and contractual obligations, and no longer. Personal data about people who never became clients accumulates fast in this sector and is rarely subject to any retention discipline, which is worth fixing before someone makes a subject access request.