BITE IT - Building Long Term Relationships

Background

Homes4u are are a rapidly expanding estate agency, with multi-million £ funding to open 10 further branches. They specialise in all aspects of property, including residential sales, professional and student lettings and comprehensive property management. They have been shortlisted for the " Estate Agency of the Year Award 2005"

Homes4u approached Bite IT with a requirement for a database driven website which would allow the content of the website to be easily updated by staff members with less or no programming skills.

Solution

Bite IT provided Homes4u with an advanced property search site with a modern design which compliments the existing brand and logo, together with a development of a content management system which allows the website content to be updated through an administration panel by logging into a secure area of the website.

Additional functionality includes automated feeds to update the rental and sales property details from the office database, to the website , with floor plans, property images, search facility, booking viewing request facility and an email notification of accepted viewing request. 

A data capture facility stores details of registered users and links to an 'opt in' newsletter facility. 

Search engine optimisation services were provided to increase the number of users of the site.   

Outcome

Homes4u.co.uk is one of the most successful property web sites and is a major factor in the rapid expansion of the company, providing over 50% of viewing requests. Features include:-

• easy to use navigation system

• online access to update the web site content from any Internet enabled computer

• data capture facility which has generated a registered user database of over 110,000 contacts

• easy to search database with the latest available properties for sale and rent

• 'add to viewing list' and viewing request facility 

• affiliates listing and directory facility

• advanced usage statistics reports