Selling a new development is a different kind of work. Instead of one property you have dozens of units that change status every week, a developer who wants updates, and buyers who all ask the same question: what is still available, and at what price?

When the answer lives in a spreadsheet e-mailed back and forth, mistakes come easily. A buyer gets excited about a unit that was reserved yesterday, or a co-operating agent sends out last month's price list. Here is how to keep a project organised, and how EstateCRM handles it.

Projects, blocks and units

In EstateCRM a project holds the development's details: the name, the developer, the managing agent, the status (planned, under construction or completed), the area, the energy class and the expected delivery month and year. Photos of the development go on the project, and the first one becomes the cover.

Inside the project, blocks group the units, for example Block A and Block B. Each unit is an ordinary listing, and that matters more than it sounds. Because units are listings, they are matched to your buyers, they can have their own share link, you can add them to a deal, and you can send them from your matches like any other property.

Each unit takes the project's area, address, energy class and managing agent, so you only fill in what is specific to it: the unit name, type, status, floor, bedrooms, bathrooms, areas, price and VAT. For identical floors, duplicating a unit saves a lot of typing. Photos or floor plans for a single unit go on its own listing.

Importing the developer's price list

Developers usually send their price list as a spreadsheet. Rather than typing units one by one, you can import it from Excel or CSV, up to 500 units at a time. Blocks named in the file are created for you, and you check every row in a preview before anything is added. Units already in the project are left unticked, so an updated file doesn't turn into duplicates.

Available units are matched to your buyers straight away. An import never e-mails your clients, though. You decide when to send them the new units.

Status that stays current everywhere

Available, reserved and sold are the heart of any off-plan sale. In EstateCRM you can change many units at once: tick them, then set their status, move them to another block, or update the VAT or the price.

Two outputs follow the data automatically:

  • The price list PDF. One click produces a landscape A4 price list with your logo and contact details, the cover photo, the project's key facts and a table of units per block. Sold units show as sold without a price, and drafts, withdrawn units and internal notes never appear.
  • The public project page. Turn on publishing and you get a link to a page with the photos, how much is sold, price and size ranges, the delivery date, an availability table per block, the price list and the managing agent's contact details. It changes the moment you mark a unit reserved or sold.

The page is meant for sharing with buyers and co-operating agents, and it is kept out of search engines. Publishing also makes the project available to your own website through the website API and the WordPress plugin.

Tips for selling off-plan

Off-plan buyers are buying something they can't walk through yet, so clarity and speed matter even more than usual.

  • Update status the same day. A reservation that isn't recorded until next week is how double bookings happen. When the page is always right, agents stop calling the office to check.
  • Send the link rather than an attachment. A PDF sent last month stays in someone's inbox for ever. The project page is always current.
  • Let matching find early interest. Buyers with saved requirements are matched to suitable units as soon as they are added, so you know whom to call on launch day.
  • Keep the developer informed. The project page shows the sold share and availability per block at a glance, which makes a weekly update to the developer quick to prepare.
  • Help buyers picture the finished home. Floor plans, views, finishes and the delivery date do the work a viewing would normally do.
  • Track each sale as a deal. Because units are listings, a reserved unit can go into a deal in your pipeline, with its stages and commission, like any other sale.

One source of truth for the whole team

The real benefit is simple. Everyone in the office, and every co-operating agent with the link, works from the same numbers. Nobody has to ask whether the spreadsheet on their laptop is the latest one, and the developer sees progress without waiting for a report.

See it with your own development

If your agency sells new developments, book a demo at estatecrm.cy and we will show you how a project, its units and its price list work together.