FlatSearch is South Africa's fastest-growing real-estate website. Here you will find all information, tutorials and answers to common questions that you, as agent or agency, might have with regards to FlatSearch.
We encourage agencies to become part of the family, and we offer many free tools to help you integrate your current systems easily and efficiently.
When you join FlatSearch, your agency will enjoy the advantages of all the following:
| Advantage | Description |
|---|---|
| List properties | You may list as many properties as you wish every month, through any available method, free of charge. |
| Import properties | Intelligent Excel / CSV spreadsheet importing, an Open-Realty add-on and weekly notifications of property statistics and status via email, all ways to integrate your existing systems with FlatSearch. |
| Edit listings and lead history | You have full control over all the properties you list on FlatSearch, and can edit any details at any time. We also keep a lead history for each listing, which you can either use on its own, or as a complement to your existing systems. |
| Post to Gumtree | FlatSearch allows you to post any property to Gumtree in one click. Now you can leverage the popularity of Gumtree, with minimum effort. |
| Property statistics | FlatSearch can send you weekly updates of your properties - clicks, views, messages and property status, and you can also view these statistics for every listing separately on the FlatSearch website. |
| Maximal exposure | FlatSearch offers your property listings maximal exposure - at minimal cost. With thousands of visitors every week, and growing rapidly, FlatSearch offers a much more effective (and cost-effective) way to connect buyers and sellers than classified ads. |
| Advertising | Your agency will implicitly be advertised on all of your listings on FlatSearch - with links to your website and your contact details. This informs those who do not yet know of your agency, perhaps because they are from another area, and serves as very effective advertising. |
| Increased turnover | With FlatSearch's impressive automatic e-mail and SMS system, sent out to potential leads as soon as a relevant property becomes available - you can now connect buyer and seller in record time. This improves your efficiency and turnover, allowing you to handle more properties every month. |
Here is a breakdown of the costs involved with joining FlatSearch as an agency:
| Activity | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Send texts | R1/text (50 free p/m) |
We can automatically send SMS and email notifications to users who have indicated interest in similar properties, as soon as you upload them. These texts will specifically name your agency and website address. The first 50 texts are included in your monthly fee, whereafter new texts can be purchased for R1/SMS. |
| Featured Listings | From R49 | Listing properties on FlatSearch is 100% free. But if your property needs even more exposure, you can make it stand out from the rest for a small fee. Read more. |
Integration depends on the system you are currently using.
FlatSearch has a free plugin available for Agencies that make use of the Open-Realty website system. To deploy it is simple, no programming knowledge required. Learn more about the Open-Realty plugin.
If you are using a system not supported by FlatSearch at the moment, and would like it integrated, feel free to contact us. We will happily develop a custom integration for your system. If it is a system used by other agencies as well, we will do it free of charge.
Otherwise, you can make use of our built-in Excel Sheet Import functionality. If your system can export a list of your available properties in Excel (.xls) or CSV (.csv) format, you can import it into FlatSearch with a few simple steps. We automatically detect duplicates, find GPS coordinates, and update old listings - it's as easy as it possibly could be.
FlatSearch does not, and will not, access or store any sensitive information from your system. Our plugins are open source, so you can inspect them to check that it's safe. We only send the information necessary to display and update the listings on FlatSearch, which is only that displayed to your own users.
FlatSearch does show the approximate position of your properties, along with the street address - but we do not show the specific number. This makes finding an appropriate property much easier and convenient for prospective buyers and lessees, without the direct possibility of circumventing you, as agency. If you are uncomfortable with this idea, however, then FlatSearch might not be for you. You (and your clients, and potential buyers) will not be able to extract the full value of the service.