Design and Implementation of a Real Estate Management System
CHAPTER ONE
Aims and Objectives
This research project is aimed at implementing a Web based Real Estate Management System to automate the management of the records and information on the properties managed by the Property Manager.
The solution of the project will be implemented using a three tier distributed architecture with a database server for information storage, a middleware application and a client side application. The client side will be designed using HTML (Hyper Text Mark-Up Language) and will be viewed with a web browser. The records and information about the tenants and properties will be stored using the MySQL online database server while the middleware application will be implemented using the PHP server side scripting language.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Estate management is the operation, control of (usually on behalf of an owner), and oversight of commercial, industrial or residential real estate as used in its most broad terms. Management indicates a need to be cared for, monitored and accountability given for its usable life and condition. This is much akin to the role of management in any business (Chavis, 2009).
Property management is also the management of personal property, equipment, tooling and physical capital assets that are acquired and used to build, repair and maintain end item deliverables. Property management involves the processes, systems and manpower required to manage the life cycle of all acquired property as defined above including acquisition, control, accountability, responsibility, maintenance, utilization, and disposition (Rhodes, 2008).
This paper will seek to cover the reviews on the topic of Property Management as well as what contributions information technology has made towards the development and implementation of the practice.
Real Estate
Real estate is “Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; (also) an item of real property; (more generally) buildings or housing in general. Also: the business of real estate; the profession of buying, selling, or renting land, buildings, or housing (Oxford English Dictionary).
It is a legal term in jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, United States of America, Dubai, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and The Bahamas (Dictionary.com ). Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and concerns such things as commercial and residential property ownership, development, and transactions. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (sometimes called ‘chattels’ or ‘personality’ under ‘chattel law’ or ‘personal property law’). The terms ‘real estate’ and ‘real property’ are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.
Property Manager
A property manager or estate manager is a person or firm charged with operating a real estate property for a fee, when the owner is unable to personally attend to such details, or is not interested in doing so (Hipp, 2008). The property may be individual title owned or it may be owned under sectional title, share block, company owned and may be registered for residential, commercial office and retail or industrial use.
Property management is the operation, control, and oversight of real estate as used in its most broad terms. Management indicates a need to be cared for, monitored and accountability given for its useful life and condition. This is much akin to the role of management in any business.
Property management is also the management of personal property, equipment, tooling and physical capital assets that are acquired and used to build, repair and maintain end item deliverables. Property management involves the processes, systems and manpower required to manage the life cycle of all acquired property as defined above including acquisition, control, accountability, responsibility, maintenance, utilization and disposition.
Functions of a Property Manager
Typical duties expected of a property manager include finding/evicting and generally dealing with tenants, home repair, home improvement, cleaning, garden maintenance, landscaping, and snow removal, to be coordinated with the owner’s wishes. Such arrangements may require the property manager to collect rents, and pay necessary expenses and taxes, making periodic reports to the owner, or the owner may simply delegate specific tasks and deal with others directly (Chavis, 2009).
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Introduction
The analysis of the proposed system for the Estate Management System will be the main focus of attention in this particular chapter. The System Analysis of the existing system to be improved upon and the proposed solutions to the short comings of the current mode of estate management will be thoroughly discussed.
Analysis of the Existing System
The process of managing the affairs of the properties is done manually. The list of the properties to be managed is recorded in a list by the estate agents who are responsible for linking the landlords or property owners to the perspective land dwellers or tenants as the case may be.
When a perspective tenant contacts an estate agent for the possibility of finding a property, the estate agent checks the list for any available property that suits the criteria of the client and then contacts its owner to broker a deal with the perspective tenant.
CHAPTER FOUR
PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION
Source Codes
The source code to the Estate Management System, which was written using HTML for the front-end user interface, PHP server-side scripting language for the middleware application and MySQL for the design of the database, is provided at the appendix of this research project.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Introduction
The complete overview of this research project will be given in the subsequent summary. Further areas of improvement for the research work will be discussed in the recommendation section of this chapter while appropriate conclusions of the entire research work will be drawn as well.
Summary
Real estate can be described as Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water, immovable property of this nature, buildings or housing in general.
So far in developing countries like Nigeria, the main activities of the estate agents have been carried out manually.
This research project is aimed at implementing a Web based Real Estate Management System to automate the management of the records and information on the properties managed by the Property Manager.
The solution of the project will be implemented using a three tier distributed architecture with a database server for information storage, a middleware application and a client side application
Recommendations
This Project is recommended for use by Estate and Properties Management institutions in the country which are still managing the affairs of their business through the use of brick and mortar paper based filing systems.
In the development of this Estate Management System, I will recommend that if there is going to be any modification, the new writer should endeavor to improve on the limitations such as inclusion of electronic payment method to further increase the system architecture and to satisfy users need more for writing of the source code, PHP programming should be used and MySQL for the database. There are some limitations during the development of this real estate management system that will require improvement as stated in previous chapter. Writer should put them in mind and face it as a challenge and not a problem.
Conclusion
With the successful implementation of the Web based Real Estate Management System, record loss would be eliminated as the information about the tenant contacts, lease terms, property features, security deposits and payment history would all be digitally stored on an online database which would have backup facilities. Security authorization mechanisms will be implemented and enforced the system so that only authorized users will be allowed to gain access to the information stored in the database. Also, large records will be able to be managed more efficiently and search queries will be effectively and easily performed by the system.
With the successful implementation of this research project, consumers of products in the country will be able to participate in the reduction of fake drugs circulated around the country. Several lives will be spared the torments of suffering from fake or substandard consumable products and the NAFDAC body will be assisted in their fight against the menace as the new system will enable consumers from all parts of the country submit information about products that were found wanting, from which the source of the defaulting products can be traced by staff of the Agency.
Problem Encountered
A lot of challenges surfaced during the development of this incredible application though it tried stopping this project but the doggedness and consistency of the writer was in match with the challenge
The following are some of the problems or challenges encountered.
- Expensive internet facility.
- Understanding the MySQL Database Syntax.
- Inadequacy of power supply and many more.
- Time factor on research to get a way of packaging the application successively.
REFERENCE
- Chavis, Bryan. “Buy It, Rent It, Profit!: Make Money as a Landlord in ANY Real Estate Market”. 304 pages. [Paperback] Fireside, April 2009. ISBN 978-1-4165-8984-6
- Rhodes, Trevor. American Landlord: Everything U Need to Know… about Property Management. 384 pages. McGraw-Hill, January, 2008. ISBN 0-07-154517-4.
- “Real estate”: Oxford English Dictionary online: Retrieved September 18, 2011
- “Title 16. Conservation; Chapter 1. National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores; Minute Man National Historical Park]”. US Legal.
- Aghdami, Farhad; Mullen, Williams. Tax Conference (Marshall-Wythe School of Law). William and Mary Tax Conference 54 (2008): HA,H2-H154.
- The Role of Property Managers by Aurelio Locsin, Demand Media.
- John S. Kirkwood, (2002) “LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPUTER SYSTEMS”, Property Management, Vol. 6 Iss: 4, pp.293 – 298
- Buyer’s Guide: Investment Analysis Software September 2007 by Michael Antoniak
