things that would be fabulous

Hi Guys - love the software.

Here is my wish list for osproperty. I have used ALL the other components (iproperty, ALL the realtyna components and addons and EZRealty) that have been combined into this component and each one has a reason it was unusable. Unfortunately those critical usability flaws have been included in yours.

Most URGENT - Registration flow:

People should enter their Company information as the very FIRST step, before any Agent info, in the same screen, so the listing person can attach their Agent Account to a Company so properties can be listed.

Right now its extremely confusing and people just leave without paying because they have to select a company before their account is added. There is no way to make that happen automatically.

IProperty started with that unusable backward system of having 2 sections and it not being part of the registration, it has never been intuitive and causes a loss of business.

Parent listings for complexes, where additional units can be added as "child" listings, for accounts with more than one unit with the same common area features.

Property Type and Listing Type are opposite of what is expected.

Property types should be the actual type of property, house, apartment, condominium etc, and Listing type should be - For Sale, For Rent, For Lease

These changes would make the component much easier for everyone to use.

I hope you choose to make these upgrades for everyone, however, if not, as I really do need this to make my site perfect, how much to have this done.

Thanks for your time.

Hi Kimberley,
It means you want when user register to become an agent, they can enter their company information through some text fields. And OS Property should register the company automatically, right?
Thanks
Dam

Yes!

That is exactly what I would love.

Is it possible?

Hi,
I don't think that's good idea, because when company is created, we will need an user who is the admin of company. If user creates the company, he will become administrator of company. Thus, he won't able to register to become an agent anymore.
Thanks
Dam

No you are wrong here Dam, sorry to say. But Kimberly is correct, the way you have user registration is confusing at best and will scare away users at worst.

If you look at it from the users perspective there are two broad user groups and these are 'buyers' and 'sellers'. Breaking that down then 'sellers' can be categorised next as 'owners or direct sellers' then there are 'sellers that work for a company', be that an agency, developer builder. The type of company that they work for is broadly not needed unless you were restricting features for each. That would be a bit silly for a Joomla component.

So the first set of sellers 'owners" realistically will register and pay by card for one or more property advertisements, they don't need to add company details but may benefit from multiple advert sorting, editing, renewing as they may be selling one or more house. ( so in reality they should be treated no different to agents).
- So when they register they should only need add. Name, Email and possibly phone. Anything else is just clicks and information that will stop users from registering.

The second type of seller user is agents, developers etc. Now they just need to register a company as well, or be registered with a company. The reasons for this are to show their logo, group their properties in the 'manage properties' area and to allow a company admin to monitor them. The other reason would be to get a VAT invoice though everyone should get the same.
- So when these people register they should first need Name, Email and Phone. (see how it's the same as the direct sellers).
- They then need a way to add company information. So the form needs a check box asking if they are part of a company. Checking this would Ajax load the company details you require, but also save their added details to the user list so if they don't complete registration you can contact them with marketing stuff.

So you see the two forms needed for the two groups are in reality identical. What you have is a convoluted and confusing way of doing things. To put this in perspective I have been sat here for a day after install trying to figure it out, the reason I can't is that it isn't logical.

Now the next thing that needs addressing is that companies need to have a way to be restricted to offline registration only. I want them to add their details, click 'sign up' then complete this offline. The reason for this is what happens if someone fraudulently signs up as a competitor as they can do it online. The problem with this is that when I tried to add a company from the back end I got an error. I think it said I was already an agent but I'm not, I'm a super user. Maybe super users should be blocked from being able to access the component as a 'registered user'.

The other issue with login is creating a company and a new user at the same time. The system then doesn't allow me to add properties as that logged in user. What happens if I'm a single person agency? I'm effectively locked out!

Other things on the site look good so I'm hoping you can address these bits as they are serious threats to user retention.

Kind regards

Jools

P.S. you also have far too many boxes to click and tick when adding a property. Again this is a threat to user retention.
P.P.S there is no pay button after the stripe card entry details (serious threat to getting paid)
P.P.P.S The select Fetaured add on the payment page is a radio button, surely standard should be selected then there should be an option to boost views with a featured????

Hi

Totally agree with the above about the registration flow.
Back in 2013 and 2014 there was som communication about this "issue" with the registration flow. Some of the things have been addressed and some not.

As I see it there are three types of persons/people that should be registring.

1. Buyer's: (Joomla unregistred or registred user).
   
   
2. Owner: User who have one or more properties to sell or this could also be a company without agents.


3. Company: User who have a larger company with one or more agents that sell properties. Of course the company admin (the CEO) also should have the ability to add properties and to add agents.

@Julian Taylor wrote:
So the first set of sellers 'owners" realistically will register and pay by card for one or more property advertisements, they don't need to add company details but may benefit from multiple advert sorting, editing, renewing as they may be selling one or more house. ( so in reality they should be treated no different to agents).
- So when they register they should only need add. Name, Email and possibly phone. Anything else is just clicks and information that will stop users from registering.

This will apply for number 2 above.

@Julian Taylor wrote:
The second type of seller user is agents, developers etc. Now they just need to register a company as well, or be registered with a company. The reasons for this are to show their logo, group their properties in the 'manage properties' area and to allow a company admin to monitor them. The other reason would be to get a VAT invoice though everyone should get the same.
- So when these people register they should first need Name, Email and Phone. (see how it's the same as the direct sellers).
- They then need a way to add company information. So the form needs a check box asking if they are part of a company. Checking this would Ajax load the company details you require, but also save their added details to the user list so if they don't complete registration you can contact them with marketing stuff.

This will apply to number 3 above.

So hopefully the team of OSProperty will be considering to change the registration flow in the component.

and more better (I speak for myself here) it could just be one form to fill out with dependent fields for owners and companies.

Register as:
a) Buyer - "Normal" Joomla registration (ex. Name and E-mail)
b) Owner - "Normal" Joomla registration + Phone number.
c) Company - "Normal" Joomla registration as Owner + fields for company information

Regards
Stephen

I agree with Stephen on this.

The simpler the registration the better. It's well known that the more clicks you have and the more info you ask for then the less likely you are to have a succesful registration.

The only thing I would disagree on is having multiple options for registration, this leads to confusion which leads to users going to other websites.

Having thought more about it over night I would think that it is as follows.

USERS
- Buyers
- Sellers
- Company Admin

Where sellers could be owners or agents. Ultimately they are just someone who lists a property, they want the same features and should be treated the same.

So the first step for all is to register. I would use the joomla login and keep it simple, then there is only one login form. After registering you go to a (or have access to) a profile page. On here you see your saved properties, favourites and any other things you want as a buyer but you also see a massive button saying "sell your property now!".

Click on that button and you then go to the list your property page and the only info you should mandatorily need on this is Price, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Property Type, Sale or rent, Description, Add Photo's and Address. Those should be on the first tab and at the bottom of the page is a big button saying "List Property". Clicking that takes you to a payment page (in the case of owners) where they choose a package and enter credit card details. Job done property listed which goes into the edit property list now.

Going back to your profile page after registration next to the "sell your property now" button should be a "register your agency" button. A user clicks this then adds a short profile and bio about the agency, simple things like address, phone, skype etc etc. Clicks create and that's it. This user has to have the ability to post and manage properties themselves and also to manage / add new agents. They should therefore have two pages, one "edit /manage" with theirs and every agent that works for them's active properties on it. The other page is "edit / manage" agents where they add new agents, remove old agents and update emails for the agents and passwords and stuff.

As Agents=sellers=direct sellers the page that the Agent sees when logging in can be the same as the one that you have designed for direct sellers. The only difference need be that there's no credit card payment system as the agency would pre buy credits.

This way is simple yet powerful. There is no choice you have to make as to what you are defined as in the systme, the choice is either sell or buy, this is what users understand and will increase sales.

Hopefully @Dang Thuc Dam will join this conversation soon and represent the company.

Jools

Hello
"Property Type and Listing Type are opposite of what is expected.
Property types should be the actual type of property, house, apartment, condominium etc, and Listing type should be - For Sale, For Rent, For Lease
These changes would make the component much easier for everyone to use."

I agree with Stephen. I need this too

Dam, could you tell me please, do you plan to do this ?

Hi Dam

I'm still hoping the items I outlined in the original post can be added or that I can somehow pay for that feature.

The main thing I need right now is the switching of the Property Type and Listing type so I can expand my listings.

Is there any chance of that happening? If it requires a custom mod or fee can you please let me know?

I have to renew the component and would like to know if the change is possible.

Thanks

Hi,
My idea to improve Property adding form. We will have 3 cases:
* Case 1 - Disable payment
The property adding form will be simple with almost important fields at first tab.
Tasks: Save/Apply/Close

* Case 2 - Activate payment

Step 1 - Add your property for
Task: Publish property (Go to step 2) / Close

Step 2 - Pay to publish property
Task: Complete payment / Close

* Case 3 - Active membership Pro integration.

Step 1 - Add your property
Task: Publish property (Go to step 2) / Close
Step 2 - Subscription
User will able to select their existing Membership subscription plan or purchasing subscription plans before come back to this step to activate their properties.

Please let me know how do you think about this improvement.
Thanks
Dam