Real Estate Lead Tracker: Progress Report

I’ve been working hard on the Lead Tracking program over the past two weeks and I am really starting to get excited about it.  It took me a while to settle on an interface that would be user friendly and easy to work with as well as expandable to include future modules/functions.  I tried 4 or 5 different setups and finally settled on this…

It’s a very simple design.  All you do is click on a function on the bottom (currently I have only List Manager, Add Lead and Import Excel File) and it’ll appear in the work area above.

List Manager

All leads will be assigned to a list to help organize everything.  To help visualize this a bit better it’s just like having 12 separate excel files for each of the past 12 months worth of leads.  The probate leads I get are from the 15th of a month to the 15th of the next month (ie Oct 15th to Nov 15th).  Also if you enter a lead manually it will be assigned to the “Single Lead” list.  Here is a screen shot of a few lists I’ve imported so far…

In the list manager you will be able to edit list details, delete lists, combine lists, export lists to excel file and view the leads within a list.  Once I get my mailing module created, you’ll be able to setup and see a mailing schedule for each list.  pretty powerful stuff!

Add Lead(s)

This feature is where you would enter leads you come by lead by lead.  It could be handy if you are going to the courthouse and pulling leads from the public records.  It’s just like an excel spreadsheet, but this data will do directly into the database instead of two a file.   By default these leads will be put into the “Single Lead” List, but you can put them in any List you’d like or create a new one on the fly.

I’m also planning on allowing the user to set default values for each field to help speed things up.  If all your leads are in NJ it should default to putting NJ in the State column right?

Import Excel File

This module is awesome!  You can take any excel file you have, no matter what you named the columns and import it into the system.  So if you have been keeping your lead lists in separate files or even in one large file you can import them right into the database no problems.

First thing you’ll do is select the file and then provide the program some information about the List

The second step will be picking the excel sheet from the workbook.  When you pick the sheet you’ll be able to see the column headings so you know you have the correct sheet.

Step three is where you’ll match the excel sheet columns with the columns in the database.

The final step is to preview and import..

and that’s it.  One of the few problems I’m having is making sure the Zip code doesn’t have a leading Zero stripped off (02781 comes in as 2781).  Not a huge problem but not ideal.

That is where I’m at right now and it’s really taking form.  I’m currently working on the advanced Lead Information module to allow for adding notes, property information and contact information.

Now that I have the framework built adding features is much easier and you’ll see a huge difference when I’m ready to release the initial beta, which will probably be in 2 more weeks.   One of the biggest challenges with software is creating the setup file and installing it on other people’s computers.  Always challenging because all computers are different.

Hope you like what you are seeing so far and as always please leave comments with suggestions, praise or helpful criticisms.

Related posts:

1. My Real Estate Quarter Year Progress Report
2. Probate Monday: Lead Tracker
3. Probate Monday #4 – Is Real Estate Involved?
4. Probate Monday #3 – Creating Your Lead List
5. What Motivation is the Key to Success in Real Estate?