In developing countries like Nigeria the performance of real estate remains unsatisfactory as many residential; commercial and Office spaces are unoccupied due to the fact that Real-estate agents cannot be consulted with ease and at one convenience. Acquiring an apartment in Ilorin as a case study has been one of the most stressful task in the past few years, take for instance the process of acquiring an apartment you have to call an agent, then meet with him/her at a time that is convenient for him, if at all you get through to seeing him, you now need to pay for a form that entitles you to see the properties at hand, then, the agent takes you to see an apartment and if you don’t like that one he takes you to see another one and if at the end you don’t like it. He calls another partner of his, and then you now start virtually the whole process with the new agent after wasting your time, financial recourses, transporting the agent around.

The study will evaluate existing real estate management systems and provide a remedial solution to challenges identified from various real estate management systems by developing a real estate management web application. The system will enable clients to view the properties of their choice without necessarily going on a hunt for a property, in other words clients can always be in the comfort of their room, offices etc to check out images of the apartment on the websites as to the one of their choice and on a weekend or a free day venture to checkout for the apartment.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

As a result of certain private information expert agents may mislead their clients by exaggerating the costs or difficulty of a solution, providing unneeded services, or otherwise distorting the information to maximize the expert’s own payoff. For example, a lawyer may argue that his services are necessary in preparing a simple will, even though the lawyer would use the same off-the-shelf software a client could buy. An auto mechanic may suggest overhauling the entire engine when only a small part needs replacing. A travel agent may only mention flights on airlines which pay the highest commission rates to travel agents for booking. (Levitt and Syverso 2009). Because of specialization, individuals rely heavily on the advice of experts in making decisions. A defining characteristic of transactions involving the hiring of an expert is the informational advantage enjoyed by the expert relative to the client seeking advice.

Real-estate agents list property for sale and show prospective buyers homes and apartments that are on the market and in the location and price range desired. The basic job of an agent is to bring buyers and sellers together and to see the purchase transaction through the negotiations, agreement and closing. The agent must network extensively and know laws and procedures governing property transactions. Therefore this project focuses on achieving the task of a Real-estate agent via a web application.

This aspect of business in real estate industry involves/engages on letting of property, sale and purchase of Real Estate Assets on behalf of clients. They are involved in listing properties for sale. Real estate agencies hit balance satisfaction between buyers and sellers, as they approach each sales opportunity with victory-victory.

A real estate broker/real estate agent is considered to be one who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of properties and makes an attempt to discover sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy. (Ajaero 2013).

One thing that prompted this project is the question: How Do I Find a Property without Using a Real Estate Agent? When you are looking for property to purchase, working with a real estate agent comes with advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that your interests are represented in the purchase of the property--and the service, to you as a buyer, is free. One disadvantage is that in order to view homes, you must find time not only in your schedule but in the agent's schedule as well. When you have time, you can work on your own to find property, without the aid of a real estate agent.

Currently on the Internet there are many websites that offer some information on selling or renting homes in the country. They include: photos of the property, general location, price guide, size and general description. While this is useful information, for potential buyers it doesn’t allow them to see map description to the property.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The performance of real estate remains unsatisfactory as many residential; commercial and Office spaces are unoccupied due to the fact that Real-estate agents cannot be consulted with ease and at one convenience.

Acquiring an apartment in Ilorin as a case study has been one of the most stressful task in the past few years, take for instance the process of acquiring an apartment you have to call an agent, then meet with him/her at a time that is convenient for him, if at all see get through to seeing him, you now need to pay for a form that entitles you to see the properties at hand, then, the agent takes you to see an apartment and if you don’t like that one he takes you to see another one and if at the end you don’t like it. He calls another partner of his then you now start virtually the whole process with the new agent after waiting you time, financial recourses, transporting the agent around. Critically looking at this problem a system is developed to enables clients to log on to website to check out for properties, the user can always check images of the apartment that picks his or her interest before setting out to check the apartment. This reduces the cost of calling agents, cost of checking the house or apartment, the cost of transporting for you and the agents to the property location and you might end up not liking the apartment. This system also reduces stress of setting out to look for agents, and going about from one agent to the other to search for apartments.

The Development of this system will enable clients to view the properties of their choice without necessarily going on a hunt for a property, in other words clients can always be in the comfort of their room, offices etc to check out images of the apartment on the websites as to the one of their choice and on a weekend or a free day venture to checkout for the apartment.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

This project aims at achieving the following objectives:

To design a web application that saves cost, time and easy to access for search.
To design a web application that improves client to business relationship.
To design a web application that client and business stress and increase productivity.
To design a web application that clients can always view/ find properties of their choice even from their comfort zone.
To put an end to the stress of manual contacting a real estate agent.
To help client have a feel of an apartment, property for lease or sale without see a real estate agent.
Inquire about properties without any finding fees.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

It's always interesting to see a successful real estate agent or broker working hard and long to keep their information systems updated, their listing information accurate and closing transactions on track. ( Kimmons, 2009)

A defining characteristic of transactions involving the hiring of an expert is the informational advantage enjoyed by the expert relative to the client seeking advice. As a result of this private information, expert agents may mislead their clients by exaggerating the costs or difficulty of a solution, providing unneeded services, or otherwise distorting the information to maximize the expert’s own payoff. For example, a lawyer may argue that his services are necessary in preparing a simple will, even though the lawyer would use the same off-the-shelf software a client could buy. An auto mechanic may suggest overhauling the entire engine when only a small part needs replacing. A travel agent may only mention flights on airlines which pay the highest commission rates to travel agents for booking.

When managing a real estate agency management manually, if your client is selling non owner occupied property, you should inquire about whether she intends to do an exchange. Once, your client indicates her intention to participate in an exchange, inform the other parties to the contract about the exchange so that they can anticipate the few simple things they need to do in the transaction, but with this project once a client intends to sell or acquire a property all he or she needs to do is to upload details of the property and if one is interested in buying or renting the apartment the entire person needs to do is to fill a simple form.

In this project, we focus on designing a platform to cub such act, and the relationship between a real estate agent and a home seller. The real estate agent is likely better informed about the value of the house and the state of the local housing market than is the seller. (More formally, this information advantage might be thought of as the agent having a more accurate signal of the distribution of likely offers on the house.) .The agent has strong incentives to sell a house quickly, even at a substantially lower price, and thus may encourage clients to accept sub-optimally low offers too quickly. It improves marketing of properties. It taps into the potential of the internet. People can easily make decision from the information gotten on the internet. Potential customers and interested persons can contact the establishment and also make enquiries. Since the establishment is on the internet, information can be gotten at any time (i.e24/7).It also serves as a form of advertisement. By providing accessible information that show case their services. It enhances feedback mechanism

This simply means that customers can comment on their services without necessary knowing the identity or data of such persons.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The development of the application is centered on creating an e-business platform (TEAMELET : An agency management system) for people to gain access to updates in the world of real estate and help clients to view and search for properties from a variety of properties. The scope of study would cover all the processes involved in acquisition of property from searching for property via location, property specification etc. To contacting us at TEAMELET, making payment and issuing of receipt. This task would be achieved by using HTML (5.0), PHP, Javascript and MySql to develop the web based application. The project will be hosted temporarily on XAMPP local host server until after the designing process is completed.

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Considering the time constraint and minimal resources available, the system was developed concentrating on certain areas in Ilorin, Kwara state. Also, the full functionality of the system cannot be attained yet but could be added in the future as there will be room for scalability. Users or clients can only view properties of their choices and contact real estate managers but no real physical contact at the beginning of the search process. Users/ client can only gain access to this platform if they are connected to the internet. The description on properties on the websites may not fully satisfy the client, some will prefer seeing someone.