IT support for estate agents, Halton
IT Support for Estate Agents in Halton
For the Runcorn or Widnes branch of three to ten people, where there is no IT person, no IT budget line, and the setup has to just work. That is what IT support for estate agents in Halton has to be built around. A person picks up when you ring, the email is protected, and the price is on the page: £55 a person a month.
IT support for estate and lettings agents from a Microsoft partner, independent. Reapit, Alto, Jupix, Dezrez and Street supported, with the Rightmove and Zoopla feeds. Twenty years securing systems in regulated sectors. Run to Cyber Essentials standards. Remote first, visits scheduled.
What makes IT support for a Halton estate agency different
Halton agencies are mostly small, mostly independent and mostly running lean. That is not a weakness; it is a different set of constraints. There is no IT person, there is no appetite for a project, and any advice that starts with a big replacement gets ignored, correctly, because the money is better spent on marketing.
What works at this size is small, cheap and permanent. Sign-in security switched on properly, a backup that has actually been restored once, files that are not sitting on a single PC, and a number to ring when something stops. That combination costs less than most branches spend on portal advertising in a month and removes most of what would otherwise be a genuinely bad week.
The honest version is that a three-person branch does not need most of what an MSP sells. It needs four things done properly and left alone, and somebody who answers when the fifth thing happens.
What IT support for estate agents covers
At this size it is four things done properly and left alone, plus somebody who answers when the fifth happens. Sales, lettings, property management or all three.
Email that stops the deposit redirection
Filtering that catches emails impersonating your negotiators, the solicitor or the landlord, and sign-in security so a stolen password cannot send one. The single most valuable control an agency can buy.
Records that come back
Applicant data, tenancy files, AML records and the mailboxes backed up daily and tested by restoring something. A dead PC in the branch is an afternoon, not lost due diligence.
Access that ends when negotiators move on
Agents change firms often. Access to the CRM, the inbox and the shared drive ends the same day they do, before the applicant list walks out with them.
Somebody who knows agency software
Reapit, Alto, Jupix, Dezrez, Street. When the CRM will not push to Rightmove or Zoopla, or the branch phone line drops, you ring and a person picks up. Most fixes happen on your screen in minutes, and if it is the vendor's problem we ring the vendor.
The CRM, the portals and the phones working together
Reapit, Alto, Jupix, Dezrez and Street, the Rightmove and Zoopla feeds, the VoIP phone system, Microsoft 365 and DocuSign, set up so the inbox, the calendar and the CRM agree with each other.
Evidence for the AML supervisor
A written record of the controls, run to Cyber Essentials standards, that answers HMRC's supervision visit and the insurer's questionnaire without a scramble.
The rules an agency is judged against
Estate and lettings agents are supervised for anti-money-laundering by HMRC, so client due diligence has to be kept and produced on request, and most of those records live in the CRM and the inbox. That makes the IT question and the compliance question the same question, with UK GDPR over the top of it.
It needs no compliance department: sign-in security on, backups tested, access that ends when people leave, and somebody able to write down what is in place when the supervisor asks. The longer version, including Propertymark and what insurers ask at renewal, is on the IT support for estate agents page.
Covering Halton
Runcorn old town and the Heath, Widnes and Halton Lea, and the branches serving Frodsham, Helsby and the villages either side of the bridge.
Runcorn and Widnes branches are usually the smallest on anyone's patch, which historically meant being last in the queue for a visit. Remote-first support removes the queue: a three-person branch gets the same response as a thirty-person one, because nobody is allocating a van.
Nearly every fix is faster from a desk than from a van. When a job genuinely needs a person in the room, the visit is scheduled and it is in the quote. Estate agents, lettings agents and property managers, from a single branch to a dozen, and co-managed alongside your existing provider if you have one you want to keep.
What IT support for estate agents costs
No onboarding fee. No surprise on the invoice.
IT support for estate agents in Halton: the questions people ask first
We are three people. Is there a minimum?
No minimum. Three people is £165 a month and that is the whole price for the people side. If there is a server or network kit that needs looking after it is priced per box, and if there is not, there is not.
We do not want a big project. Can you just fix the risky bits?
That is usually the right answer. The first visit is finding out what would actually hurt if it broke, fixing those, and leaving the rest alone until there is a reason. Nobody needs a transformation programme to run a branch in Widnes.
We cannot afford downtime during the day. When would work happen?
Anything disruptive goes outside opening hours, planned with you rather than announced at you. Day-to-day fixes happen while you carry on working, because nearly all of it is remote and does not need anyone off their machine.
What is the cheapest thing we could do this month that actually helps?
Switch multi-factor sign-in on for every account, then open the backup and check when it last ran. Both are covered by licences you already pay for, both take under an hour, and between them they cover most of what actually goes wrong. You do not need us to do either.
Do we even need a server?
Often not. A lot of small-branch servers are doing a job Microsoft 365 already does, and the honest advice is to retire them rather than replace them. If there is a line-of-business application that genuinely needs one, that is different, and it is worth knowing which case you are in before anyone quotes for a new box.
How much does IT support for an estate agency in Halton cost?
£55 a person a month, covering every machine that person uses. A branch of six is £330. A phone system or network kit is priced per box on top, only if it needs looking after, and you would know the whole number before agreeing to anything.
Do you ever come out to us?
Nearly everything is fixed remotely, usually the same day, because that is faster for you than waiting for a van. When a job genuinely needs somebody in the room, the visit is scheduled in advance and it is in the quote. There is no on-site response clock, and we would rather say so than sell you one we cannot keep.
Have a chat with Eric
Fifteen minutes with Eric. Bring the thing that annoyed you most this month.
That didn’t send. Ring 0151 452 3060 and you’ll get me directly, or email [email protected].
IT support for estate agents across the North West
This is the page for Halton. For the service in general, see IT support for estate agents. Or pick the area closest to you:
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IT support for estate agents in Halton
Fixed price IT support for estate and lettings agents: a person who picks up, and the email controls that stop a deposit going to the wrong account. Ring and find out whether it is worth it; there is no obligation either way.