Reminders before mandates and bond approvals expire
The staff reminders the Real estate pack sends before a viewing, before a mandate runs out and before a buyer's bond pre-approval lapses.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Real estate businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Most lost mandates are not lost to a better agency. They are lost to a date nobody was watching. The sole mandate runs out on a Tuesday, the seller hears nothing, and by Friday a competitor's board is on the lawn. Or a buyer's bond pre-approval quietly lapses in the middle of negotiations, and the offer that looked certain has to wait for the bank all over again.
These are not hard problems. They are calendar problems, and they belong to whoever happens to remember. The Real estate pack in Achekam's Industry CRM takes three of those dates off people's memories and puts them in front of the right person in good time.
Three dates, four reminders
The pack reminds staff at these points:
| What is coming | When the reminder goes |
|---|---|
| A viewing | The day before |
| A mandate's expiry | 21 days before, and again 7 days before |
| A buyer's bond pre-approval expiry | 14 days before |
All of these go to your staff, not to the seller or the buyer. Their job is to prompt a conversation that a person then has.
A reminder can only be as good as the date behind it. A mandate with no expiry date recorded, or a pre-approval whose end date was never captured, gives the pack nothing to count down from. Make capturing those dates part of taking the mandate and qualifying the buyer, not something done later.
The day before a viewing
A reminder the day before a viewing gives the agent time to confirm with the seller that the house will be open and presentable, check that the visitors are still coming, and make sure keys, alarm codes and any access arrangements are sorted. It also catches the double-booked afternoon before it becomes a problem. And if a viewing has to move, the day before is still early enough to tell the visitors politely, rather than leaving them waiting at a locked gate.
Mandate expiry: two warnings, two purposes
The first mandate reminder arrives 21 days before expiry. That is the time to look honestly at the listing. Has it had viewings? What has the feedback said? Is the price still right? If the answer is that the property is close to selling, the conversation with the seller is about extending the mandate. If it has been slow, the conversation is about why, and what would change if it were extended.
The second reminder, 7 days before expiry, is the deadline for having had that conversation. If the seller has agreed to extend, the new mandate should be signed by now. If not, the agency needs to decide what happens to the listing. A listing in the pack moves through Appraisal, Mandate signed, On the market, Under offer and With the conveyancer to Registered or let, or is Withdrawn. A mandate that ends without renewal is a listing to move to Withdrawn, so that your pipeline does not keep showing a property you can no longer sell. For South African agencies, the PPRA's page on the Property Practitioners Act offers downloads of the Act, its regulations and the code of conduct for property practitioners.
When the seller will not extend
Some sellers will say no, and the second reminder is there so that you hear it while the mandate is still yours. Ask why, and write the answer down: price, too few viewings, a rival agency's promise, or a change of plan. Return keys and remotes, and confirm in writing the date the mandate ends. A seller who leaves on good terms often comes back when the other agency's promise has not worked out, or recommends you to a neighbour. A seller who leaves after weeks of silence does neither.
Bond pre-approval: fourteen days' notice
Many buyers arrive with a bond pre-approval from their bank, or a mortgage pre-approval in Nigeria or Kenya, and it does not last forever. The pack reminds staff 14 days before a buyer's pre-approval expires.
That fortnight is enough to act. The agent can ask the buyer to contact their bank or bond originator for a renewal, check whether the buyer's circumstances have changed, and, if an offer is being negotiated, make sure the timetable in the offer allows for it. A buyer who discovers the lapse on the day they sign is a buyer whose sale may slip by weeks.
E-mail and in-app, nothing else
Industry CRM reminders arrive by e-mail and inside the app. There is no SMS or WhatsApp channel. For agents who live on their phones, that means two things: make sure their e-mail reaches their phone, and make opening the app's reminders part of the morning routine.
Reminders to customers follow stricter rules
The reminders above are for staff. Wherever the Industry CRM does send a reminder to a customer, it works differently: each customer reminder stays off until a workspace administrator switches it on, it is sent at most once, and the number sent is limited by a daily cap.
That design reflects a sensible rule for any agency. Messages that go to sellers and buyers carry your agency's name, so someone with authority should decide to turn them on, and nobody should be on the receiving end of the same reminder twice.
Putting the dates to work
Start with your current stock. Go through every active listing and confirm that its mandate expiry date is recorded; then do the same for each buyer whose pre-approval you rely on. From then on, the first reminder will arrive before the problem does. To see where every listing stands while those dates approach, use the listing pipeline; for South African sales already under offer, the paper offer and closing checklist show what is still outstanding.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
