Exercise for Data Flow Diagram

"The Estate Agency is run by two senior partners, one junior partner and a receptionist. Both senior partners are well versed in all aspects of the business, but only one is engaged in valuing properties, while the other handles the clients' everyday business. The receptionist will shortly be leaving to take up a better paid post elsewhere.

The Agency has tended to deal predominantly with domestic property transactions with a few commercial properties and a little domestic property management for absentee owners. An increasing and significant volume of business is coming from a number of speculators trading in investment properties.

Enquiries are received from prospective vendors by telephone or personal call at the High Street office. Details are recorded by the receptionist on a standard form which is then placed in the In Tray of the valuer, a senior partner of the agency. The receptionist agrees a time for the property to be valued after consulting the diary of the valuer. The appointment is then written in the diary. The valuer duly calls at the time agreed, taking the form as the basis of the property valuation. She writes her valuation on the form, and verbally informs the prospective purchaser if asked.

On returning to the office she gives the form to the receptionist, who informs the prospect in writing in a standard letter, enclosing the terms of the agency for selling the property. She then places the form in a pending tray awaiting action from the prospective vendor.

On receiving written instructions from the owner to sell the property, the receptionist transfers the form to a tray awaiting the attention of another senior partner. This partner usually becomes the regular account manager for each vendor.

The partner periodically examines the tray and extracts the forms relating to the new properties for sale. He draws upon the details on the form together with his local knowledge in order to create a detailed description of the property in a standard form. As the agency has grown quite rapidly and expanded its vendor property catchment area, more and more details about the locality have been recorded in a loosely structured file. The detailed description is typed; (usually onto less than two sides of A4 paper), duplicated; a coloured photograph is attached; and copies are placed in a rack until the property is sold.

One copy is placed in the In-Tray of the valuer, who is also responsible for advertising. Once a week she produces an abstract of the standard details of all properties which the agency has been asked to sell during the previous week. These abstracts form the basis of advertisements which are placed in local papers and a regional property guide subscribed to by a number of small independent estate agencies.

She decides on the advertising strategy for each property after consultation with the Account Manager and agreement with the vendor. (Advertising is an additional selling cost).

After the Standard Details have been prepared, the junior partner compares them with the Buyer Requirements file. If a match is found, a copy of the Standard Details is sent to that prospective buyer.

In the great majority of cases, the criteria for a match are some combination or permutation of locality, type of property, price range, number of bedrooms and age. Very occasionally, an overriding preference is expressed (such as the need for a fitted kitchen, a second bathroom, a ground floor bedroom or a granny annexe).