Why the spreadsheet fails at exactly the wrong moment
A shared sheet works fine on a quiet Tuesday. It fails on launch day, which is the only day that matters, because the failure mode of a spreadsheet under concurrent edits is two people both believing they hold 1408, and neither finding out until one of them takes a deposit.
Four states, and what each one means
Available is stock anybody can sell. On hold is a short, timed claim by one agent while a client decides. Reserved is a committed claim, usually with a deposit behind it. Booked is done. The important property is not the list. It is that the state is single valued and the system enforces the transitions.
- Available: open stock
- On hold: timed, single agent claim
- Reserved: committed, usually with deposit
- Booked: closed
Holds need an expiry
A hold without a duration is a permanent block that somebody has to remember to release, and nobody does. Timed holds return the unit to available automatically, which keeps stock honest without anybody policing it.
Atomic means the second attempt fails immediately
This is the part worth testing on a demo. Two agents, same unit, at the same time: one should succeed and one should see a rejection at the moment they try. A system that queues both, or that accepts both and reconciles later, has not solved the problem. It has moved it to the day of the booking.
The project record around it
Developer, community, starting price, unit mix, payment plan structure, handover window, escrow details and commission. These are what an agent needs to answer a client question without opening a brochure, and what a manager needs to decide which launch to put the team on.
Connect leads to projects
When a new phase releases, the list of people to call already exists, provided leads were linked to the project they enquired about. If they were not, somebody rebuilds it from memory and the list is worse.