Home Realty System Problem Statement

Version 1.0





Problem Statement

As the Vice-President of Development for BC Realtors you are asked to develop a 
new home realty system. The company would like to create an e-development 
solution that will replace the home listing catalogs that are printed 
on a monthly basis, and to some extent, replace the need to generate sales 
literature for every home that is listed with BC Realtors.  The new system will 
allow prospective buyers to search the home database for current listings and to 
initiate the loan process.  Buyers will also be able to communicate with the 
listing agent to request additional information, a home walkthrough, and so on.  
Realtors will be able to list their properties on the BC Realtor system 
for a nominal fee. A prospective buyer will be able to log on to the system and 
set up a personal profile. This profile will allow the buyer to enter a set of 
personal preferences and search requirements. Buyers will also be able to 
bookmark properties to the personal planner for easy reference the next time 
they log on.
After a customer has logged on to the system they may choose to search for a 
home, find a Realtor, or apply for a mortgage loan. The customer should be able 
to search for a home in a geographic area by city, zip code, or the 
Multiple Listing Service (MLS) number. The buyer should be able to further 
narrow their search through a series of filter criteria until they find a number 
of homes they are interested in. The buyer should be able to view a picture of 
the home and receive a full text description on all the amenities and features 
that the home has to offer. Finally, if the buyer is interested in receiving 
more information on the home, the buyer will be able to send an e-mail to the 
listing broker. BC Realtors has recently invested in a new mail server, and this 
server should be used to send e-mails.
The prospective buyer has the option to apply for a mortgage loan using the Home 
Realty System. BC Realtors has an existing Loan System that communicates with a 
number of partner lenders to gain loan pre-qualification approvals. This system 
should continue to be used for sending loan requests to potential lenders. The 
Home Realty System will ask the prospective buyer a series of questions about 
their current financial standing.  After the customer has answered all 
questions, the system will send the data to the Loan System and receive a list 
of possible offers for a loan. If the customer chooses to select one of the pre-
qualification offers, the system will inform the customer that a credit report 
must be generated. BC Realtors subscribes to a Credit Reporting service, and the 
existing interface to this system should be used to provide this service.
A prospective buyer may request information on any broker that is listing 
property with the Home Realty System.  
The buyer should be allowed to view the broker's personal profile that may 
contain any type of information that the broker enters and also a summary of all 
the properties that the broker currently has listed.
Realtors must be able to access the on-line system to modify their personal 
profiles that are displayed to buyers.  
They will also need to create a new on-line listing for properties that they 
represent.  



