Instructed on Monday, still not live the following week
The vendor signed on Monday and wanted to be on Rightmove by the weekend. The photographer was booked for Thursday, but the vendor was not in, so it moved to the following Tuesday. The floorplan came back with the wrong room labels. The EPC had expired and nobody noticed until the listing was nearly ready. The vendor's approval of the description sat unread in their email.
The negotiator knew each of these things, but only by piecing them together from four email threads. The vendor just knew it was not live.
Why launches drag
A listing launch involves several suppliers and the vendor, each doing one small thing, in an order that matters. There is usually no single checklist that shows where each instruction is. The negotiator books things when they remember, and each supplier works to their own diary.
Some steps can happen in parallel and some cannot, and when they are managed by email, everything tends to happen one after another.
| Launch step | Common hold-up |
|---|---|
| Terms signed | Vendor has not returned the agreement |
| Photography and video | Access, weather, rebooking |
| Floorplan | Corrections needed |
| EPC | Expired or missing, found late |
| Material information | Vendor has not completed it |
| Description and vendor approval | Draft waiting in the vendor's inbox |
The cost of a slow launch
Vendors judge an agent by how quickly their home appears online, especially after the promises made at the valuation. The first days on the portals are when interest is highest, and a launch that drifts past a weekend loses some of that. Negotiators spend time chasing suppliers and vendors instead of booking viewings.
Slow launches also bunch up. When several instructions arrive in the same week and each one waits on the same photographer or the same vendor paperwork, the branch ends up with a batch of listings going live together after a quiet spell. That makes it harder to give each one proper attention in its first week, and it makes the branch look inconsistent to vendors who talk to each other.
The launch checklist we build
- Instruction trigger: when an instruction is created in the CRM, a launch checklist starts with every step your office uses.
- Supplier booking: photography and floorplan appointments are requested from your suppliers with access details and vendor availability collected by a quick form, so the first booking is more likely to stick.
- EPC check: the public EPC register is checked for the address. If there is no valid certificate, the step is flagged on day one.
- Vendor actions: terms, material information and description approval go to the vendor as simple links, with reminders.
- Asset collection: photos, floorplans and documents from suppliers are gathered against the listing, not scattered across emails.
- Status view: the negotiator and branch manager see every instruction's launch progress and the single thing blocking each one.
Suppliers who have their own booking systems can be connected where they offer an API; otherwise requests go by email in a consistent format.
What the negotiator notices
Instead of four email threads, one checklist per property. The expired EPC is found on day one, not day eight. Vendors get fewer chasing calls because the links remind them. The branch manager can see which listings are waiting and why, and can step in before the vendor rings.
Over time you also learn where launches usually stall. If most delays come from vendor paperwork, you can collect it at the valuation. If a particular supplier often needs rebooking, you can see that too. The checklist turns a vague sense that launches are slow into a clear picture of which step to fix.
Does this happen in your branch?
- New instructions regularly miss the launch date promised to the vendor.
- Supplier bookings are arranged by phone and email.
- Expired or missing EPCs are found late.
- Vendor approvals of descriptions and photos sit waiting.
- Nobody has one view of which listings are waiting on what.