Creating your first property import

We've made creating property imports simple by taking you through a step-by-step wizard:

Step 1: Create a new import

From the 'Import Properties' screen you can get started by choosing the 'Import type':

Automatic - For property imports from CRMs that you wish to have running in the background and updating automatically.

Manual - If you're looking to do a one-time upload of properties in a BLM or CSV file. Useful if migrating from another system or CRM.

Step 2: Import details

Select the CRM / Format

There are over 50 formats to choose from:

Find the CRM you wish to import from and you'll be presented with some additional options depending on the format you've selected.

For example, choose '10ninety XML' and you'll be asked for a URL to the XML:

However, choose 'Street API' and you'll be asked different information:

We have guides available for each individual format outlining what information is required, where to obtain this information, and any requirements or caveats specific to that format:

LIST ALL FORMATS HERE along with what's expected in terms of branch info

Branch information

If your agency has multiple offices setup under 'Property Hive > Settings > Offices' you'll likely want to assign properties to the correct office when they're imported.

On the left are the offices setup in Property Hive.

On the right is a text field to enter how that office will be coming through in the data from the CRM. The tricky thing here is that each CRM sends office information differently.

Sometimes it'll be a simple number (1, 2, 3), sometimes it'll be a long code (2sfdf5w2sdsf) and other times it'll be the office name (Aberdeen Office).

In the CRM-specific guides above we include what information is expected for this branch information and examples.

If no office can be found we'll assign properties to the 'Primary' office specified under 'Property Hive > Settings > Offices'

Additional options

Imports come with a wide array of advanced options available. These are all optional and can be left as their default values.

Here you can select how often the automated imports should run.

The default is 'Daily', but you can also choose also choose 'Every 15 minutes', 'Hourly', 'Twice daily' or 'Exact hours'.

If you choose 'Exact Hours' you'll be presented with the ability to enter the hours it should run:

When a property is removed from the third party feed then we'll in turn take if off the market in Property Hive so it then doesn't show in searches.

If you'd prefer to not remove properties and to keep them on the market you can enable this option.

Over time, as properties come on and off the market, you could potentially end up with thousands of old properties sitting in Property Hive.

As a result, we offer a number of options when it comes to what to do with properties when they're removed.

By default we will set this to 'Remove all media except the first image'. This is what Rightmove do. We feel this to be the best option because this ensures:

a) The property URL still exists and doesn't result in 404 errors (bad for SEO).

b) The majority of the media is removed bar one photo.

c) If someone does land on the page at least there is still an image, albeit the only one.

Depending on the number of properties you have you might want to change this.

If you'd like to receive email alerts every time an import finishes containing a complete log of what happened during the import, simply enable this option (disabled by default) and enter the email address where the report should be sent.

Depending on your server configuration and the number of imports and properties and the CRM you're importing from, it's possible that you'll see a spike in CPU resources and a decrease in response times whilst an import is running.

If you do, to try and alleviate this we provide the option to pause/sleep between doing a certain number of records to give the server a chance to catch up.

If you have multiple imports set up you'll have the option to give them a name.

Maybe you import properties from multiple agents, or have a different CRM for different offices or departments.

By naming it you can quickly see at a glance from the main imports table which import is which.

Step 3: Custom field mappings

How to map custom fields

In step 3 you'll have the ability to 'map' the values that come in from the CRM, to the custom field values that exist in Property Hive.

In the screenshot above we can see on the left that the first availability that can come from the CRM is 'forSale'. On the left therefore the relevant option has been chosen from the list of availabilities set up in Property Hive which is 'For Sale'.

Adding custom/additional mappings

When setting up an import we'll fill the custom field sections with the default and most common values we see sent by the CRMs.

In the CRM's themselves however, it's common to customise these options. For example, you might customise the property types or parking options.

As such, there's no way for Property Hive to know about these so we offer the ability to add additional mappings.

Simply click the 'Add additional mapping' link:

On the left enter the value that will come through from the CRM, and the relevant option in Property Hive on the right.

That's it!

Your import is now setup and ready to run.

Be sure to start the import running if you haven't already and look in the logs to ensure it's running ok.

Please also be sure to check out our Troubleshooting guide if you encounter any issues.