Introducing Templates for Property Advisor

Templates––our new feature that lets you transform your favourite PDF formats into templates that can be used over and over again. This blog post includes everything you need to know about this brand new feature; check it out.

This Feature has been updated!!

A few things have changed since we released Templates in December 2021. Here’s an overview of what’s new:

• Templates can now be found in PDF settings! You can still navigate to it in the account settings menu.
• You can now personalise both your front and back covers directly from PDF settings; simply click on the Upload front cover button to do so. Cover personalisation can also be done at an organisational level.
• Lastly, attachments are now a part of Templates too. Drag and drop any of the attachment sections so that they appear in your export in the order that you’d like. Find out more in this dedicated post about attachments.

Templates

Storytelling is key to creating an unforgettable customer experience. Beautiful collaterals are vital to storytelling. But, to tell the right story to the right customer, you need customisation.

For context (and background), customisation options and templates aren't entirely new to Property Advisor –– before this release, you probably noticed that we simplified the Create PDF Report dialog to include appraisal and brochure templates. We also gave you the ability to include or exclude components such as socio-economics or POIs in your report. But, those features still didn't give you much flexibility and using them to customise your exports cost you a lot of manual work.

We wanted to empower you to create great collaterals efficiently. This meant giving you a way to ensure that your unique story could be reflected in the PDFs you send to your customers and prospects.

Say hello to Templates –– the feature that enables you to transform your favourite PDF formats into reusable templates.

How do I use this amazing feature, you ask? Here's a quick walkthrough that'll highlight everything you need to know.

Getting started with Templates

You can find Templates in the account settings menu.

The templates we offer can be divided into three different categories:

1. Your Templates
2. Organisation Templates
3. PriceHubble Templates.

The category aligns with the type of template. Your templates are templates that you can create for yourself to reuse. Organisation templates are templates that can be reused by all users within your organisation. PriceHubble Templates are templates created by PriceHubble and include a brochure (price at the beginning) and appraisal (price strategy at the end) option - more on the difference between the two below.

A complete list of your created templates is visible in the templates area sidebar. Creating a template is as simple as clicking on "create new template" under the Your Templates or Organisation Templates category. Once you decide on the type of template you'd like to create, the customisation can begin.

Name your template so that you can easily refer back to it later. You can also select whether all your rental PDFs display prices in gross or net amounts (this will only affect rental dossiers and has no impact on sale dossiers).

💡 Pro tip: create two rental templates, one that shows prices in net and one in gross 💡

Be sure to include a branded front cover so that all collaterals sent from your organisation have your company's look and feel. Although we offer a great automatically-generated front and back cover, we also make it easy for you to customise it. Go to account > settings to upload or change your front and back cover.

Now for the fun bit, storytelling. Design your template to suit your purpose by choosing the best layout. For example, sending a property proposal to a potential buyer –– brochure is the way to go. Need to convince your seller to go with your pricing strategy? Include it in your PDF with the appraisal layout.

All sections contained in your dossier, such as accessibility, market trends, and comparables, are mirrored in templates. Expand each section to see and make changes to the subsections below. You can also opt to leave out entire sections using the toggle.

With the all-new templates feature, you can do more than just select sections to include or exclude –– you are now able to rearrange and reorder sections as well. Reordering sections was not possible before this update. To rearrange a section's order of appearance in your template, simply drag the section you'd like to move and drop it into the order in which you'd like it to appear.

Deleting, duplicating and editing templates

Created a template that didn't end up being what you had in mind? No problem! You can edit it easily –– simply go into the template in question, make changes to the name, order etc. and complete by clicking on the save changes button below.

If you'd like to copy the exact layout of an organisational template but would like to personalise it, you can do so by duplicating it as your own template. If you'd like to copy a template but only change one or two things, don't start from scratch with a new template; duplicate an existing one, make your changes and save. Voilà!

Deleting templates that don't need to be used anymore can be done quickly as well –– click on the ellipses of the template you’d like to remove, then select delete.

The only templates that cannot be edited or changed are the PriceHubble templates –– but thankfully, you're also able to duplicate those if you'd like to copy that format.

For Organisational Admins

Admin account users can restrict other users within their organisation from creating their own templates. This is a quick way to ensure that all collaterals sent from your organisation are uniform, standard, and are in line with your company's brand.

To restrict users from creating their own templates, simply disable this with the toggle. The only thing you need to bear in mind is if you prohibit users from creating their own templates, all templates already created by those users and yourself will be deleted. So be sure that the templates you'd like to use as organisational templates going forward are saved first.

Changes from old behaviour

The introduction of templates came with a redesign –– you’ll notice that the option to manually select components is no longer visible in the Export PDF Report dialog, BUT the functionality is still there. It just works a little differently now.

You need to use a PriceHubble template in order to manually select components that you’d like to include or exclude in your PDF report. Simply select the PriceHubble template you’d like to use, either Property Brochure or Property Appraisal; then click Continue and proceed to select or deselect sections as always.

If you would like to use your own template, create one by clicking on Open template in the Export PDF Report dialog. Remember Templates can also be created in the Templates area –– go to Account Settings > Templates.

Take your templates out for a test drive

Once you've created your templates, they'll be saved and ready to use the next time you export a PDF –– just pick your template from the list of choices in the dropdown. Then, breathe in and enjoy the simplicity of sending out beautiful collaterals that tell your story!

That's it for the all-new templates! You should totally give this feature a whirl and let us know what you think by giving us your feedback.

Templates are just the beginning!

We’ve got a whole list of exciting features and improvements coming your way such as attachments for PDFs. Our next iteration will give you the ability to customise your PDFs even further by adding documents like the floor plan and other relevant materials. We’ll be communicating it here so stay tuned!