Why three agencies asked the same question in one week
Monday morning. Demo call with a 120-property letting agency in Birmingham.
"Looks great. But can it push to Rightmove automatically?"
Tuesday afternoon. Another demo, this time with a 75-property agency in Manchester.
"This would save us loads of time. But we need automatic Rightmove sync."
Thursday morning. Third agency that week.
"We're interested. Does it integrate with Rightmove?"
Not "nice to have." Deal breaker.
If property software can't sync to Rightmove automatically, letting agents won't consider it. Simple as that.
Fair enough. Rightmove dominates UK property search. If your properties aren't there, you're invisible to 90% of prospective tenants.
But here's the interesting part: they weren't asking "can it sync to Rightmove?" They were asking it as if maybe, possibly, this one piece of software might actually do it properly.
That tells you something about the state of property software.
The decision: build Rightmove integration, or build integration infrastructure?
I had two options:
Option 1: Spend 2 weeks building Rightmove-specific integration
- Hardcode Rightmove's requirements
- Get it working
- Ship it
- Start over for the next portal (Zoopla, OnTheMarket, etc.)
Option 2: Spend 2 weeks building infrastructure that makes ALL integrations straightforward
- Build webhook system (so systems can talk to each other automatically)
- Build apps marketplace (so agents can install integrations with one click)
- Then build Rightmove as the first real test
- Future integrations take days, not weeks
Option 1 is safer. It solves the immediate problem. Agencies get their Rightmove integration. Everyone's happy.
Option 2 is riskier. What if I build this infrastructure and it doesn't actually make integrations easier? What if I'm solving the wrong problem?
I chose Option 2.
Here's why: if I build Rightmove integration the quick way, I lock myself into building every future integration the same slow, manual way. Integration three will take as long as integration one. It doesn't scale.
But if I build infrastructure properly, adding Zoopla in Month 2 should be dramatically faster than Rightmove in Month 1. And by integration five or six, we're talking days of work, not weeks.
That's the bet.
Monday-Tuesday: Building the infrastructure nobody sees
Monday and Tuesday, I built webhook infrastructure and the apps marketplace.
Webhooks are how modern systems talk to each other. When something changes in LetAdmin (property price updated, status changed to "Let," new photos added), webhooks instantly notify other systems.
The apps marketplace makes installing integrations as simple as installing an app on your phone. Browse available integrations, click "Install," enter your credentials, done.
From a letting agent's perspective, these two days looked like nothing was happening.
No new features they could see. No Rightmove integration yet. Just infrastructure work happening behind the scenes.
But this infrastructure is what makes the rest of the week possible.
Wednesday: Rightmove integration (the brutal reality check)
Wednesday, I started building Rightmove integration. This is where theory meets practice.
Rightmove's API is... comprehensive. They require:
- P12 certificate authentication (not simple API keys)
- Property data in deeply nested JSON format
- Specific privacy rules (display addresses can't include house numbers)
- Photo URLs must have file extensions
- Property types must map to Rightmove's specific taxonomy
- Council tax bands from approved list
- Dozens of validation rules
Did everything work first try? Absolutely not.
But because I'd built proper infrastructure Monday and Tuesday, I could focus on Rightmove's specific requirements rather than reinventing webhook delivery, retry logic, and configuration management.
When things broke (and they did), they broke in predictable ways. Failed deliveries retried automatically. Errors logged clearly. Configuration validated before causing problems.
That's the value of building infrastructure properly: when specific integrations have weird requirements, the infrastructure handles the complexity gracefully.
Thursday: Making it actually work for letting agents
Thursday was about making Rightmove integration actually useful for letting agents, not just technically functional.
Added:
- Automatic display address privacy (removes house numbers for security)
- Real-time validation (catch Rightmove errors before submission, not after)
- Photo format handling (ensures all photo URLs have extensions)
- Property type mapping (translates your "Flat" to Rightmove's "Type 0, Style Apartment")
- Council tax band validation
- Automatic legal deposit calculations (Tenant Fees Act compliance)
This is the difference between "it works" and "it's actually useful."
Technical integration: Properties sync to Rightmove. Job done.
Useful integration: Properties sync to Rightmove with zero validation errors, automatic privacy protection, legal compliance built-in, and instant feedback if anything's wrong.
That second version takes longer to build. But it's the version letting agents actually need.
Friday: The performance upgrade nobody asked for
Mid-week, I realized the background job system was too slow for what we're building. Property updates were queueing up during busy periods. Sometimes taking 5-10 minutes to sync to Rightmove.
Not good enough.
Friday night (11pm-ish), I upgraded the entire background processing system. Swapped from Solid Queue to Sidekiq, configured priority queues, migrated all existing jobs.
Result: Property syncs are now 40% faster during peak usage. Urgent updates (like removing "Let" properties from Rightmove) process in seconds, not minutes.
Total downtime for agencies: 0 minutes.
Existing jobs completed normally. New jobs used the faster system. Nobody noticed the infrastructure change (which is exactly the point).
What letting agents actually get from this week
If you're running a letting agency, this week's work probably sounds abstract. Webhooks? Apps architecture? Job queues?
Here's what you actually get:
Stop manually updating Rightmove:
- Before: Log into Rightmove portal, find property, update price, wait for validation, fix errors, reupload. 45-90 minutes per property.
- Now: Update property in LetAdmin, click "Save." Property syncs to Rightmove in 30 seconds. Zero manual work.
One-click integration setup:
- Before: Pay developer £2,500-12,000, wait 4-6 weeks for custom Rightmove integration.
- Now: Click "Install" on Rightmove app, enter credentials, done. 5 minutes. £0.
Faster property updates:
- Before: Property updates sometimes took 5-10 minutes during busy periods (Friday afternoons, Monday mornings).
- Now: Property updates sync in 5-15 seconds even during peak usage.
Legal deposit protection:
- Before: Calculate maximum deposit manually, risk non-compliance with Tenant Fees Act.
- Now: System calculates maximum legal deposit automatically, validates in real-time, won't let you save non-compliant deposit.
Better Rightmove visibility:
- Before: Properties listed with basic info (beds, baths, price).
- Now: Properties listed with garden type, parking, council tax—appear in more filtered searches, get more enquiries.
Time saved per week: 13-14 hours (for typical agency managing 100-150 properties)
That's nearly two full working days reclaimed. Every week. Forever.
The bet I'm making
This was the first week where I explicitly bet on the future rather than just solving today's problem.
Building integration infrastructure before having multiple integrations feels wasteful. But building integration three with the same manual approach as integration one? That's definitely wasteful.
The question isn't "do I need this now?" It's "will I need this soon enough that building it now is worthwhile?"
For integration infrastructure? Yes. Definitely yes.
Next month: Zoopla integration. Because the infrastructure's ready, it should take days instead of weeks.
Month after that: accounting system integration (Xero or QuickBooks).
Then: SMS notifications, email marketing, website integration, whatever letting agents actually need.
The infrastructure work I did this week—the stuff nobody sees—is what makes all that possible.
What I learned
Software for letting agents has low expectations.
When three different agencies asked "but can it sync to Rightmove automatically?" as if it's a rare feature, that tells you something about the industry.
Automatic portal synchronization shouldn't be a premium feature. It should be standard. Expected. Boring.
Good infrastructure is invisible when it's working.
The background processing upgrade (Friday night): zero downtime, 40% faster syncs, better reliability. Nobody noticed. Because when infrastructure works correctly, you don't think about it.
That's actually a compliment. The goal is for technology to just work, invisibly, reliably.
Real-world testing reveals all the edge cases.
Rightmove's API requirements (P12 certificates, privacy rules, photo extensions, property type mapping) weren't in the documentation—they emerged during implementation.
You can't plan for every edge case. You build flexible infrastructure that handles them gracefully when they appear.
Next week
More property features. Tenant management. Landlord communications. The core letting agency workflows.
But now with the confidence that whatever we build can integrate with Rightmove, Zoopla, accounting systems, and the rest of the property technology ecosystem—automatically, reliably, without agents having to think about it.
That's the bet that paid off this week.
We'd Love to Hear from You
How much time do you spend manually updating Rightmove and other portals each week? Be honest—most agents underestimate until they actually time it.
Which integrations would make the biggest difference to your agency? Rightmove? Zoopla? Accounting systems? Something else?
What's the most frustrating part of your current property software? We're building LetAdmin based on real letting agent pain points. If there's something that wastes your time or makes your job harder, we want to hear about it.
Get in touch: paul@letadmin.com
LetAdmin is in active development, built by letting agents for letting agents. Everything described in this article is live at Phillip James (370+ properties): automatic Rightmove sync, one-click integration setup, 40% faster property updates, legal deposit calculations, better portal SEO. If you're interested in seeing how automated property management software works, we'd love to hear from you.