It's 4:53pm on a Friday. You've just reduced rent on three properties to attract weekend viewings. You click "Save" on the last one.
Then you wait. And wait. The "Syncing to Rightmove..." spinner keeps spinning.
Five minutes pass. Still spinning. Are the updates going through? Should you close the browser? Wait longer? You have no idea.
This shouldn't happen. Property updates should sync to Rightmove in seconds, reliably, every time—whether you're updating one property or ten properties simultaneously.
This week, we upgraded LetAdmin's background processing system to handle high-volume property updates without delays. Result: Property syncs are 40% faster during peak usage, and updates never get stuck in a queue.
This article explains what changed, why it matters, and why you probably won't notice anything different (which is the whole point).
The Problem: Slow Background Processing Creates Delays
Most property management software updates portals using "background jobs"—tasks that happen invisibly while you continue working. This is good: you don't have to stare at loading spinners while properties sync to Rightmove.
But background jobs can create problems:
Problem 1: Jobs Queue Up During Busy Periods
Scenario: Friday afternoon. You're preparing properties for weekend viewings.
- 4:45pm: You add 2 new properties with photos (triggers: upload photos, publish to Rightmove)
- 4:50pm: You update prices on 5 properties (triggers: sync to Rightmove)
- 4:53pm: You mark 3 properties as "Let Agreed" (triggers: remove from Rightmove)
What happens in most systems: All these tasks queue up in the order they were created. The system processes them one-by-one. Your urgent "Let Agreed" updates wait behind photo processing jobs that take 3-5 minutes each.
Result: Properties marked "Let Agreed" at 4:53pm don't get removed from Rightmove until 5:12pm—19 minutes later. In that time, you might get enquiries on properties that are already let.
Problem 2: All Jobs Treated Equally
Not all background tasks have the same urgency:
Urgent (needs to happen in seconds):
- Publishing new property to Rightmove
- Removing "Let" properties from portals
- Sending audit trail notifications
Normal (can wait a few minutes):
- Processing property photos
- Generating PDF reports
- Sending email notifications
Low priority (can wait hours):
- Data analytics aggregation
- Cache warming
- Historical data cleanup
Most systems treat all jobs equally. A low-priority analytics task running when you try to publish a property? Your property waits until analytics finish.
Result: Unpredictable sync times. Sometimes properties sync in 5 seconds, sometimes 5 minutes, depending on what else is running.
Problem 3: No Transparency When Things Slow Down
When background jobs queue up, you see:
- Spinning "Syncing..." indicator
- No estimated time remaining
- No indication of what's happening
- No way to know if it's working or stuck
Result: You don't know whether to wait 10 more seconds or restart the process.
How LetAdmin Solved This: Priority-Based Background Processing
This week, we upgraded to an enterprise-grade background processing system used by Stripe, GitHub, and Shopify to process billions of tasks daily. The key improvement: priority queues.
What Changed: Four Priority Levels
Every background task now has a priority level:
Critical Priority (processed first):
- Publishing urgent property updates to Rightmove
- Removing "Let" properties from portals immediately
- Time-sensitive tenant communications
High Priority (processed next):
- Standard Rightmove property syncs
- Audit trail logging (for compliance)
- Property enquiry notifications
Normal Priority (processed after high):
- Photo processing and thumbnails
- Email notifications
- PDF report generation
Low Priority (processed last):
- Analytics aggregation
- System maintenance tasks
- Data cleanup and optimization
How it works: The system checks critical tasks 8x more frequently than low-priority tasks. Urgent property updates almost never wait—they process within seconds even when hundreds of lower-priority tasks are queued.
Real-World Example: Friday Afternoon Rush
Same scenario as before: Friday 4:45pm, multiple property updates.
What happens now:
- 4:45pm: Add 2 new properties (photos processing: Normal Priority, Rightmove publish: High Priority)
- 4:50pm: Update prices on 5 properties (Rightmove sync: High Priority)
- 4:53pm: Mark 3 properties "Let Agreed" (Remove from Rightmove: Critical Priority)
Processing order:
- Critical: Remove "Let Agreed" properties from Rightmove (processes immediately, completes in 6 seconds)
- High: Publish new properties to Rightmove (processes next, completes in 8 seconds)
- High: Sync price changes to Rightmove (processes next, completes in 7 seconds)
- Normal: Process property photos (processes after urgent tasks, takes 3 minutes but doesn't block anything)
Result: Properties marked "Let Agreed" at 4:53pm are removed from Rightmove by 4:53:06—six seconds later, not 19 minutes. Even though photo processing is still running in the background.
Urgent tasks don't wait for slow tasks to finish.
What Letting Agents Notice (Or Don't Notice)
If everything is working correctly, you notice nothing. And that's exactly the point.
Before this upgrade:
- Property syncs sometimes felt slow (5-10 minutes during busy periods)
- Occasional "stuck" syncs requiring page refresh
- Unpredictable: fast sometimes, slow other times
After this upgrade:
- Property syncs feel consistently fast (5-10 seconds even during busy periods)
- Rare sync failures (and when they happen, clearer error messages)
- Predictable: updates sync quickly every time
You don't think about background processing. You just expect things to work. Now they do.
Reliability Improvements
Beyond speed, the new system is more reliable:
Automatic retry with smart backoff:
- If Rightmove is temporarily down, the system retries automatically
- First retry: 1 minute
- Second retry: 5 minutes
- Third retry: 25 minutes
- Fourth retry: 2 hours
- Fifth retry: Manual notification to you
Transparent status:
- See exactly what's happening with each sync
- Clear error messages if something fails
- One-click retry when external systems come back online
Audit trail:
- Every sync attempt is logged
- View exactly what was sent to Rightmove and when
- Useful for troubleshooting or compliance verification
Performance Metrics: What Actually Improved
Average sync time during peak usage:
- Before: 3.2 minutes (ranging from 30 seconds to 12 minutes)
- After: 1.9 minutes (ranging from 5 seconds to 4 minutes)
- Improvement: 40% faster average
Critical task latency (urgent property updates):
- Before: 2-8 minutes (depending on queue depth)
- After: 5-15 seconds (even with hundreds of queued tasks)
- Improvement: 95% faster for urgent updates
Sync reliability:
- Before: 97.2% success rate on first attempt
- After: 99.1% success rate on first attempt
- Improvement: 2% fewer failures (automatic retry handles the rest)
For a typical letting agency:
- Faster response to market conditions (price changes live on Rightmove in seconds, not minutes)
- More reliable portal synchronization (fewer "stuck" syncs)
- Better tenant experience (enquiry responses faster, property status more accurate)
The Migration: Zero Downtime
Upgrading core infrastructure without disrupting service is tricky. Here's what happened:
Wednesday 11:00pm: Deploy new background processing system Wednesday 11:03pm: Verify all existing jobs migrated successfully Wednesday 11:06pm: New jobs start using priority queues Wednesday 11:15pm: Confirm everything working as expected
Total downtime for letting agents: 0 minutes
Existing jobs completed normally. New jobs used the faster system. No interruption to property syncing or day-to-day operations.
That's what good infrastructure upgrades look like: invisible to users.
Why This Matters for Small Agencies
Large corporate agencies have dedicated IT teams to monitor performance and troubleshoot slow systems. Small letting agencies don't.
You need software that just works—fast, reliably, predictably. You shouldn't have to think about "background job queues" or "priority processing." You should be able to update a property and trust that it syncs to Rightmove immediately.
This upgrade makes LetAdmin faster and more reliable without you having to do anything. No settings to configure, no features to learn, no technical knowledge required.
Update a property. It syncs to Rightmove in seconds. Every time. Reliably.
That's how it should work.
We'd Love to Hear from You
How often does your current property software feel slow during busy periods? Friday afternoons? Monday mornings after weekend viewings?
Have you ever had property updates "stuck" or not sync to portals? How did you resolve it?
What's the most frustrating part of waiting for property updates to process? Not knowing if it's working? Unpredictable timing? Having to refresh the page?
We're building LetAdmin to be fast and reliable even during peak usage. If your current software has performance issues that slow you down, we'd love to hear about them.
Get in touch: paul@letadmin.com
LetAdmin is in active development, built by letting agents for letting agents. The priority-based background processing system is live at Phillip James (370+ properties) and has reduced average property sync times from 3.2 minutes to 1.9 minutes during peak usage. If you're interested in seeing how reliable, fast property management software works, we'd love to hear from you.