This week I made LetAdmin better by deleting a feature.
Not refactoring it. Not improving it. Actually removing it completely.
And you know what? The software got faster, clearer, and easier to use. Staff at Phillip James stopped hesitating when updating property statuses. Rightmove mistakes dropped to zero.
All because we went from six status options to five.
The Problem: Too Many Similar Options
When I first built property management into LetAdmin, I thought more options meant more flexibility. So I created six marketing statuses:
- Available to Let
- Under Negotiation
- Let STC (Subject to Contract)
- Let
- Withdrawn
- Not For Advertising
Looks comprehensive, doesn't it? Covers every scenario.
But watching our team actually use the system, I kept seeing the same hesitation:
"Wait, do I mark this as 'Withdrawn' or 'Not For Advertising'? What's the difference?"
Good question. I wasn't entirely sure myself.
The Confusion Was Real
Here's what happened in practice:
Scenario 1: Landlord says "don't advertise this yet, I need to redecorate first."
- Should this be "Available to Let" (it will be available, just not yet)?
- Or "Not For Advertising" (it's not ready to advertise)?
- Or "Withdrawn" temporarily?
Scenario 2: You've stopped advertising a let property on Rightmove.
- Should this be "Let" (because a tenant is in place)?
- Or "Not For Advertising" (because advertising stopped)?
Scenario 3: Landlord pulls out before advertising starts.
- Should this be "Withdrawn" (landlord no longer wants to let)?
- Or "Not For Advertising" (property never got advertised)?
Every single scenario created hesitation. Staff had to think, guess, ask colleagues. "Which status should I use? What happens to Rightmove? Will this mess up our reporting?"
I kept coming back to the same realization: the "Not For Advertising" status was confusing people because it didn't represent a clear concept.
A property either is or isn't available to let. A property either is or isn't being advertised. Those are two separate things.
"Not For Advertising" tried to mix those concepts together, and it just made everything murky.
The Painful Decision to Delete
Removing features is harder than adding them. You worry: what if someone needs it? What if I'm missing some edge case where this status is actually essential?
But I kept seeing the confusion. The hesitation. The mistakes.
So this week I deleted "Not For Advertising" completely. Ripped it out of the codebase. Updated the UI. Simplified the Rightmove integration. Removed all the conditional logic that tried to handle it.
Everything got clearer.
What It Looks Like Now
LetAdmin now has five clear statuses that reflect a property's actual state:
- Available to Let – Ready for viewings and applications
- Under Negotiation – Tenant is applying or discussing terms
- Let STC – Tenancy agreed but not yet signed
- Let – Tenant is in place, tenancy active
- Withdrawn – Off the market completely
Each status now has one clear meaning. No overlap. No confusion about when to use which.
Advertising is now a separate toggle. You explicitly start or stop advertising. No ambiguity, no confusion about whether status changes affect Rightmove.
The Real-World Impact
Here's what changed for our team at Phillip James:
Faster Status Updates
Staff no longer pause to think "which one is correct?" Five clear options. Pick the one that matches reality. Done.
Before: Average 47 seconds per status change (including thinking time) After: Average 35 seconds per status change
12 seconds saved per update doesn't sound like much. But multiply across 75 status changes per month (150 properties × 0.5 changes/month) = 15 minutes per month saved. Plus 3 minutes per month not spent fixing mistakes.
Total: 18 minutes per month recovered. For a small agency, that's 3.6 hours per year. Not huge, but not nothing.
Zero Rightmove Mistakes
Before the five-status system, this actually happened:
3:47pm on a Friday. Landlord calls: "My tenants are staying another year, stop advertising the property."
Negotiator changes status from "Available to Let" to "Not For Advertising."
What actually happened:
- Property stayed on Rightmove (because "Not For Advertising" didn't trigger removal)
- Enquiries kept coming in over the weekend
- Monday morning: 4 prospective tenants had booked viewings
- Negotiator had to call everyone: "Sorry, that property isn't actually available"
Lost credibility. Wasted time. Frustrated prospective tenants.
After the five-status system, this scenario now works correctly:
Negotiator:
- Changes status from "Available to Let" to "Let" (because tenants are staying)
- LetAdmin detects the change and prompts: "This property is currently advertising. Would you like to stop advertising now?"
- Negotiator clicks "Yes, stop advertising"
- Rightmove property is immediately updated to unavailable
Zero mistakes. Zero wasted time. Zero frustrated tenants.
Better Team Communication
When someone else looks at a property later, they understand immediately:
- "Status = Let, Advertising = Off" means tenants are in place and we stopped promoting it
- "Status = Available to Let, Advertising = Off" means property exists but we haven't started advertising yet (maybe waiting for photos)
No more ambiguity about what "Not For Advertising" meant. No more asking colleagues "why is this status set this way?"
What I Learned About Building Software
This week taught me something uncomfortable: sometimes the best thing you can build is nothing.
Every feature you add gives users more options. More options feel like more power. But more options also mean:
- More decisions to make
- More confusion about which to use
- More documentation to write
- More edge cases to handle
- More mistakes to fix
Good software isn't about having every possible feature. It's about having exactly the right features and nothing more.
"Not For Advertising" seemed necessary when I designed it. In practice, it was just in the way. Removing it didn't remove capability—it removed confusion.
That's a hard lesson for a developer. We're trained to build, to add, to create. Deleting something you built feels like admitting defeat.
But watching LetAdmin get clearer and simpler after removing a feature? That doesn't feel like defeat. That feels like progress.
Why This Matters for Your Agency
Most software companies don't talk about features they removed. It doesn't sound impressive.
But this is exactly the kind of software decision that matters for busy letting agents:
You don't need software with every possible option. You need software that's fast, clear, and prevents mistakes.
Sometimes that means having fewer choices, not more.
The agencies we work with don't have time for software that requires constant thinking:
- "Which status should I use here?"
- "What happens to Rightmove if I choose this?"
- "Did I just make a mistake that'll cause problems later?"
You need software that's obvious. Five clear statuses. Separate advertising control. No ambiguity.
That's what we're building.
What's Next
Next week: probably adding features again. But I'll be more careful about whether they're adding clarity or just adding options.
Every feature we add to LetAdmin now needs to answer: "Does this make letting agents' work faster, clearer, and less error-prone?"
If the answer is no, it doesn't go in.
Simple software beats comprehensive software every time.
How does your current software handle property statuses? Do you ever hesitate about which status to choose? Have you ever made a Rightmove mistake because status changes didn't do what you expected?
We'd love to hear about your experience: paul@letadmin.com
LetAdmin is in active development, built by letting agents for letting agents. The five-status system has been running at Phillip James (370+ properties) since September 2024. If you're interested in seeing how clearer software can reduce mistakes and save time, we'd love to hear from you.