Creating a persona
Once a lead has a contact record, the lead detail view moves on to creating the contact's persona - the role the contact plays: sales applicant, lettings applicant, vendor or landlord. Which one you create is determined by the original enquiry, so the lead's status names that specific role throughout (for example Creating vendor) rather than the generic word "persona". The button that opens the panel reads Capture property requirements for a sales or lettings applicant; a vendor or landlord has no button there, since linking or adding their property - not creating the record itself - is the next thing you do, from the lead's Property section. Once the persona is created, the lead's status badge reads Qualified, since creating the persona is what qualifies the lead.
Sales applicant
For a sales applicant the button opens a Property requirements panel, holding the same form used when registering a sales applicant from a contact record: the buyer profile first, then property type, bedrooms and budget, then folded sections for anything else the buyer mentions, and notes last. See How do I register a sales applicant's property requirements? for what each field captures. Department is only shown when your organisation has more than one; a single department is used automatically. Primary owner (required) is the negotiator accountable for the applicant, and starts on the contact's negotiator; if the contact has none, pick one before creating the applicant. You can optionally add Secondary owners to cover when the primary owner is away.
Some of the form is filled in for you:
The budget comes from the enquiry's own budget where one was provided.
Where the enquiry names a property, its type and bedroom count are used as the property type and minimum bedrooms. If the enquiry gave no budget, the budget is set to 10% either side of the property's price, rounded to the nearest £5,000 (£10,000 from £500,000).
A message at the top of the panel lists what was filled in for you, for example "Property type, bedrooms and budget have been added based on the applicant's initial enquiry". Select the x to dismiss it. Pre-filled values are only a starting point: change anything the buyer tells you is different. Nothing you have already typed or cleared is overwritten. If you change the Department, the property type and minimum bedrooms are worked out again for the new department, unless you have changed them yourself.
If you close the panel, or move to another lead and come back, what you typed is kept until the applicant is created. It is not kept if you reload the page.
Select Create sales applicant to save the requirements and create the applicant record, linked to the contact. If the contact has no office on file, the panel says so below the form, and nothing is created until that's fixed elsewhere on the contact.
Lettings applicant
For a lettings applicant the panel asks for:
Department - only shown when your organisation has more than one; a single department is used automatically
A rent range - pre-filled from the enquiry's budget where one was provided. The field shows the £ symbol as you type and formats the amount with thousands separators once you move off the field; rent accepts pence.
Select Create lettings applicant to create the applicant record, linked to the contact. If the contact has no office or negotiator on file, the panel says so below the form, and nothing is created until that's fixed elsewhere on the contact. A lettings applicant's requirements aren't captured beyond the rent range yet.
Vendor or landlord - select the property first
A vendor or landlord is tied to the property they're selling or letting, so before the persona can be created you must identify that property. A property already in Reapit is linked straight from the lead, in its Property section (between Contact details and Communication history). A property not in Reapit yet is added in a panel, opened with Add new property beside the search.
A landlord additionally needs the contact's office on file - if it's missing, the Property section and the panel tell you so before offering anything, since there's nothing to do until that's fixed elsewhere on the contact.
Check the suggestion. A vendor or landlord usually gives the address of the property in their enquiry, so the Property section first checks whether the address given in the enquiry is a property in Reapit (for sale for a vendor, to let for a landlord). If it is, the section says so and shows that property's card. Select Link property to use it, or Not a match to search for a different one instead.
Find the property. In the Property section, start typing the address or postcode in the search - after a couple of characters it offers up to five matches. Each match shows the property's photo, price, type and rooms, its marketing status (such as For sale or Under offer) and the name of its current vendor or landlord, so you can tell the right record from a similar one - for example, one already held by a partner or relative. It only offers properties relevant to the role - properties for sale when creating a vendor, and properties to let when creating a landlord. A property marketed as both for sale and to let is never offered, for vendor or landlord - add it as a new property instead if it's not already split into two separate records.
Choose the property from the matches. The search is then replaced by a property card - its photo, price, address and key facts - so you can check it's the right one. Select the card to open the property in a new tab without losing your place. To choose a different one, select Change property beside Link property and search again.
If nothing matches, the search says so and offers Add new property, which opens the panel to add it.
For a vendor, the panel holds the full Create property form, the same one used on Sales > Properties - see How do I create a property for sale?. The vendor is the lead's contact, so there is no vendor to pick; Use vendor's address fills the address from the contact's own, and is hidden while the address already is theirs. The office and negotiator default from the contact. The form lays out in one column in the narrow panel and two on a wider page. Select Create property (in the panel footer, beside Cancel) to add the property and then the vendor record for it. If the vendor record fails, the property is kept - select Retry, and a second property is not created.
For a landlord, the new-property form keeps fields to a minimum - the property address, a department (shown only when your organisation has more than one; a single department is selected automatically), and the managing office(s) and negotiator. Capture the address by looking it up - start typing a postcode or address and pick from the results (a postcode result opens onto the addresses at that postcode) - or select Enter address manually to type building name/number, address lines, postcode and country yourself. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*): the first line of the address, the department, and the office and negotiator. Full property details can be added later, after the market-appraisal visit.
An owner's own address is very often the property they're selling or letting. Where the contact has one on file, a Use vendor's/landlord's address button sits below the address - select it to fill every address field in one go (switching the form to show them, if it was still showing the lookup search box), then adjust anything that's different. It's hidden when the contact has no address recorded.
Selecting Add property in the panel briefly shows the button as busy while the address is located. Picking the address from the lookup gives the property its exact position; an address typed in by hand is located from its postcode instead, which is accurate to the street rather than the building. That position is also used to work out which of your areas the property sits in, and the area is recorded against it. None of this is something you fill in, and none of it can stop the property being created - if the address cannot be located, or it falls outside every area you have set up, the property is still created without that detail.
The office and negotiator default from the contact, so you normally don't need to change them - but you can adjust them here before creating the property. You can choose more than one office (each shows as a chip below the field - select a chip to remove it), and one negotiator. The property's marketing type (for sale for a vendor, to let for a landlord) is set by the role and isn't editable.
If a required field is missing when you select Add property, the form highlights what's needed rather than creating an incomplete record.
Select Link property below the property card, or Add property (Create property for a vendor) in the panel. Link property creates the vendor or landlord record for that property - choosing a property on its own changes nothing, so you can change your mind first. Add property sits at the bottom of the panel, beside Cancel, and adds the new property and then creates the record for it. Select Cancel to leave without adding anything.
Landlord - the landlord record is created and linked to that property automatically.
Vendor - the contact is attached to the property's vendor record as the main vendor. (Creating a selling property automatically creates its vendor record, so no separate vendor record needs to be made.)
There's no way to change the property once it's linked or added - if the write fails, a Retry button repeats it. If you picked the wrong property but the write succeeded, unlink it and link the right one: see Unlinking a property from a lead below.
Unlinking a property from a lead
Once a vendor's or landlord's property is linked, the lead's Property section shows it as a property card, with Book market appraisal and Unlink property below it (Unlink property stays once the appraisal is booked). Select Unlink property, then confirm in the dialog. This unlinks the contact from that vendor or landlord record. Both the lead and the property remain in place, and the section goes back to the property search, so you can link the right one. If unlinking fails, the dialog stays open and shows the reason; closing and reopening it clears the message.