Delay This article will run through what delay times are, why and when you would use them and where you would use them.
What Are Delay Times?
Delay times are a collection of settings that will affect how your ideal week will calculate what inspections are displayed when a tenant is trying to book a new inspection online.
It won’t affect any inspections that are manually created either using the run wizard or clicking the New Inspection button. It also won’t affect inspections that are created using property listing software (ie. MyDesktop, Console etc).
Why Would You Use Delay Times?
Delay Times allow users to dictate exactly what inspection times they want available and how many inspections will be offered for a property on any given day based on the Ideal Week set up.
Using Delay Times, an agent is able to maximise their time by knowing that their inspections are being organised automatically and that they will suit their needs, as only the times they have set will be available.
When Would You Use Delay Times?
Delay Times would be used when using the ideal week to handle inspections.
A Delay Time may be created for various team members or various properties that have different requirements, such as inspection duration or max inspections per day.
Where Will I Find Delay Times?
1. To find the Delay Times setting for your office, while logged into InspectRealEstate, click the Settings tab > Letting > Delay Times.
2. On this page, you can see all of the Delay Times you have set up, as well as a brief explanation of what each column means underneath. For a more detailed explanation of these columns, please see the glossary at the end of this guide.
Who Can Use Delay Times?
Any agent is able to benefit from a Delay Times setting, as long as they have an ideal week set up.
Only Diamond users can view and edit the Delay Times settings however.
If you are not a Diamond user and would like to know what the delay times are for your office, you can ask your Account Manager.
DELAY TIMES COLUMN GLOSSARY
Inspection Interval (minutes): Affects what interval between inspection start times will be displayed when booking an inspection using the ideal week.
Align to Start: This option affects whether or not inspection times will be aligned to the start of your ideal week availability. For example, if on a Monday you are available for inspections between 12:15pm and 2:00pm, the first inspection displayed will be 12:15pm, and if your Inspection Interval is 10 minutes, then it will go 12:25pm, 12:35pm etc. If this isn’t selected, Inspection Times will be aligned to the beginning of the hour (12:00pm, 12:10pm etc.), regardless of your ideal week availability.
Neighbour Interval (minutes): This option will determine the inspection times that will be advertised when an inspection for another property has been booked. Eg. if you have a 30 min neighbour interval, and a property has an inspection booked for 12:00 PM, then only inspection times 30 minutes before and after 12:00 PM will be offered for other properties. Travel Times will also apply though, so if you wouldn’t be able to make it to an inspection in time then it won’t be offered.
Inspection Duration (minutes): This option will affect the duration of an inspection.
Duration Adjustment (minutes): This number determines how many minutes will be added to an inspection when properties are linked together. For example, if you have 4 properties linked together and your inspection duration is 10 min and duration adjustment 5 min, then the total time for the inspection created will be 25 mins. This is because the property being booked will apply the normal inspection duration, and then each linked property will apply the duration adjustment.
Maximum Duration (minutes): This value determines how long an inspection can last when linked properties are added to an inspection time.
Delay Before Inspection (calendar days): This option determines, in calendar days, the length of time before an existing inspection that a property will not be open for any more bookings. If this option is set to 0, then multiple inspections may be able to be booked for a property each day.
Delay After Inspection (calendar days): This option determines, in calendar days, the length of time after an existing inspection that a property will not be open for any more bookings. If this option is set to 0, then multiple inspections may be able to be booked for a property each day.
Saturday Override: If this option is selected, the Delay Before and Delay After Inspection values will not apply to Saturdays. This option is only useful if the Delay before and after are set to more than 1.
Max Inspections per Day: The maximum amount of inspections that can be booked for each property every day. This will only apply if 'Delay After Inspection' and/or 'Delay Before Inspection' are set to 0.
Time Between Inspections (minutes): This option refers to the time in minutes before and after an inspection that the property will not allow further inspections to be booked. This will only apply if 'Delay After Inspection' and/or 'Delay Before Inspection' are set to 0.
Delay From Vacate/Avail Date (days): This option, measured in days, affects how long after the available/vacate date that the property will be open for inspections.
Allow Tenanted Inspections: This option set to anything other than “no” will allow prospective tenants to book inspections for a property before it is vacant. If “Selected Properties” is chosen, then tenanted inspections will not be allowed by default for new properties with this delay time, and must be manually selected. If “All Properties” is chosen, then tenanted inspections will be allowed by default for new properties with this delay time, and must be manually deselected.
Tenanted Delay From Now (days): This value determines how long after the Current Time that new Inspection Times will not be offered for a property that isn’t vacant. This delay is to allow for an agent to issue an Entry Notice to the current tenant. This option only applies when “Allow Tenanted Inspections” is selected.
Delay Between Tenanted (days): This option, measured in days, will determine how long before and after an existing inspection time for a property that new inspection times will not be available when it is tenanted. This option is only applicable if “Allow Tenanted Inspections” is selected.
Backup Inspector Delay (days): This value, measured in days, sets how long a property can receive no Inspection times before a backup inspector is made available for vacant properties.
Backup Delay Tenanted (days): This value, measured in days, sets how long a property can receive no Inspection times before a backup inspector is made available for tenanted properties.
Maximum Tenants: This option determines how many tenants will be able to book into existing inspections. This will not apply if an inspection is added via your property listing software.
Maximum Tenants (Tenanted): This option is the same as the previous column, except it applies to properties that are not yet vacant. This will not apply if an inspection is added via your property listing software.
Delay (New) (minutes): This option, measured in minutes, affects how long from the current time that new Inspection Times will no be offered for a property. Eg. If set to 30 and it is currently 1:00 pm, then inspections will be available from 1:30 pm and onwards. This option only applies if “Cut Off Time (New)” is blank.
Cut Off Time (New): If this time is not blank, then prospective tenants won’t be able to book new inspections for that day. Also, after this time on the same day, prospective tenants won’t be able to book new inspections for the next day. If this time is blank, then the “Delay (New)” column will apply.
Delay (QuickReg) (minutes): This option, measured in minutes, affects how long from the current time that new Inspection Times will be available from the QuickReg screen for a property. Eg. If set to 30 and it is currently 1:00 pm, then inspections will be appear from 1:30 pm and onwards. This option only applies if “Cut Off Time (QuickReg)” is blank.
Cut Off Time (QuickReg): If this time is not blank, then QuickReg won’t include times for that day. Also, after this time on the same day, QuickReg won’t include times for the next day. If this time is blank, then the “Delay (QuickReg)” column will apply.
Delay (Existing) (minutes): This option, measured in minutes, affects how long from the current time that existing Inspection Times will be available for booking for a property. Eg. If set to 30 and it is currently 1:00 pm, then existing inspection times after 1:30 pm and onwards will be available. This option only applies if “Cut Off Time (QuickReg)” is blank.
Cut Off Time (Existing): If this time is not blank, then prospective tenants won’t be able to book into any existing inspections that day for that property. Also, after this time on the same day, existing inspections won’t be available for the next day. If this time is blank, then the “Delay (QuickReg)” column will apply.
Weekend Blackout: When this field is selected, tenants will not be able to book an inspection for a property that was shown on a Saturday until after the Blackout End Time. This only applies to times after the inspection; before the inspection, prospective tenants will still be able to book into the existing inspection.
Blackout End Time: This field determines what time on Monday the Weekend Blackout will end. After this time, tenants will again be able to book into inspections.
Internal Times Only: When this box is selected, only staff will be able to see inspection times using the IRE program. Prospective tenants will not be able to book any inspections themselves.