Well, that break for Christmas certainly went quick didn’t it?! We’re halfway through January already and back into the swing of things but let’s not be forgetting 2015 too quickly!

Our little break over the holiday (which was lovely by the way!) gave us a great opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come this year and just how much the company has grown! We’ve gone from being focussed on app development into being a digital agency that can help property professionals in a whole manner of ways online.

From responsive websites to social media management, if it’s online and strengthens your business we can do it. However, it wasn’t just us that’s gone through some changes.

Back in April we witnessed “Mobile-geddon”! Google, noticing that we’re all spending more time on our tech and mobiles (up to a staggering 156.3% of a 9-hour period, thanks to multi-screen browsing), decided to start penalising websites that don’t live up to the mobile standard. It’s for reasons like this we only offer responsive websites, we want you to get the most from your online presence.

2015 was also the year we at Estate Apps took our first steps into the world of PropTech events. We started it off with the Proptech event in London’s Rain Making Loft, giving us an insight into the future of the property industry. It was a great networking opportunity that first got us in touch with a certain Gary Chimwa, but more on that later.

We had the pleasure of connecting with Agent VOX via social media. The team at VOX provide a video communication service that helps agents add a more human touch to their communications. Not only are the team over there lovely, they were kind enough to invite us to talk at VIDEA15. This was our first public presentation but based on its success (and the success of the event in general) we quickly started exploring more opportunities to do it again.

A little after this, Gary Chimwa began talking to us about his latest venture “Future: Property Tech”. He needed help getting the site up and running as well as a brand designer to make everything look professional. We jumped at the chance to be involved in something with so much potential and we weren’t disappointed! Gary Really delivered, putting on a great show with some amazing speakers and selling out the venue in the process. We’re really looking forward to be part of any future collaboration with him and can’t wait to see what he’s got in store next.

We saw no reason to stop there though! We were lucky enough to be part of the “Agency Essentials” conference in Manchester along with other suppliers, Fixflo, Touchright, Docusign and Veco. Although it was only a small event, it was still great networking opportunity and allowed the attendees to get a better insight into how to digitally provide a better service to their clients.

Closing out the year, we gave a talk at the NAEA Christmas conference in Essex. We were invited to talk on the benefits of social media for estate and letting agents but more than that it was a really nice way to get us into the Christmas feeling! They couldn’t have looked after us better and they must have enjoyed what we had to say as we been asked to give more in-depth talks at other NAEA conferences over 2016! Result!

All-in-all, 2015 was full of surprises and took us Estate Apps in many different directions that we might not have expected in 2014. We spent a lot more time networking and meeting with people from every corner on the property industry and in the process, we haven’t just made new business contacts, we’ve made new friends (many of which may have been aided by a beer or two!)

It already been a crazy start to this year but we can’t wait to see what the rest of 2016 has in store for us! We have lots of new developments in the pipeline and we’re going into the rest of this year with great optimism.

Most of all though, we look forward to working with you along the way. Have a great 2016!