HI-TECH SERVICE LOOKS TO FUTURE - Newspaper article 1st April 2004

Walton and Hipkiss is proud of its long history – but there’s no way the company is tied to the past.
Dynamic and forward thinking, the agency uses state-of-the-art technology to provide a service that is second to none.

When a house comes onto the market, house-hunters who have registered their details receive a text message alert by mobile phone.    The message gives them the full address of the new property, the asking price, and the address of the Walton and Hipkiss internet web site where they can access the full details.

The award-winning site was designed by self-taught computer whiz Andrew Hipkiss with feedback from members of the public.   Andrew said: “We asked people what they wanted, and the most important request was for the site to be continually updated.  “So it’s now updated four times every day.

“The public also wanted to see lots of photos of each property. So we now take up to 60 pictures of each home that is for sale, and we even provide computer-generated floor plans, as well as posting really comprehensive information on the web site.

“At the top of the home page, our new instructions scroll across, informing the customer of what’s coming on to the market.

“Here at Walton and Hipkiss, we make the computer work for us, rather than working for the computer.

“The public trust this web site, because they know it’s right up to date, and that confidence is reflected by the fact that we are high up on the search engines.!

Andrew’s hard work in designing the web site paid off when the company was awarded first place for ‘ease of use’ in the Golden Web Awards (from the International Association of Web Masters and Designers).

Vendors can rest assured that their property details are forwarded by computer automatically within 24 hours to several other larger property web sites, including fish4homes.

Property brochures are printed in-house and draft details, including pictures, can often be produced for approval on the same day.

Some estate agents take up to a week to produce such details, so this is a definite advantage of using Walton and Hipkiss estate agents.

“We are dedicated to making all of our information completely up to date at all times”, said Andrew.
“We are always looking for ways to move forward and improve ourselves”.