Intro & Presentation
Tim Kartheuser:
I am Tim Kartheuser, real estate agent and valuation expert.
We have real estate agencies in Mettmann, Velbert, and Ratingen.
Lennart:
What is your position in the company?
Tim Kartheuser:
I am the founder and managing director together with my partner, Berry Reuter in Ratingen, and I am a bit like the team's coach—at least that's how I see myself—and I try to continuously develop our services.
Lennart:
You have several locations—I'm sure you also have several employees. How many are there?
Tim Kartheuser:
We have a total of 15 employees who have contact with customers, and we work with a good 20 people. We are very proud to have such a large and well-trained team. We generate around 30 to 40 million in real estate sales.
Lennart:
Are the employees permanently employed or are they HGB?
Tim Kartheuser:
We only employ staff who are subject to social security contributions. This means that we have team members who work exclusively for us and are truly integrated into the team.
Lennart:
Do you still go out yourself? Are you still on the front line?
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes, of course. And that's how it should always be. I want to know how our way of working functions. I want to know how our pipelines and our processes function. I want to maintain customer contact. Over time, there have been very different developments in customer preferences. Recently, there have been significant shifts that are noticeable—and you can only see that when you're with customers and get direct feedback from them.
Of course, I do a lot of purchasing and presenting our services to customers, but I also still sell individual items myself. However, I am very happy that we have such a good team that I can cover for each other and fall back on our tour.
The role of the website
Lennart:
What is it like in the administrative area when we talk about the website? That's not really the front line anymore. Do you do that too, or how is it divided up among you?
Tim Kartheuser:
I would say that I am very familiar with all the essential tools we use—and of course the website is a very, very crucial and important one for us—and that I understand how they work and how they are used very well myself. And I think that's absolutely essential—to know how things work. I can't make the final adjustments myself, I admit—but at least I know what the tools can do and how we can link them together effectively.
Before Ynfinite
Lennart:
You've been using our system for a while now. What was the situation like before? Can you still remember what you were working with before?
Tim Kartheuser:
I remember it very well, of course – because even before that, I knew things very well and can remember them clearly.
We worked with a WordPress website and sold real estate using FlowFact as our CRM system at the time. And there was a moment—a period of time—when we decided we wanted to be completely cloud-based. So we changed our CRM and, in the process, put the website to the test and questioned everything.
We questioned our way of working and made sure that we understood our processes together with the team in the course of various digitization workshops – and one very important point was, of course, lead generation via a strong website of our own.
We are fortunate to have a very old domain – that is, it worked at our original location in Velbert because it was the usual game. But now we are here in Mettmann, our newest location. My goal was always to say: We want this to be scalable and easily repeatable and replicable for potential new locations.
That was important back then because we had a system that was difficult to use, costly to update, and costly to maintain—where I always had the feeling that you had to be an IT technician to understand it all. And I just didn't feel like doing that. That's not as agile and not as quickly scalable as I imagine it to be.
All the tools we use are completely browser-based—we don't have a server. That means I can easily scale, edit, and further develop everything.
Why Ynfinite?
Lennart:
How did you find out about us back then?
Tim Kartheuser:
I thought about that while preparing for our conversation today, and I can't really give you a reasonable or clear answer.
Of course, in the course of these digitization workshops—as we called them internally, because we said: We don't want to simply digitize poor analog processes, we want to truly digitize processes in order to rethink them and make them better – so we looked at what options were available, which websites we could use.
Of course, Ynfinite was one of them. I think I also looked at what relevant colleagues were doing – in order to find the best practice in the traditional way.
And after talking to Daniela, it became clear relatively quickly that this would be the website of our choice.
Lennart:
What impressed you about Daniela?
Tim Kartheuser:
Firstly, she is a very good, friendly salesperson. But that wasn't the deciding factor in choosing Ynfinite.
The criterion was quite clear: I wanted something that could grow with us—and that real estate professionals would understand, so that I wouldn't need to have my own software technician on staff to explain how our system works.
That's what we had with the telephone system – no one could understand it. And it was a bit like that with the old website: it wasn't really clear what I had to write where so that it would appear there.
And, of course, very important for me: with growth and new locations in mind, I need something that brings me leads organically. And that was – and is – most likely to happen for me with Ynfinite.
The decision-making process
Lennart:
The process from "you get to know Dani" to "you sign an offer and get started" – how did this decision-making process work? Do you still have business partners you need to consult with?
Tim Kartheuser:
First of all, we have business partners, of course, but secondly, we also have a team that has to support us. That means we naturally considered what options we had – and based on the conversation with Dani and the offer, we said: "Guys, take a look at this. Can you imagine it?" Do you find it interesting?" The team naturally found it interesting because change is exciting and because movement is exciting. We are all very dynamic and enjoy it. In that respect, I didn't have to convince anyone – but I had to present it, I was happy to present it, and then the decision was made relatively quickly.
Onboarding and implementation
Lennart:
So you got started. Then you have to go through an onboarding process. Did you help design it yourself, or were your team members involved?
Tim Kartheuser:
Both.
We did it together with the team, but I also supervised and went through it myself again and again. It wasn't always easy—I have to say that in retrospect. I'd be lying if I said, "We started it once, and then everything went exactly as I wanted it to." But the result – and that's also valuable, because we weren't completely satisfied and approached you with our dissatisfaction – was resolved. And the result is something we are now very, very satisfied with.
Lennart:
I think the decisive factor is always: when you have an issue, how do you deal with the problem on our side? How do you accommodate each other, how do you work together? I think that's also a process – a website like this is not something that is ever "finished," but rather an ongoing project. How did you feel about the collaboration back then—in the first steps, the first weeks, and the first months? And perhaps also: How do you feel today about how we are handling it?
Tim Kartheuser:
That was actually years ago. In that respect, there have also been significant developments on your side. It's nice to see that there has also been... no... the support has been expanded. We have more contact persons – and the contact persons are also more specific and individually responsible. But the process was always such that – even if we were very dissatisfied, and these were more presentation issues – it was addressed.
And if I had felt dismissed, we wouldn't be here today. Then I would have clearly revised my decision and said:
"Guys, sell this to someone else—I don't want it."
Scalability & favorite features
Lennart:
Since you started using the program, it has grown tremendously and gained an incredible number of new features.
Are there any favorite features that you would say you really love about Ynfinite?
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes—on the one hand, that we can grow along with our locations. We're adding team members— we now have three new colleagues starting with us in the next three months alone. We bring them in, and then we have the option to think further about the location issue: Do we want to add more locations? It's as scalable as I imagine it to be. That's a bit of the entrepreneurial perspectivethen the "we use it "perspective is, of course, the fact that brokers can really easily publish from Propstack – and then there's our marketing/lead generation issuethe fact that we can publish news very easily – and that this will soon be actively supported by AI. These are features that I really like – and that the team really likes too. I asked about this again today.
Feedback from the team
Lennart:
This is a question I had written down: How are employees responding to the website?
Tim Kartheuser:
The classic real estate salesperson asked me: "Yes, I'm totally fine with it if I don't have to deal with it."
In other words, if he can check the box at Propstack— "please transfer"—and it works reliably, then a lot has already gone very, very wellwe link online and offline and also make sure that the design works, of course. That means flyer campaigns look like the property presentation on the website – they also look like the Propstack landing page.
In this respect, everything is very, very consistent. And that is extremely important for the real estate seller, of course, because it brings them sales speed and sales success.
Lennart:
Yes.
Tim Kartheuser:
If there are no problems, everything is really good.
SEO & Marketing
Tim Kartheuser:
The SEO department—or our marketing lady—is happy that she can publish content very easily and in a very location- and topic-specific manner, and that she can also use social media from within Ynfinite. These are links that are, of course, very, very important and also used a lot.
Lennart:
Great, really good to hear. And were there any, let's say, surprising moments with your website where you thought,
"Oh yes, I didn't expect that" or "that's cool that it happened that way"?
Tim Kartheuser:
I'd say I'm relatively hard to surprise these days. So in that respect, there wasn't really an "aha" moment.
What we really see and what is really understandable—but I don't consider that a surprise, but rather the result of a structured approach—is that we have simply become much more visible. And that colleagues come up to us and say, "Wow, how do you do that? Who are you working with?" And when someone asks us, "You are a reference for us," that's a nice thing.
It's simply confirmation that we're not doing too much wrong, right?
Measurable success
Lennart:
Are there any truly measurable successes?
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes, of course. We track our access figures, of course – and they have risen significantly. That's not only due to Ynfinite, but certainly also because of it.
It's also due to recurring work and frequent publications. But we are significantly more visible. We are – beyond our original location in Velbert, where we already had very good visibility – also really noticeable and comprehensible in the new locations with the publication of the individual location pages. And these are, of course, topics that fulfill exactly what we started with, right?
Lennart:
Yes. Would you say that the investment in Ynfinite has paid off for you?
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes, definitely – absolutely. And that's because the integration of the individual tools used – with Ynfinite as one of those tools – works wonderfully. And that's a piece of the puzzle in how we work – a very important piece of the puzzle.
So in that respect, it was definitely worth it.
Lennart:
Great. Would you recommend it to others? Would you recommend it?
Tim Kartheuser:
It's only logical that I would recommend it. And the nice thing is that I would say it can be recommended to companies of different sizes. I have the location issue, which is quite important to me – as well as cross-location collaboration. That's why it's cloud-based, why only browser-only software is used. That's very important to me. But you can break it down to a single location – it works. I even see an opportunity to recommend this to different service providers.
Future prospects
Lennart:
Cool.
Do you have any specific plans for the future – where you say: That's where you'd like to go, and where we should accompany you?
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes, of course. I mentioned scalability. I would like to further develop our brokerage services – in the way that we operate them. We place great value on trained, friendly, and truly excellent colleaguesi am very proud that we have this team – but also that we offer a 100% professional service. And I would like to develop that further. To do so, we need a certain minimum size. I believe that we already meet that requirement quite well – but we could be a little bigger so that we can offer our services in an even more professional manner. In this respect, it is a clear goal to develop this further, also in terms of additional locations.
Lennart:
Really cool. I'm glad that we can accompany you on this journey – and hopefully continue to do so for a long time to come.
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes, I also hope that you still want to continue. And I hope that AI topics—as far as SEO is concerned—will be developed further. I see good potential there. And also integration with CRMs—that could certainly be even closer.
SEO & GEO (AI optimization)
Lennart:
Yes, that's a huge topic right now. We're actually almost done with the integration of the CRM. That means: If anyone sees this while we're talking, then that's already the case. On the other hand, what we're noticing more and more right now is that Google search numbers are continuing to decline. That means: SEO is becoming less relevant. In fact, GEO – the optimization of KIs – is becoming more relevant. And that's why it's actually one of our current focus areas for the future, because we say:
We definitely want to be included in the ranking, because most KIs only suggest the top three – and if you're not among them, you're completely out of the running. So this is a very, very important topic.
Tim Kartheuser:
I absolutely agree with you. For example, we are currently building specific subpages for all cities and neighborhoods within our farm that are optimized for AI searches – so that we don't lose touch, but rather the opposite: to be relatively early on the ball.
Facts & figures
Lennart:
Great. I have one last question—I know, I've looked into it, I only have a rough idea—but do you know how many leads or inquiries come in via your website per week, roughly speaking?
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes, I know exactly. But I'd have to look at this box here to be able to tell you. Then I can tell you. We are in constant competition with the paid websites – that's clear. We have a distribution of approximately: 60% via Scout, 24% via the website.
That means:
A good quarter of the inquiries we receive come from the website. It may be a direct Ynfinite inquiry – or an inquiry that comes, for example, via a flyer, a flyer campaign, or via Ogulo as a 360° tour. Once again, we see the interconnection. So: We generate a good quarter through this context – and I'm very proud of that. And of course I want to work on increasing this figure, because it's obviously much better paid and better spent money.
Conclusion
Lennart:
Absolutely, I understand that very well. Cool. Then I would say: Let's end on that note – with this cool current situation, but also with the bright outlook for the future. I'm looking forward to everything that's coming – and I would say: First of all, thank you very much for having us here and for taking so much time to answer our questions.
Tim Kartheuser:
Yes, I have to say: Thank you very much for visiting. I am very excited about the result – and I am looking forward to the future.