About Realty Automation

Realty Automation was among the first companies to provide property management software starting in 1978. Since the days of C/PM and DR-DOS, Realty Automation provided a complete, simple and stable solution that saved time and money. By the end of the 1980s, it was a leader in the industry and IPM was the "WordPerfect 4.2" of DOS property management.

The introduction of Windows 95 changed the industry. While Windows 3.1, GEM Desktop, and Norton Navigator had lacklusters acceptance as graphical desktops, Windows 95 was a major hit, and suddenly a new standard.

Robert Maxwell moved the company from California to Idaho and began working on the Windows generation of IPM. Frankly, Realty Automation did not have deep pockets, and lost its leadership position to companies that were better-funded and quicker to move to the Windows environment. Development environments like "Visual Basic" made it easy for newcomers to develop new programs fast, and diluted the market. Momentum and leadership are easy to lose, and hard to restore. Fortunately Realty Automation had thousands of loyal users, and growth continued steadily if more slowly.

In 2006, Robert Maxwell started looking for a way to prepare Realty Automation for 64-bit Windows, and the moving target of 21st century property management. He was also starting to think about a less active daily role in the company. He had many offers for the company. Most wanted the valuable good will and invaluable customer database amassed over the years, but Bob didn't think this was the best way to serve his customers.

That's when Bill Bennett came into the picture. With a decade of experience growing an automation software company in Florida, Bill brought expertise that fit well with the needs of Realty Automation. Bill and Bob saw many of the opportunities facing the company in the same light. Foremost was communications with current and potential customers. That has been Bill's first target. That meant a revamp of the website. In fact, the new company went under the name FullHouse Software to match the well-known website.

Our next goal was the 2007 update to Investment Property Manager with hundreds of enhancements requested by our users. And now we've released two new versions of Investment Property Manager designed to accommodate new features and functions as you need them. IPM Classic provides continuity for IPM 2007 users moving to 64-bit PCs, and IPM 10 is the first ground-up rewrite in nearly two decades. We're ready for 64-bit Windows, PDAs, online services, and whatever else may be coming in a dynamic, ever-changing business environment.

We're excited about the second 30 years at Realty Automation, now FullHouse Software! We hope you are, too.

About Realty Automation

Three Decades of IPM