Database design for Home Sweet Home property rental management

Business Database Technology

Scenario

The focus of this project is to design a database program for a company called Home Sweet Home that specializes in the management of properties on behalf of owners. The company offers a complete rental service for customers willing to rent furnished properties. The services delivered by the Home Sweet Home include advertising of properties in then local and national press. The company also carries out the interview and organize visit to prospective renters as well as negotiating the lease agreement. Once a customer rent a property, the company assumes the responsibilities of carrying out the regular property inspection.

Entities are the object used to track the database, and each entity is stored in the database. The entity assists in designing the ERD (entity relation diagram). This paper identifies the entities that need to be used in the database design for the Home Sweet Home. The principal entities needed in the design of ERD (entity relation diagram) are as follows:

Entities

Branch office: The Company has branch offices scattered across the United States.

Staff: The company staff is in charge of day-to-day administration of the company.

Staff next of Kin: The person very close to a member of staff.

Property for rent: The properties that the company offers to customers.

Property owners: They are the people who own the properties, which the company offers for rent.

Renters: These customers pay for the properties.

Property Viewings: Customers are required to view properties before paid for properties.

Property advertising: The company also offers the adverts in the local and nation press.

Lease agreements: the company the term of the lease draws this.

Property inspections: The company carries out regular inspections of properties to properly maintain properties.

Entity Relationships

Entity relationships express relationships between entities of a database and the power of the ERD is the ability to accurate display information among the entities relationships. The entities of the Home Sweet Home ERD provide the following relationships.

Property -- Branch Office

Branch Office -- Staff

Staff -- Staff Next of Kin

Property for rent -- Property owner

Branch Office -- Rental Details

Staff -- Managerial Staff

Property owner -- Property viewing

Branch Office -- Property Advertising

The entity relation diagram in Fig 1 provides the complete entity relationships of the Home Sweet Home ERD design.

Fig 1: Home Sweet Home ERD

Reference

Hoffer, J.A. Ramesh, V. & Hiekki Topi, H.(2012). Modern Database Management (10th Edition) . Prentice Hall.USA.