DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF APARTMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

An Apartment Management system is an application software developed for managing most activities that take place in the apartment with the help of apartment administrator. It is safe to say that most activities such as apartment allocation carried out in most cities in Nigeria are done manually. Therefore, there is a lot of strain on the individuals running the apartment. The goal of this research work is to provide a solution to the problem of apartment management, by designing a computerized system which is user-friendly and GUI-oriented that will be compatible with the existing manual systems. The software to be developed will solve the problem of apartment management; thus helping to reduce problems associated with the manual apartment management system.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Renting an apartment can generally be so stressful, real estate businesses usually have agents whose work is to help potential tenants find their dream homes at locations of their choice, but in the Nigeria system, the real estate business agents are usually not found in areas where tertiary institutions are located. These areas are characterized by a dense population of students who are in search of accommodation around the off-campus premises. Real estate agents would have great markets in these areas, but sadly, the stress they would undergo and other issues they face, such as low profit and others, have brought about their little attention or, most times, their absence in such areas. Considering the absence of real estate agents in off-campus areas, and the dispersed areas where students settle, the large range of varying taste of accommodation and their financial capability, it will be of great help to establish a working system to accommodate the needs and breach the gap between students and their dream apartment, while taking out the stress and the time they spend to afford this on their own, in exchange for financial gain.

Currently Student search for an apartment walking around the community where there is new and old apartment in search of a vacant accommodation, mostly during the end and the beginning of the year, these manual process of finding an apartment close to the school area is so stressful , some student might not be able to afford the money to pay for an accommodation in the new apartments and there might be vacant accommodation spaces in the old building but due to the location and lack of getting adequate information about the particular apartment they tend to overlook it, to overcome these challenges student face in getting an accommodation there’s need to create a system that will eliminate the challenges.

Considering the technological advances made in our communities and the fact that the students have better online accessibility, it will be considered a great innovation to establish an online platform where they can source for their dream apartment, with reference to their financial power and the location they would like to dwell in.

The project would act as a real estate agent for the student, particularly for the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede students in Imo state, as it will be based on the environment surrounding the institution (Nekede) and the students housing around that locality. With this project, the problem of students moving from one apartment to another, searching for one to suit their taste and their convenience would be overcome, it will enable students to search for online apartments online based on the location they would like to settle in, the price of apartment they can afford and the quality/security they want in an apartment. Lastly, the student would get a trusted and legible payment system since they get to have the contacts of the landlord or faculty manager. This project will ease off the stress students encounter when looking for a comfortable apartment off-campus.

1.3 Statement of Problem

Investigation reveals the problem of the existing Apartment Management System which entails that:

1. Records are manually written and stored in various registers.
2. Lots of human errors are encountered when records are hand-written.
3. The use of numerous registers for hostel allocation can be very cumbersome, hence tracing records become tedious.
4. Difficulty in maintaining or updating the records, hence, retrieval of a certain dataset from a bunch of registers is almost impossible.
5. Loss or damage of any of the registers leads to damage of lots of important files at a time.
6. Lack of data security.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to design and implement an apartment management application software that will ease the stress associated with the existing manual system as earlier stated using Spring Light apartment in Umuerim Community as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To create a database management system (DBMS) this allocates storage to student data and also provides security for the stored data.
2. To provide quick and efficient means for gathering the student information along with their rooms, fees, etc.
3. To find out the possible benefits that will be obtained from the new system.
4. To improve the management of student hostels in the spring light apartment.

1.5 Significance of Study

When this project work is fully implemented, it will reduce the burden students leaving off-campus in terms of searching for accommodation, thus making students big beneficiaries of this project. Besides the platform will help the Landlords who find it challenging to attract the attention of apartment seekers as they will now be able to reach out to their potential tenants and advertise their apartment even in their absence.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.6 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of Apartment Management System using Spring Light apartment in Umuerim Community, Nekede, Owerri, Imo State as a case study.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

1.8 Definition of Terms

Database Management System (DBMS): is software that enables you store, modify, and extract information on a database.

Apartment Management System: is a computerized system for managing various activities in the apartment.

MySQL: MYSQL is a relational database management system written in C and C++ that runs as a server providing multi user access to a number of databases.

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages.

Unified Modeling Language (UML): It is used to specify, visualize, modify, construct, and document the artifacts of an object-oriented software-intensive system under development.

Accommodation: A place to live or stay for convenience, especially for students at school. 

Rent: A fixed amount of money that you pay regularly for the use of a room that someone else owns.

Locations: A particular place or position.

Locality: an area or district considered as the site of certain activities; a neighborhood.

System: system is a combination or arrangement of parts to form an integrated whole. A system includes an orderly arrangement according to some common principles or rules. 

1.9 Organization of Research

This study is presented in five chapters.

Chapter One: deals with the introduction, which provides preamble or background to the study. It also introduces the study and provides relevant information on the background to the study, problem definition, objectives of study, justification and methodology of the research, definition of terms and chapter layout.

Chapter two: is a review of literature relevant to the research topic; introduction to the chapter, overview of an apartment and brief history of apartment management will be discussed. Also to be discussed are the type of apartment found in the cities and rural and a quick look on several literature on this work before ending with my proposed contribution.

Chapter three: presents system methodology which analyzes the current system, indicating the shortcomings and finding possible solutions by designing and developing a new system. System requirements and specifications are also discussed.

Chapter four: focuses on system implementation which aims at ensuring that the system works accurately and efficiently and also tested for possible errors before making it available to the users.

Chapter five: provides a summary of the findings, drawing conclusions based on the findings as well as the relevant recommendations.