FlowFact for TYPO3

Real estate agents lose leads when properties are transferred to the website manually

An agent maintains their property portfolio in FlowFact: photos, floor plans, prices, amenity features, listing descriptions. The same data should appear on their own website, on ImmobilienScout24, on Immowelt and in printed brochures. Without automatic synchronization, someone types the data twice, forgets to update after a price change or publishes a property that has already been sold. The result: incorrect listings, frustrated contacts, lost leads.

FlowFact (part of the Hypoport Group since 2019) is one of the most widely used CRM systems in the German real estate industry. Over 10,000 agents work with it. The TYPO3 integration synchronizes properties automatically from FlowFact to the agent’s website without manual intervention. Gosign has implemented this integration for real estate offices with 50 to 2,000 active properties.

Typical use cases

Regional real estate offices with their own website. A real estate office with 3 to 10 agents manages 200 to 500 active properties in FlowFact. The website shows listings with search functionality (postal code, number of rooms, price range, property type), detail pages with image gallery and floor plan, PDF brochure download and a contact form that routes inquiries directly to the responsible agent in FlowFact. New properties appear on the website within 15 minutes, status changes (sold, reserved) are adopted automatically.

Project developers and builders. Companies marketing new construction projects need project landing pages with building descriptions, site plans and apartment overviews as interactive tables alongside property search. FlowFact provides the property data, TYPO3 the editorial environment for project texts and marketing content. Both worlds are connected via the API.

Property management with tenant portal. Property management companies use FlowFact to manage rental properties. The TYPO3 website shows available apartments, collects applications through a form and forwards them as contacts into FlowFact. Distinction: the property list automatically filters for “for rent”, not “for sale”.

Technical architecture

The connection between FlowFact and TYPO3 runs through two possible interfaces. The classic approach is OpenImmo, an XML-based industry standard for real estate data exchange. FlowFact exports properties as OpenImmo XML (manually or via scheduler), a TYPO3 importer reads the files and creates records. Extensions like openimmo (by justimmo) or custom importers process the XML structure.

The more modern approach is the FlowFact REST API (since FlowFact v3). The TYPO3 server retrieves property data, images and contacts via HTTP requests and synchronizes them into the local database. Advantages over OpenImmo: real-time capable (polling every 5 minutes instead of daily export), granular updates (only changed fields) and access to FlowFact-specific data not included in the OpenImmo standard (e.g. internal notes, lead status).

On the TYPO3 side, properties are stored as records in a dedicated table (not as TYPO3 pages). Listing pages use Extbase repositories with filter functions. Detail pages are rendered through a show action that loads images from FAL (File Abstraction Layer) and displays floor plans as overlays. Map integration is handled through Leaflet or Google Maps, with geocoordinates taken from FlowFact.

Common problems and solutions

Images missing after import. OpenImmo exports reference images as filenames but do not always deliver the files. Solution: configure the export so images are embedded as Base64 in the XML or transferred via FTP alongside the XML. With the REST API, images are downloaded through separate endpoints and must be imported as FAL references in TYPO3.

Properties disappear after sync. When FlowFact deactivates or deletes a property, the TYPO3 importer must decide: delete the record, hide it or mark it as “sold”? Standard importers often delete aggressively. Solution: implement a soft delete that initially marks properties as “inactive” and only physically removes them after 30 days. This preserves SEO-relevant URLs that can point to the overview page via 301 redirect.

Contact form inquiries end up nowhere. The contact form sends an email, but the lead is not created as a contact in FlowFact. Solution: submit form inquiries through the FlowFact API as a contact with property reference. The responsible agent sees the lead directly in their dashboard. This requires the FlowFact property ID as a hidden field in the form.

Migration and version compatibility

FlowFact introduced a completely new platform (FlowFact v3) in 2019. The old version (FlowFact Classic) is still operated but receives no new features. The REST API is only available in v3. Existing OpenImmo integrations work with both versions, but the API-based approach is only possible with v3.

On the TYPO3 side, there is no official FlowFact extension with v12/v13 support in the TER. Most installations use custom importers or the openimmo extension (with adaptations). Gosign recommends switching to the FlowFact REST API during TYPO3 upgrades to v12+, rather than porting the OpenImmo XML workflow. The API-based approach is lower maintenance and enables features like real-time availability that are not achievable with XML export.

For real estate offices that feed ImmobilienScout24, Immowelt or Immonet alongside FlowFact, multi-portal synchronization is an important topic. FlowFact can export properties to all major portals simultaneously. The TYPO3 website then becomes another channel - with the advantage that the agent has full control over design and lead generation. Gosign configures the synchronization so FlowFact serves as the single source of truth: every property change flows automatically to the website and to the portals, without manual data reconciliation.

A typical FlowFact-TYPO3 integration project (property import, search function, detail pages, contact form with lead routing) is estimated by Gosign at 10 to 15 development days. Ongoing maintenance is limited to API updates and occasional adjustments when field changes occur in the FlowFact schema.