Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
How plot developers stop selling one plot twice
A plot offered to two families in the same weekend costs a developer trust and a sale. This post sets out a single plot register, a hold rule and a token routine that prevent it.
The GullySales team · Updated 6 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. Check the current position with your own council or adviser before you act on anything here.
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A plot is sold twice when two people are working from two different lists. The fix is one plot register that every salesman reads, one or two people who are allowed to change it, a hold that has an end date, and a token that is recorded before the receipt is written. The register is a sheet or a CRM, it does not need to be clever, and it must be the first place anyone looks before they say "yes, that one is available".
Where the double sale comes from
Look at what usually exists. A printed layout plan at the site office with coloured pencil marks. A spreadsheet at head office, updated on Mondays. And a salesman's memory of which family liked plot 47.
On a Sunday, a family stands at the corner plot on the plan. The salesman says it is free, because the pencil mark was last made on Thursday. A token paid on Saturday evening has not reached anyone. The second family goes home happy, and the first learns on Tuesday. One of them is now angry, and angry families talk to the next family.
One register, one source of truth
The register has one row per plot. Keep the columns few:
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Plot number, size, facing | As in the approved plan |
| Status | Free, held, token paid, agreement signed, loan under process, registered |
| Family and phone | The decision maker, not the person who came to the site |
| Source | Ad, board on the approach road, broker, referral, walk-in |
| Hold date and end date | When the hold started and when it lapses |
| Next step and date | What happens next, and who does it |
The status column is the one that matters. Six words, no free text. If a row says "token paid", no one else may offer that plot.
Who may change it
Salesmen ask for a hold. They do not make it. The site office, or the sales head, confirms the hold and writes the end date. When a token is paid, the person who writes the receipt also changes the status, in the same minute, and in the same place. This sounds fussy until the first double booking, after which every developer wants it.
On a layout with many salesmen, give each of them the register read-only, on their phone. Reading the current list at the gate, with the family standing beside them, is the whole point.
Hold rules that families accept
A hold with no end date quietly blocks a plot for a family that has already decided against it. A hold that lapses too soon makes the family feel hurried. Neither is fair, so pick a rule your sales head can defend, put it on a slip the family signs or receives on WhatsApp, and apply it to everyone.
For example, a developer selling plots in a layout off the Hosur road tells every visiting family: "Plot 47 is held for you until Friday evening. If we do not hear from you, it goes back to the list." That sentence, said aloud and sent as a message, turns a vague "we liked it" into a date that someone owns.
The Monday call
The register shows which holds lapse this week and which families visited and did not hold anything. On Monday, before the next weekend of visits, someone calls them. The call is short: thank them for coming, ask whether the corner plot is still of interest, mention whether it is still free. No pressure, no invented scarcity.
Families who visit on a Sunday and hear nothing until the next one are the largest pool of unfinished sales a layout has. Our page on follow-up systems for villa and plot developers lays out who calls and what they say at each stall point.
Brokers and the record
If a land broker brings a family that had already filled your form, the argument over commission starts on registration day unless first contact was written down. Record the source of the enquiry, with the date, on the buyer's row at the first contact, and tell brokers the same hold dates you tell direct buyers. A broker who finds a plot gone without warning stops bringing families.
When a sheet is enough and when it is not
One layout, one site office and one person who owns the sheet: a shared spreadsheet will do. Several layouts, several salesmen, broker channels and loan stages: use a CRM that ties each buyer to a plot and a source. The CRM page for villa and plot developers describes the fields. For the wider picture of how plot buyers are found and chosen, see the main page for villa and plot developers, and our earlier notes on how to increase site visits.
Legal rules on advance payments, agreements and registration differ by state and authority and change, so ask your own lawyer what the hold slip and the token receipt should say.
What to do next
Print the current plan at the site office and sit with the sales head. For every plot marked as held or sold, find where the proof sits: a receipt, a message, a sheet row. Where there is none, that plot is a double booking waiting to happen. Fix those rows first, then set the status words and the hold rule. If you want help looking at how enquiries become visits and tokens in your layout, the free audit is a 90-minute call, followed by a written, scored report.