Buyers and Sellers are in my Accounts object, entered by choosing the B or S record type, ea. w its own page layout with its own fields relevant to customized to a Buyer or Seller. How can I manage the situation when -- later on down the line -- a Buyer becomes a Seller, and a Seller becomes a Buyer?
I'm setting up a test database project for learning purposes: a real estate company catering to real estate buyers and sellers. I originally setup two separate objects to keep track of both Buyers and Sellers, but that really didn't make sense in retrospect, because a buyer could in the future become a seller, and they'd be in the database twice: not a good practice. So, I rethought how I could do this, and decided to use the Accounts object to keep track of both Buyers and Sellers, with the fictitious realty company user being required to choose "Buyer" or "Seller" record types as a prerequisite to creating an Account record. The "B" and "S" Account page layout each has its own page layout with fields relevant to them in their status as B or S.
As you might expect, each Account has its own associated actual Contact or Contacts.
OF COURSE, Bs can become Ss down the line, and Ss can become Bs; IS THERE A GOOD WAY TO ACCOMMODATE THIS IN SALESFORCE? I'm using Opportunities as a way to keep track of sales/possible sales of real estate. I've read about "Contact Roles" in Salesforce, and I'm wondering if using them is appropriate here; if so, how would I use them in this case? If not, do you have any other ideas, suggestions, or comments?
Thanks for reading this and sharing your feedback.
============= I don't think that switching the record type for the Account (really a Household comprised of one or more Contacts for purposes of my database) back and forth from B to S etc. is optimal. I want to preserve the fact that the Account was once a "Buyer", and have a list of all of the properties they looked at in a related list of Properties on the Account record; similarly, when the Account is a "Seller," I'd like to have a place on the record to show the property they're selling along with a list of Buyers in the Accounts object who have looked at the Property record owned by that Seller. It's theoretically possible that an Account could be both Buyer and Seller at the same time.