If you're a realtor, then you know that having a website is essential in today's world. Not only does it allow you to showcase your properties to the world, but it also gives you a place to connect with potential clients.
In this guide, we will teach you how to build a real estate website from scratch. We'll also discuss the cost and various other things you need to consider before getting started. So whether you're just starting out in the real estate industry or you're looking for ways to improve your current website, this guide is for you!
Why spend money on developing a real estate website?
Real estate brokers have long sought to gain exposure in local publications and periodicals by placing their advertisements there. However, everything is now going digital, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that having a website may offer additional benefits for the success and development of a real estate company.
There are numerous channels, platforms, and sites on the Internet where your consumers are likely to go, which gives your firm a presence. As a result, distinguishing oneself from the competition is more difficult than ever before. It's harder than ever to grab people's attention. For some real estate professionals, it's a compelling enough argument against creating and maintaining a website that it outweighs the benefits of having one.
Even though there are many various locations for your present and potential clients to visit on the Web, you do not have to be on every platform attempting to get them to notice you and lose yourself in the digital world. Your own real estate website is, in effect, a digital space (and the only one) where you are not battling for attention with anyone else.
Unlike social networking sites, your personal website is far more likely to feature no such distractions as competitor banner ads. So, if a platform may help you save time and money on your marketing activities, it might be helpful to consider it as your own marketing engine.
1. Lead creation
The first thing you can get assistance with is engaging your property buyers and gathering potential leads on your website. Here, the objective is to create enough traffic to deliver a sufficient number of clients. The website must be optimized for these results to be gratifying, and the most efficient approaches to do so will be discussed later in this section.
2. Establishing your reputation
Reputation management is crucial for real estate agents. A website is an excellent tool for you to have complete control over. There's a good chance that there will be some unhappy or dissatisfied clients. Nonetheless, stay focused and keep track of all the feedback that comes online.
Create credibility by being honest and demonstrating your expertise while also publishing unique content on your website, and consider starting a blog. Make the most of your website — testimonials, honors, and plaudits are all useful for building and preserving your reputation.
If you're still unsure about investing in a real estate website, here are five more reasons why it's a smart idea:
3. Brand recognition
Each real estate agent is a brand that attempts to communicate a certain message to his or her target audience. A website, therefore, isn't just another attractive brochure or a profile page. It should be a reliable way for you to spread your message with a consistent design.
Brand awareness increases when companies do things like:
Making well-targeted marketing ad expenditures based on your brand
Providing useful information that piques interest
Connecting with members of the audience and engaging with opinion leaders
4. Always accurate information
Users must always be given current information on what property is for sale in the area and what is presently available on the market, as a real estate website must naturally provide this. It's real estate websites that give great local content and a good search bar experience that will attract a lot of traffic.
5. Time-saving
The most essential part of a real estate agent's work is to conclude transactions, which entails organizing all the paperwork, going to houses with prospective clients, guiding them through the process of staging and preparing their houses for sale, and keeping in touch with them after the deal via email and the like. You may concentrate on these activities while using a feature-rich, attractive, and lead-generating bespoke website.
The following are the basic requirements for establishing business websites for real estate agents.
Website Requirements for Real Estate Agents
The following are the three pillars of your real estate website's design and web hosting:
1. Strong SEO.
A real estate agent who is ready to show their skills should start a blog on their website. However, having a blog may be beneficial to you even further. It might help you capture more leads in the long run.
Search engine optimization is the process of improving your site or blog content in order to make it more relevant and appealing to search engines. It's usually a smart idea to hire third-party SEO experts to provide detailed recommendations on how to improve your site's visibility in organic or algorithmically generated search queries.
Although the real estate market is dominated by giants like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com, you still have a chance of getting a high ranking on Google if you focus on local rankings adjusting your SEO strategy.
2. A smart domain name.
Choosing an appropriate domain name for your website is just as essential. This decision is normally made once, so you’d better make no mistakes and manage to connect your enterprise to the market on the first attempt, these are the tips to consider:
Keep your content short, professional, and consistent with your personal brand.
Use real estate-related keywords.
Use your own name only if you have a solid reputation.
Abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided. Check for odd spellings.
3. Intuitive navigation and responsive design.
A real estate website may be difficult to navigate due to the amount of information it contains. A good user experience, on the other hand, implies that people don't have to waste their time hunting for their way around your site. It should be more like a life jacket that is checked during the safety training session but isn't looked at again to ensure it's in its proper position.
Instead of having to remember where you can discover the jacket when you need it, simply make sure that all of this is available on your site:
Contact page
About page
A beautiful, informative, and dynamic menu
An ideal viewing and interaction experience
What core features are necessary for a real estate website?
Furthermore, several basic real estate site core features make up its foundation. The following is a list of essential real estate website components:
1. Multiple listing services access.
A good real estate agent website should connect customers to MLS data. Multiple agents can access local databases of homes for sale through MLSs and have their property exposed and accessible to prospective purchasers. An agent's website may be linked directly to a local MLS database using MLS integration.
The disadvantage of this type of integration is that the access is not exclusive, although the process is handled and set up simply and easily thanks to the Internet Data Exchange (IDX). It is the IDX that will enable users to integrate property listings information from MLSs onto their own real estate websites.
2. Live search.
The search results have to be correct. To happen, you need to give users a comprehensive range of search filters: property listings kind (buying, renting, or selling), property price, and home type among them. A distinct instrument will allow you to define precise search boundaries to discover a property in the neighborhood where a user wants it.
3. An adequate set of property images for each real estate asset.
Users want to get involved in your property website content, which is why intuitive navigation and responsive design are so important for providing a good user experience. The number of deals closed with the aid of a site is measured by how many people engage with it. First, potential buyers or renters must be interested.
Professional-looking property photos promote interest among future customers or tenants. Relevant and high-resolution images clearly state what they want, therefore set strict requirements for photo size, format, and resolution on your platform.
4. Video or virtual excursions.
A virtual tour of a home inside tells far more about it than the most complete and high-quality photographs. A video trip is an excellent alternative, but Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies can give consumers broadly, yet comprehensive information on the outside and interior design.
5. Messaging.
Finding a location that meets the needs of home buyers is difficult, as both sellers and real estate agencies must react appropriately to inquiries. As a result, all users should be able to use an automated messaging tool effortlessly.
It may be either a live chat service that allows you to obtain feedback immediately or a system of direct text, voice, and video communication with property owners or realtors via SMS
Advanced key features on real estate websites
Basic elements such as contact forms, an FAQ page, and events are the foundation on which a strong, search engine-friendly website can be built. Advanced features of a real estate platform provide more possibilities for user experience improvement.
1. Detailed property listing
When potential renters or purchasers look for housing, they're interested in learning as much as possible about the houses that come up in their search results. As a result, you must make certain that relevant information is readily available on your website.
Breaking down and color-coding cities into neighborhoods, for example, and classifying them as bad, very bad, neutral, good, or excellent gives a better sense of where the residential and commercial properties are situated.
The ability to display the findings of collecting a large amount of data - such as demographics, crime rate, real estate pricing, and more - is new. Previously, only realtors had access to all the details.
2. Calendar
It's possible to connect a calendar program to your real estate property listing site in order to let users check the availability of real estate agents and book meetings. Users may access the calendar and view and modify events (including contact details) unless they are prohibited from doing so, which allows property owners, brokers, and customers to do so.
You can also use this technology to sync user profiles with external calendars like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar for improved convenience.
3. Calculator
This function calculates home affordability by taking into account such factors as annual household income, passive income, salary and other incomes (before tax), mortgage loan term, interest rate, and more.
It's also excellent for showing the difference between the cost of acquiring and renting in a real estate market.
Steps in the development of a real estate website
1. Make sure you have the required inventory.
To be successful, your real estate website must be well-structured and -built. As a consequence, make a list of the essential and optional core features you want to include from the start and get rid of any issues that may arise. Then think about how to build a real estate website for the purpose of determining who your target market is.
2. Set a price range and assemble a development team.
Make it clear what price range you want the website to be developed in when your company, as well as personal goals, are fully understood. With all of this in mind, you should be able to get your money's worth. Meanwhile, you may select a software development firm to collaborate with.
You will most likely have your objectives modified somewhat if the appropriate team is found. A solid collaboration includes a willingness to talk openly and honestly about issues, as well as an eagerness to discuss ideas and improve outcomes
3. Wireframes, mockups, and prototypes.
Your website's structure is now taking form at this point. Wireframing, mockup construction that is based on these wireframes, and future website design prototyping are all beneficial for generating a site that makes a good first impression.
It takes planning in building real estate websites, so ensure that your logo, color palette, images, and other user interface elements are organized sequentially and consistently across few pages. Make certain to arrange things in sequence and consistently to reflect the order in which people execute activities when users encounter content on your site.
4. Coding.
Transparent, collaborative decision-making throughout the preparation procedure is essential. The conclusion of all prerequisites lays the groundwork for successful project implementation.
Once a technical specification has been issued, software developers will choose an appropriate technology stack based on what features are required. They may also utilize themes, APIs, components, IDX, MLS, and SEO to their advantage.
5. Quality assurance and review.
All of the previous steps must now be reviewed by trained quality assurance experts. As a result, it is verified that the real estate website is user-friendly and provides a positive experience to property owners, purchasers, tenants, and brokers visiting it.
How much does a real estate website cost?
There cannot be any predetermined price for quite a number of parameters that will influence the outcome. The expense of building a real estate website is determined by the sort of work and who will be involved in the project's execution.
The hourly rate varies based on where software engineers and other personnel reside and how competent they are. Ankuv Global Delivery Center can charge around $50-100 per hour for real estate development. If you assume the developer cost to be $50, following elements can then be combined to produce the overall cost of a real estate website development:
Web development 250 hours $12,500
UI/UX Design 100 hours $5,000
SEO optimization: 50 hours $2,500
Testing and Quality Assurance 50 hours $2,500
Project Management 20 hours $1,000
Total Cost $23,500
The price to build a real estate website may be reduced by considering these factors, but it must also be considered that the development of a real estate business online has several nuances and that the overall cost must be further specified.
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Conclusion
Today, every agent should think about how to build a real estate website that may aid and enhance their business growth. With a bespoke website, it is easier than ever to develop trust and begin closing as many commercial and residential real estate deals as before meeting all of the client's requirements and desires.
When you combine a group of high-skilled software engineers, you increase your chances for success and end up with a great website in the end. Contribute to other people's happiness by allowing them to discover their ideal home on their own!