Are you looking to create a website for a real estate brokerage firm? Or maybe perhaps you are a real estate agent who just wants to showcase some of your listings on the world wide web? As a real estate agent who specializes in several different areas in my communities, including but not limited to summerville sc real estate and mount pleasant sc real estate, I have developed several websites and have learned the hard way about the best things to do, what you should watch out for, and other things that are just good to know when creating a real estate website.
First, your web presence is very important. Keep in mind that most often home buyers will first conduct an online home search first and foremost before they do anything else in their property search. This gives you the opportunity ot make a first impression with your real estate website like no other. The portion of your web site that they first see when they click on your site, which is known as the landing page, is of utmost importance. This is where you want to not only graphically make a lasting first impression but you also want to summarize you, the services you offer, and what your webite is about in this area. For example if you live in the South Carolina area but specialize in mt. pleasant sc real estate or kiawah island real estate then you should say this at the very top of your landing page. If you want to do some design work yourself I always go to stock photography websites to do my design work or you can just hire a graphic designer or web designer to do it for you. Try to find someone who specializes in real estate websites however. There is definitely a certain formula to these things that other industry professionals are totally oblivious to.
Now for your property search you need to get idx on your website which stands for internet data exchange. There are a lot of different companies that offer internet data exchange services for real estate websites. I personally use WolfNet whichs it the same IDX provider a lot of real estate brokerage firms and real estate agents use but there are definitely a lot of other ones out there that are worth giving a try. What the IDX allows you to do is to display data on listings from the local multiple listing service on your website which providers users an excellent opportunity to search properties on the internet using your site. Most people will have people register on their site before they are allowed to view properties or after they have viewed a certain number of properties in order to increase lead generation.
For example, on my website which focuses on real estate in the charleston south carolina area, someone might want to conduct a search for seabrook island real estate or another community in the area that they want to live in. All they have to do is go to my property search option, click seabrook island, and search. The IDX platform will pull the available listings that match their search criteria almost instantenously.
Another very important part of your website should be property request forms or some kind of form that allows people who either don’t have the time to search for properties online or simply just don’t want to search for properties online. This also increases lead generation and can hep you get more business.
Another aspect I definitely don’t want to miss out on is the importance of blogging. My blog, which focuses on issues related to charleston homes for sale and charleston sc homes for sale has features which allow the audience (or in this case it is a virtual audience) to interact with me and other agents who either work for my company, work in the charleston south carolina area, or who just share an interest in real estate blogging and issues related to real estate. Remember to enable comments and what not as this will encourage audience participation and just increases the quality and appeal of your blog. You can always use settings to make sure that no spam gets through by requiring your approval on every comment before it is displayed on your business’s web site.
Contact info is obviously very important to include but most people would be surprised at how many businesses have web pages that don’t clearly state how to contact them. You should always make sure that a phone number is clearly displayed at the top of your main page just in case people need to or want to get to it as soon as possible. Don’t make an internet user hunt for your phone number after they see a property they want to view with you. This just looks unprofessional and you might lose a very good lead over something as simple as inserting clear contact information in an easily seen area.
A lot of people will reccomend that for a phone number you use an 800 number or another toll free number such as a 1-866 number which is definitely a good idea and adds to your professional credibility as a real estate professional. Despite what a lot of people think, these numbers are not that expensive to get through a lot of services. Just google how to get a 1-800 number and you will see plenty of tutorials that show how this can be done. I will later write a blog entry on how this can be accomplished but for now let’s just leave it at that!
Last but not least make sure your website looks good. Scratch that, make sure your website looks great! A lot of indsutry professionals have told me that you can actually increase your website lead conversion rate by almost four hundred percent simply by working on the design of the website itself. No one feels comfortable calling someone off of a cheap looking website so make sure it looks professional. Would you want to call you? If you wouldn’t, then why would someone else?
As always, have fun with your website too and remember not to take everything too seriously. This can halt creativity and make the experience a whole lot less enjoyable.