Building a real estate website: how to establish yourself online

These days, anyone looking to buy property will start their search online. This holds true across the board – for people who want to rent an apartment, buy a house, or procure a plot of land, whether for their own use or as an investment. That’s why, classic real estate platforms and agent networks are important for anyone who’s active as a real estate agent.

However, if you’re looking to stay independent of large platforms and networks and want to have an extra asset in the fight for buyers and renters, you should consider creating your own real estate website. Keep reading to learn how to create a real estate website and what advantages it brings.

Given the presence and reach of websites that show various kinds of real estate, many agents wonder whether it makes sense to build their own real estate website. However, it’s all too easy to exaggerate the positive aspects of established real estate platforms and underestimate the advantages of creating one’s own real estate website. Having your own personal web presence has the advantage of being independent of real estate platforms and networks – which means you also save money on fees for these services.

But it doesn’t stop there. Building a real estate website also comes with the following advantages:

• In the real estate sector, business often materializes via personal contacts. When getting in contact with clients, having your own website can be a key element for success.
• Having your own online presence can help simplify administrative processes. You can easily share up-to-date information with potential buyers and renters and display important data and addresses.
• When you have your own real estate website, you have plenty of space for showing your personal strengths as an agent. There is no room for this on real estate platforms. You can also reference the special characteristics of your local/regional market.
• Marketing is also very important in the real estate sector. When planning campaigns and executing social media offers, having your own website can be key.

With a website of your own, you’ll have the chance to optimize your presence and image on the market. The basic requirements are that you have an online portfolio that’s representative of your work and that you perform regular maintenance on the site.

It would be wrong to think that the real estate industry has been hard hit by the corona crisis. The need and demand for living spaces is as high as ever. However, delayed construction work, unpayable financing plans, complicated procedures for viewings, and longer administrative processes do have an effect on day-to-day business. That’s why, having your own real estate website is more important than ever for getting clients’ attention, starting and continuing a conversation, and serving as a point of contact for information and updates.

Even if you already include corona-related information in your ads, your website offers the perfect platform for prominently presenting detailed and up-to-date information. And when it comes to viewings, having your own website makes it possible to offer alternatives to in-person showings: You can add extra photos to your real estate ads or even present a 360-degree tour of the property.

At IONOS, we want to be a strong partner to you and your real estate business, especially in corona times. On our IONOS online store site, we summarize our diverse offers for support.

The first important decision you’ll have to make in building your real estate website is how to implement it technically. Most people don’t have the necessary knowledge and time to program a website themselves, so there are plenty of easy-to-implement solutions for laypeople. Depending on your needs and budget, you can opt for a website builder, CMS, or employ an agency.

Keep reading to find out more about each of these options.

If you have the necessary knowledge in the areas of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you can take charge of the project and program your real estate website yourself. This can save you a lot in costs. However, in addition to the necessary programming and web design know how, you’ll also need to invest a significant amount of time in the project. That’s why we advise against this option for anyone who doesn’t already have decent knowledge of website programming.

If an individualized and professional design is important to you, you’ll want to consider employing an agency or design service. They’ll take care of the programming, design, content, and maintenance of your website, so you can concentrate fully on the other aspects of your business. And you’ll need little to no technical knowledge of your own. However, this option requires a significant budget, as the costs for employing an agency are significantly higher than for the other solutions we present here.

Modern content management systems (CMS) boast diverse features that enable you to design your own website from scratch without extensive programming knowledge. In this sense, popular solutions such as WordPress are looking more and more like website builders – website elements can be added, modified, and removed using drag-and-drop, and high-performance WYSIWYG editors transform plain text automatically into HTML code. Another strength of CMS is the strict separation of design and content, which means that making changes to either of them is easy as pie. Since the majority of CMS are free and open source, you’ll only have to pay for the costs of hosting your website and any paid templates that you may decide to use.

If using a CMS doesn’t offer you as much support as you’d like, a website builder might be a fitting alternative. With a website builder, you can also arrange preconfigured components using drag-and-drop and automatically transform content into HMTL or CSS using user-friendly editors. The difference here is that you’ll get the software directly from your chosen service provider, who will also take care of the hosting for your website. You’ll typically pay a monthly fee for these services.

Which solution is right for you will depend on your technical knowledge, your budget, and the amount of time you want to invest in the project. We’ve summarized the advantages and disadvantages of each of these options in a simple table.

If you want your real estate website to be successful, well thought out content is of the utmost importance. If visitors to your site can easily find the most important information and contact details, then you’ve already completed the first step in sealing a successful business transaction. On the other hand, if a potential customer gets completely lost on your site, you may have already lost their business.

The following pages and content should be part of any real estate website:

• Homepage
• “About me” or “About us” page
• List of services, possibly with description
• Real estate listings
• Section for sellers
• Section for landlords (if relevant)
• Contact page
• Privacy policy

Homepage

As the part of your website that users typically see first, the homepage plays a big part in the success of your site. It serves to inform users about the topic and contents of your website and gives you the chance to highlight important updates. Representative photos and text play an important role in catching visitors’ attention and making an impression. The homepage should also contain the main menu, which helps users navigate your website and get an overview of the other pages.

“About me” or “About us” page

As you’re well aware, trust, reliability, and personal connection are of key importance in the real estate industry. By introducing yourself and/or your team (with text and potentially with photos), you can already start collecting these important plus points with potential clients. This is also a great place to share the founding story and philosophy of your real estate agency. You can place references of successfully brokered deals here or on a separate page.

Services

A well-structured real estate website will make it clear to visitors what kind of services you offer. However, an explicit list of these services is still advisable, especially if you deal in special kinds of properties or offer any other unique skills. This is also a great place to present any additional services you provide, such as home staging, assistance with moving, or investment and financing offers.

Listings

The main reason for creating a real estate website is to present properties. This is also one of the main reasons users will visit your site. Your own website is the perfect place to show listings, since you can stage the properties exactly how you want. You have free range over how many photos you show, which pictures make the cut, and how you describe the properties.

Section for sellers

Depending on the state of the real estate market in your area, it may be important that property owners who are looking to sell can reach out to you directly. Having a special section for sellers provides a good foundation for this. Interested sellers can then get in touch with you directly and also inform themselves in advance about your services and the way you work.

Section for landlords

If you work with rental properties, then it can be helpful to have a special section for property owners and managers who are looking to rent out a house or apartment. On this page, you can provide information about how you work and of course how anyone interested in your services can get in touch with you.

Contact page

This is one of the most important parts of your website. On this page, you should display the different options for getting in contact with you – email address, phone number, contact form, and/or address and business hours for your office. It should be as easy as possible for anyone who wants to use your services to reach you, meaning that this page should be easily reachable from the main menu.

Privacy policy

Any website that collects information from its visitors is required to have a privacy policy. Even if you don’t explicitly collect information like email addresses from users, websites almost always collect data in the background. Different states have different requirements for what needs to be in a privacy policy and how prominently it needs to be displayed on your site, so be sure to read up on the specific requirements for your state or region.

Now that you have an overview of the technical and content considerations involved, we can tie it all together in a step-by-step guide to building your real estate website. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know, from choosing a domain to publicity and marketing.

Finding a domain looks quick and easy at first glance, but can often be a source of headaches. The first challenge is finding a domain name that’s short and expressive and makes sense with the name of your agency. And then, of course, that name has to be available.

After you’ve found a fitting domain, you’ll have to register it. To do this, look for a domain provider that lets you activate your desired domain at a good price. For more detailed information and tips on choosing and setting up your web address, take a look at our article “The Most Important Tips for Domain Registration”.

Now that you’ve secured your domain, you can turn to the technical and artistic aspects of your website. We’ve already discussed the different options for getting your website set up from a technical standpoint. But there’s more to this step than just writing code – or more likely having it written for you! Before you start creating your real estate website, you should put some thought into its functionality and design.

One important task is giving your users the best user experience possible. Smooth navigation is an essential part of that. It’s also important to design the site in a way that provides visual stimuli for the user, in order to capture their attention.

After you’ve sorted out the technical framework for your website, you can get to work on the most important aspect of the site: the content. You’ve already read some details above about which content should be part of your site. But how you lay out those pages is completely up to you. Whether you set up individualized contact forms for your different target groups (buyers, sellers, renters, landlords) or start your own blog is a matter of personal choice. You might also want to consider a special log-in area for regular clients.

The most important content on a real estate website is your listings. Make sure you have professional photos and expressive, informative descriptions of the properties. Using videos, slideshows, and interactive elements can also set you apart from the competition.

Once you’ve built your real estate website and filled it with content, you’re finally ready to publish it. Check beforehand whether you’re satisfied with the finished product and whether the various elements (such as navigation, buttons, links, forms, etc.) work as intended. Of course, you can make changes once your website is live, but dysfunctions have a significant negative effect on user satisfaction and the evaluation of search engines such as Google.

The way that Google evaluates your website will be of long-term interest for you: The more prominent your website and its subpages are in search engine results, the more users and potential clients will find their way to your business. A solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy will include:

• Well-planned and regularly-updated keyword strategies,
• Good internal linking,
• Image SEO,
• and voice search optimization.

At the end of the day, a real estate website also needs active advertising: Include your domain in print ads, on your business cards, and on official letters and documents. And if you’re active on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you should advertise your website there as well.