This article will do everything from break down a real estate website and what it should have before and after it’s built, what’s important to Google and to the customer, and which vendors are providing the best real estate agent website this year.
Now, you can find the best real estate websites builder there is. Maybe it’s even you!
In this Article, we will cover:
Build a website
Goal of a Website
If you are a real estate agent, clearly having a website is going to be a key staple in your business.
What you choose as a web platform, and who you choose to build it for you is going to make a big difference in your outcome.
Before we go into a list of the most popular real estate website developers, let’s discuss what a real estate website platform should do for you and what it should have for the user.
Tweet ThisThe “must have” list
- Fast Load Time
- A mobile responsive theme
- A strong, user friendly IDX
(Choose one with registration customization) - Contact Information
displayed frequently and is easy to find - Home Value Offers
- Community Information (the more the better)
- Real Estate Advice Library
- A Blog
- Bonus: CRM
Although most developers are not also customer relationship management system builders, so most CRM’s are really subpar. It’s better to have a separate CRM that plays well with your site. (such as Infusionsoft’s Open API and integrations with software such as (Parsey.com) - A Place to feature Reviews
IDX Real Estate Listings
IDX definition is Internet Data Exchange. Simply Put, it allows real estate agents and brokers to show and feature show MLS listings on their agent websites.
If you have a broker provided website, you are probably using an IDX solution.
For those just wanting their real estate agent website to serve as validity, you may not need an IDX solution. If you simply want someplace to collect reviews, list your services, and possibly blog, you might pass on IDX.
If you don’t want to collect leads from your website, you may not need IDX.
One of the best lead generation tools is listings.
Potential buyers browse the internet looking for homes for sale. When they get to information they want such as details, maps, photos, advanced searches etc., they might register and give you their name, phone and/or email.
IDX allows you to build out pages on your website and insert a carousel, slideshow or grid of listings. These pages tend to rank very well on the search engines.
Let’s take a look at the analytics for BallenVegas.com, a real estate agent website ranking on the search engines through SEO focused community pages, IDX homes by feature, price, and style pages, and blog posts.
In this report, generated by Clicky Analytics, you’ll see a list of some keywords visitors have used to find the website.
Google locks up most of the keyword data. This tool is great for delivering some tracked keywords used by customers through search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
This Data tells a story.
What the Keyword Report Tells us:
➡ On July 4th, the visitor typed in “homes for sale in las vegas gated community” and found a page on this WordPress website that offers information and properties.
The listing showcases are created by IDX Broker, an advanced IDX solution.
IDX Broker was chosen for this website because of it’s ability to customize colors, styles, templates, result pages, maps and so forth.
IDX Broker also releases the IP address which allows tracking of the leads to a source and actions.
➡ ON July 4th, another visitor typed in “homes for sale country club hills las vegas nv 89134“. This is the exact phrase they typed into the search bar.
We can see here that the search was performed on Google.
Clearly, this user knows the neighborhood they want to live in. It’s also possible that this is a potential seller that is comparing home values to self determine their own home value.
This is very common and is another great reason to have IDX if you would like to generate seller leads.
➡ Also on July 4th, a website visitor typed in “homes for sale with casitas in las vegas nv“. 
In this case, the visitor was using Bing as their search engine.
A casita, for those not familiar with the term, is a small, detached or attached home to a larger property. They are commonly referred to as mother in law quarters in other parts of the country.
While the larger real estate portals such as Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com hold the top 3 spots for head term keywords such as “real estate” and “homes for sale”, many local real estate agents are generating hundreds of organic (earned in, not paid) leads every month from long-tail phrases likes these.
A long-tail keyword is going to contain many keywords used together to give the user more specific results.
This is where IDX is so powerful. Remember though, it takes work. These pages require building.
Here’s more on How to Build a Real Estate Website with IDX BROKER.
Ballen Brands
– 702.917.0755 (In full disclosure, this is my company, so I’m a bit bias on this one).
Ballen Brands is owned and operated by top real estate business owners and massive online lead generators.
After years of experience with various platforms, and training on The Ballen Method (a training system for real estate agents wanting to learn online marketing and get more leads online), Ballen Brands decided to offer a WordPress platform to help their clients build faster and on a stronger foundation. The BREW is a powerful real estate agent platform.
The team at Ballen Brands prides themselves on being different and on choosing function over fancy having tested and measured web performance and customer experience for nearly two decades. When you choose Ballen Brands, you choose proven results and a team that cares about your success. Ballen’s goal is to empower agents to take control of their marketing platform.
Website Developers
Choose what’s right for you. Interview several providers. Compare costs, features, and ownership. You’ll want to be sure you own the domain and content and that if you move brokers, your site moves with you. There’s not much worse for search engine rankings than starting over!
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Ballen Real Estate Websites (702.917.0755)
Ask about the new “House Brew” and “Infused House Brew”. The BREW (Ballen Real Estate Website) is a buyer AND seller real estate site powered by IDX Broker and WordPress.
Complete with analytics, a lead dashboard, custom templates for real estate market reports, community pages, and blog posts, a drag and drop home page editor, reviews content blog and page, cornerstone content and so much more.
The Infused Brew will give you access to the robust CRM tools of Infusionsoft with lead cultivation campaigns.
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Website Box
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ihomefinder
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REW (Real Estate Webmasters)
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Ultra Agent
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RealtySoft
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Placester
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Agent Image
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Real Geeks
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Easy Agent Pro
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Property Minder
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ihouseweb
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Agent Fire
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Real Estate Tomato
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Agent Evolution
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Boomtown
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CommissionsInc
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Kunversion
Things to Consider
It should have NO Limitations
Make sure your site is not limiting pages, plugins, categories, html elements, tracking codes, media and so forth.
In the beginning, a small, easy site may be fine.
As you grow though, and you or your assistants, or your marketing services team begin to add content to your site, frustrations will arise if you are limited in the development and design of your platform.
Ask your provider about these limitations.
You should own the Content and the Domain
As mentioned in the beginning of this article, it’s imperative that you own the domain and the content.
Oh the sad stories we have heard of people that bought in hook, line and sinker to a website they loved with their favorite back end CRM and then suddenly realized when they stopped paying the hefty monthly fee, they no longer had any rights to anything that was created.
Oh the sad stories we have heard when someone once in love with their brokerage, adopted their brokerage site and putting everything into it for a few years, growing favor with the search engines, generating a lot of organic leads, and then something happened that caused them to end their relationship with the broker – which also ended the relationship with their website.
OUCH!!
SEO Video
Don’t be confused by SEO and SEM
Many believe they are getting a real estate website that will do well in the search engines because the site is “search engine optimized”.
All “boxed” solutions that include paid hosting in 2017, should already have the basic on site SEO foundation provided.
Yet each piece of content you ad, every video, every page, will contain it’s own on page SEO. This will be your focus, or your content providers focus and will have little to do with the platform itself.
Content is what drives rankings in 2017, not a “platform”.
Now, if you are buying a website that is built out with content for SEO, that’s another story altogether. You are purchasing a website with search engine optimized content and that’s great (as long as it’s unique content of course, owned only by you).
Many sites are actually driven by SEM (Search Engine Marketing) rather than SEO.
This means, out of your monthly fee, you are buying CLICKS to your websites from the search engines.
It means the links coming into you are paid rather than organic.
It also means, as soon as you stop paying, your leads are gone, instantly.
It might be a good idea to find a nice blend of both. Search Engine Optimization for rankings takes a while.
If you are building content on a platform with a new domain, it could take 6 months, even a year before you have any rankings bringing in significant traffic.
SEM (Paid Clicks) can kick start your lead flow and give you the patience to build your organic rankings properly.