The World Wide Web is the number one place people search for real estate today. It is an undeniable fact that the desired property is an apartment for rent, a house or land. The fact that it is a good for own purposes or to make an investment does not change this. Traditional real estate platforms and agent networks are therefore essential for anyone working in the brokerage industry or selling real estate .
In order to limit your dependence on large portals and networks and to have an additional advantage in this fight for buyers and tenants , it is also recommended to create your own online real estate website. In this article, you will learn about the real benefits of a personal website and how to create a real estate agent website.
Summary
- What are the advantages of a real estate website or a real estate agent’s website?
- Personal real estate website: an essential tool in times of coronavirus
- Creating a real estate agent’s website: what are the possibilities?
- What content is essential for a good real estate website?
- Step-by-step guide: the guide to your own real estate website
What are the advantages of a real estate website or a real estate agent’s website?
Considering the number and breadth of web portals showcasing real estate of all kinds, many agents wonder whether it is useful to have their own real estate agent website. They then quickly tend to consider only the positive aspects of the external web solutions available to market their real estate and ignore the advantages of an individual real estate site . A personal online presence offers the advantage of not having to depend on real estate portals or networks of real estate agents and, ideally, saves or reduces the costs of such external services.
In addition, a real estate agent’s website offers the following advantages:
- In the real estate industry, business is done on a personal level. Having your own real estate website can be a first step in making contact and a decisive element in your success.
- This online presence helps you simplify administrative management . Via your website, you can easily communicate new information to potential buyers or current tenants and present the basic data and addresses of the properties.
- Compared to real estate platforms, a personal real estate website gives you more leeway to showcase your strengths . In this way, you can better present the local and regional peculiarities of a competitive market.
- The marketing also plays a key role in the real estate sector. A real estate agent website can play a central role in planning and disseminating social media campaigns and actions .
Therefore, a personal website offers you many opportunities to optimize your own presence and image in the market . The prerequisite is always that your online portfolio is suitable for you and is regularly updated.
Personal real estate website: an essential tool in times of Coronavirus
To say that the real estate sector is strongly impacted by the Coronavirus crisis would be a lie. The need for and demand for housing remains high. However, delays in construction work, clients failing to meet their financing plans, and the complication of visits and paperwork are not without impact on day-to-day business. Therefore, it is more essential than ever to have a personal real estate agent website to provide the latest information and your contact details in order to arouse the interest of your clients on the one hand and to communicate with them on the other. go.
If you currently need to state in your listings that property visits are strictly limited to individual visits, a personal real estate agent website is an ideal platform for communicating this information to your clients and providing them with further details on the current situation. . With regard to visits, a personal Web project also allows you to offer alternatives: you can thus enhance your offers with even more detailed descriptions and additional photos or make a visit of the property in person unnecessary thanks to a virtual visit at 360 °.
Creating a real estate agent’s website: what are the possibilities?
Creating content for your real estate agent website is only part of getting a personal real estate website online. Indeed, the technical realization of such an online business card is just as essential: in most cases, the skills and time necessary to program and personally put your real estate website online will fail you and you will then have need appropriate help. Depending on your needs and your budget, there are once again different solutions such as using a modular creation site, a CMS or mandate an agency.
In order to help you in your choice, we present these different options with their advantages and disadvantages.
Personally program your real estate website
If you have the necessary knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you can naturally consider this task yours and personally program your website for your activity as a real estate agent. This way, and if all goes well, you will be able to save a lot of costs. Apart from the necessary knowledge in programming and web design, you will however have to take into account the considerable time factor that goes with this DIY approach. It goes without saying that if you are little or not at all familiar with website programming, it is strongly discouraged that you choose this option to build your own real estate website, however much time you have available.
Use a design agency or service
If you feel that your real estate agent website should reflect your professionalism and personality, hiring a design agency or service is usually the best solution. Entrusting the programming , design , if necessary, content writing and maintenance of your web project to experts, gives you the opportunity to fully concentrate on your daily business. In this case, and depending on the service pack chosen, the necessary technical knowledge will be low, or even non-existent. To rely on an external partner, however, you must have the budget necessary. Indeed, the costs necessary to create your own website will be significantly higher compared to other options.
Create a real estate agent website using a CMS
Modern content management systems (CMS) offer different features to personally design your own web project without having considerable programming knowledge. Like WordPress, these popular solutions today resemble modular websites in many ways: for example, website components can be added, organized and removed simply and conveniently from the web. Using drag- and -drop, the powerful, integrated WYSIWYG editors by default automatically transform plain text into error- free HTML code . Another advantage of CMS lies in thestrict separation between design and content which allows easy independent modifications in these two categories. The majority of content management systems being available free of charge and open source, by opting for this solution, you will only have to assume the costs for the hosting of your real estate website.
Real estate website using a modular creation site
If personally managing a CMS is still too technical for you, then a more classic modular website building system is a suitable alternative. Here, too, you have the option of organizing predefined components using drag and drop and automatically converting contents to HTML, CSS or other languages using user-friendly editors. Unlike a CMS solution, you will get the software needed for this directly from the vendor that hosts the software and your real estate agent website out of the box. As a rule, you have to pay a monthly fee for this which depends on the different packages offered.
Personal, agency, CMS or modular design programming: an overview of the pros and cons
In summary, the most suitable solution for the development and design of your real estate website will depend on your knowledge , the available budget and the time you have to carry out this project. We have summarized for you the main advantages and disadvantages of the options presented in the following table:
|
|
Personal programming |
Design agency / service |
CMS |
Modular creation site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Suitable for … |
Professionals |
Amateurs |
People with an advanced level |
Beginners |
Cost factor |
Low |
Student |
Low / medium |
Way |
Time factor |
Very high |
Low |
Student |
Way |
Advantages |
Maximum freedom |
Professional help allows you to focus on your daily business |
Work with open source software; good basis for long term maintenance |
Strong friendliness; the technical part is entirely the responsibility of the service provider |
Disadvantages |
A considerable challenge; huge time cost |
Bigger time factor; strong dependence on partner |
Need for regular CMS updates (mostly circumstantial) |
Limited website customization due to the limited number of templates available to all users of the modular system |
What content is essential for a good real estate website?
For a real estate agent’s website to meet the expected success, it is essential to associate it with an effective and thought-out concept in terms of content . If your website contains the most important information and your contact details, you have already taken the first steps towards a successful transaction . On the other hand, if your real estate website does not have the essential content, potential customers can quickly get lost on your site.
The following pages or content are essential on a good real estate agent website:
- Home page
- About
- Services
- Real estate offers
- “Sellers” area
- “Donors” area
- Contact page
- Legal notice and privacy policy
Home page
Since the home page is the first page viewed by visitors to your website, it plays a significant role in the success of your real estate website. It aims to inform visitors about the subject and the various contents of your website and to place the latest news in the spotlight. In this context, it is essential to place striking images and texts to attract the attention of visitors. The home page also includes the main menu which is the central navigation element of your website and shows users the full scope of your online offer while allowing easy and convenient access to the various subpages.
“About” information page
In the real estate industry, sympathy, trust and a personal exchange generally play an essential role. By presenting your person or your team (with text and possibly photos) on your own real estate website, you can therefore score valuable points with interested people. On this page, you can also present the history and philosophy of your agency as well as indicate references to the properties that you have successfully sold.
Services
On a well-structured real estate agent’s website, visitors should be able to quickly determine the services you offer. A detailed list of your services is therefore recommended, especially if you want your range of real estate to stand out from the usual offerings in the market. You can thus optimally present your additional services , for example Home Staging, moving assistance, carrying out administrative formalities or investment and financing offers.
Real estate offers
Showing off the real estate you offer is the number one reason you can start a real estate agent website and get people to visit your site. Being able to stage your assets exactly the way you want is a big advantage. You have carte blanche as regards the choice and the number of photos as well as in terms of description of apartments, houses, etc.
“Sellers” area
Depending on the real estate market, it may be more or less important to you that owners of real estate wanting to sell these properties can contact you directly. Having a real estate website with a section dedicated to sellers is a good basis for achieving this. In this way, interested parties can not only get in touch with you in a simple and practical way, but also inform themselves beforehand about your services and your approach as a real estate agent .
“Donors” area
What is true for sellers of real estate is also true for lessors. Inform your potential partners on the modalities of a possible collaboration in a separate area of your real estate website and thus increase your chances of managing new properties on the market.
Contact page
We have already mentioned the fact of placing the contact possibilities at strategic points, for example on the pages of the properties offered or on the information pages intended for sellers and lessors. However, it is just as essential to put together the main contact possibilities for those interested in a separate page of your real estate agent website which will be accessible through the main menu or the home page of your site. Some website operators present this information directly on the home page. If you choose this solution, visibility is however a key criterion.
Legal notice and privacy policy
According to articles L111-1 to L111-8 of the French Consumer Code, you are required to indicate legal notices accessible with a single click from any page of your real estate website. This section must include the operator of the website, his contact details as well as the information concerning his registration in the trade register and his tax identification number. We have compiled detailed information on this subject for you in our article “Legal notices for your website: what must be observed?” “.
A privacy policy is just as essential and mandatory for your website. This policy tells your visitors or customers what data you collect , what happens to that data, and what steps you take to protect that data. Like the legal notices, the privacy policy must be accessible at all times and easily from every page of your real estate agent’s website.
Step-by-step guide: the guide to your own real estate website
Whatever solution you choose to create your real estate agent website, there are of course a multitude of other steps necessary to fulfill your dream of having your own business card online. We present the main steps below , from choosing your domain name to publishing your project, including design and content.
Step 1: choose a domain name and register it
At the start of your project, choosing your domain is a point that should, in principle, be quick and easy to accomplish. In practice, however, it could turn out to be more complex than expected. This is part of a name short and punchy that will well match to your real estate agent or your own company name. On the other hand, the desired domain name and address must be available.
As soon as you have found a suitable domain, you must register this address . To do this, find a suitable domain provider who will allow you to activate the desired domain and offer you a corresponding plan. Detailed information and advice on designing and filing a web address for your own real estate website can be found in our article “Top tips for registering a domain name”.
Step 2: programming and design of the real estate website
Once the domain is registered, you can now get started with the technical and artistic design of your real estate agent website. We have already covered the programming possibilities extensively in this article. However, this step obviously involves much more than just writing the code or having it written by a service provider. Before you start creating the pages, you will need a well-thought-out concept of how you want your online presence to function and design .
On the one hand, you must ensure that you offer visitors to your site the best possible user experience. The fluidity of navigation is of paramount importance here. In addition to the user experience, on the other hand, you need to create visual hooks in the overall interface design to attract users to your website.
Step 3: integrate the content into the real estate website
With the technical framework in place, you can now turn to the core element of your online presence: content . At the start of this article, we told you what content your real estate agent website must contain. The design of the various pages – such as the home page, the property presentation page, the spaces reserved for sellers or lessors or the contact page – is left to your entire discretion. You can for example use individual contact forms to reach different target groups (tenants, buyers, lessors, sellers etc.) in the same way or add value to your website with a blog personalized on the real estate sector. Another useful option is a separate area for connecting existing customers .
The main content of a real estate agent’s website is and remains however the presentation of the properties that you offer. The professional photos are here as indispensable as informative, relevant descriptions of goods in text form. The use of videos , slideshows and interactive elements , which make it possible for example to visualize a plan of the property, can also promote the success of your activity as a real estate agent.
Step 4: publish, promote and optimize your real estate agent website
Once your real estate agent website is created and the contents written, you can finally publish your new business card on the web . However, check beforehand that you are satisfied with the final product and that all the elements (navigation, buttons, links, forms, etc.) work as desired. You can of course make changes to your website at any time once online, but major lapses in user guidance will have a negative effect on visitor satisfaction and engine rating of your site. search like google .
Evaluating your website Google will also serve you in the long run more your estate site Internet and its various sub-pages will be placed high in the results of this reference search engine , the more the number of users visiting your offer online will be great. Therefore, a well-developed and regularly reviewed keyword strategy is important, as are:
- Effective internal linking
- An SEO strategy for images
- and an optimization of the linguistic search of your pages.
Lastly, a real estate agent website will also benefit from active advertising : add your domain address to your flyers, business cards and official emails and promote your website on social media like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter if you have a page on these media.
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