Real Estate Website Core Features

by Splendour Group | March 20, 2023 | blog

 

Website is the digital store that takes your business straight to the millions and billions of people online, providing you with the platform to display your services all at once. Specifically for the real estate audience, the internet trend has shown how interested buyers search for real estate services online and narrow down the agency and realtor they want to associate with. So, for real estate businesses and realtors, investing in real estate website development is an avenue to expand their business and reach untapped territories.  

 

Almost everyone has stopped going agency to agency as the first step of their real estate investment journey. Thanks to the internet and hundreds of real estate websites online; with just a simple click, you get what you’re looking for. The new norm for real estate businesses is to have a solid and appealing website that grasps their prospective buyers. 

 

Alas, creating such a website is a challenging task, and on top of that, the additional factor one has to consider is ranking the website. So, needless to say, a digital marketing agency for realtors that provides a complete real estate website development service is what comes in handy for realtors and real estate agencies that are looking to secure more leads and sales. 

 

In this article, we’ll emphasize the right real estate website to achieve your business objectives, so you know your basics when you appoint a real estate website development agency. Now let’s begin. 

Why Invest In Custom Real Estate Website Creation

If you compare the real estate websites, 9/10 look identical and almost have the same layout and design. This monotonous presentation of websites online gives the perception to the audience that every website for realtors is more and less the same and what they offer is also the same, which obviously is different. 

 

So to break that chain, a custom-made real estate website that broadcasts loud and proud the uniqueness of your real estate business is what will help you get noticed. We suggest that we first understand the likes, dislikes, and requirements of your target audience and then design a personalized website that incorporates what your audience wants to see to make an impact. 

 

Some important factors your real estate website will generate for your business are: 

Powerful Advertising

You need to invest your time and energy in something other than traditional marketing and let your website be your face online. A well-made website ranking well on the search engine is enough marketing for your real estate business to gain traction and constant leads. On top of that, SEO-focused blogs which provide your audience with valuable information and rank high on the search engine are the best combo. 

Online Exposures

Your real estate business will get the exposure it needs with a website, whether it be to reach a wider audience beyond your physical location, a single platform to promote all your services or the social media integration websites have that intertwines your website traffic and social media traffic.

Get Qualified Leads

A great real estate website must be so complete and informative that your audience gets everything from looking at your website without spokespersons of your business having to guide them. So a strong landing page with a clear description, a CTA button, and a contact form will set you with leads on autopilot. 

Need of The Digital Era 

As stated above, now is when real estate businesses need to switch to a digital platform if you want to reach your audience because your potential clients look first online for real estate services and then proceed to contact you. You can take advantage of the opportunity to broaden your customer base through a website. 

Core Features of Real Estate Website

We’ve pinned down some essential features a real estate website must fulfill to complement what the target audience is looking for. 

User-friendly 

It goes without saying that your website has to be made from the perspective of your users. You cannot make a website that is difficult to navigate for the users because then your users will not indulge in your services, and you’re bounce rate will go up. 

Searchable Property Listings

The need for a real estate website is to have a place where you can list all your properties for buying or renting. It is crucial that your property listings are searchable and easy to map for your potential clients. For that, either you’ll need a database for your listing or Multiple Listing Services (MLS) for organized and managed listing. 

Customer Centric Content

The content that is put on your website must be from the perspective of your customers. You can’t go heavy with the technical terms or use complex words that can confuse your audience. Use simple, concise words that are easy for your audience to understand so that they can easily get the message you’re trying to convey. Apply this for your blogs as well as any other website pages. 

Clear Contact Forms

Build a relationship with your website audience and nurture that relationship to make them your ardent followers and customer, the contact form is what will help you. The contact form is the source for you to acquire the email of your website visitors and the platform where your potential buyer can contact you. So the correct placement of a contact form is a must. 

Clear Images and Videos

A professional real estate website must have media elements to give a complete picture to your audience. When you incorporate high-quality images and videos of the property you’re listing on your website, the audience gets a visual understanding, which compels them to contact your agency or even book a visit. If you want to drive conversion, clear images and videos are a must.

Call to Action

If you want your website traffic to be more than that and to generate leads for your real estate business, you need a call to action (CTA) button to drive your website audience to take the plunge. 

Social Media Integration

Incorporating social media links on your real estate website would be wise. Placing your social media links on your website not only makes them aware that you’re present on social media platforms but also increases your chances of getting loyal followers who will promote your business without you having to do that. 

 

Website Builders For Real Estate Website

Working in phases is always the best way to make attainable goals and follow the track, and similarly, when it comes to real estate website development, the first stage is to narrow down the website builder to host your website. Each website builder has its own unique features and working pattern that you must consider as to which one matches your requirements. We’ve listed some popular website builders for real estate websites for you to go through.

 

Related content: Best hosting for real estate websites

 

WordPress

WordPress is the number one website builder, and you can credit its popularity to the easy-to-customize template and analytics feature it entails, which makes it easy to track your website visitors and their activities. Also, it offers a very simple content management system (CSM) which makes adding and managing content a piece of cake even for newbies.

 

Real estate businesses heavily rely on their content as it must be changed according to market trends, and blogs are another important factor for real estate websites in ranking. So with the easy CMS of the WordPress website, it is the best tool for designing websites for realtors and real estate agencies.

 

As an experienced real estate website development agency, we’re a strong advocate for WordPress websites.

 

Wix

Building a real estate website is super easy with Wix as it has SEO tools and customizable templates with drag-and-drop format, making it convenient to design a website and rank it. 

Workspace

For a professional-looking website, Workspace is the right website builder tool for you. You will get the perk of choosing from numerous pre-designed templates, which reduces the challenges of website development to some extent. You can add different functionalities to your website because of the customizable options and app integrations feature of Workspace.  

Shopify

Shopify is the best option to include the e-commerce feature in your real estate website because it makes building and managing the online store an easy job. It provides you with the feature to customize the appearance of your online store and design it how you want. 

Weebly

With Weebly, you get so much more than just your basic real estate website. You can make the most of the paid plans it offers, including adding background videos, analytics tools, and other interesting features to help your real estate website grow. 

Types of real estate websites

Depending on the type of services your real estate agency provides, your website can also vary. Designing a website that explains easily to your users its purpose makes it convenient for your audience and makes the managing process easy for you as well. The most popular website type for a real estate business is listed below:

Property Listing Websites

A real estate property listing website is a platform where you list properties, houses, and lands for rent. Its primary purpose is advertising the real estate listing to your audience along with details and descriptions. This type of website requires an agent to list the property and not the property owner. 

Real Estate Marketplaces

Real estate marketplaces website is the bridge to connect property owners directly to the buyers or renters without the assistance of a third party or an agent. The property owners themselves can list their property on the site and allocate the desired price.

Property Management Websites

Property management websites focus more on residential and commercial selling/renting. The property owners have complete control over their listing and interactions with potential buyers.  

How to build real estate websites?

Any experienced real estate website development agency will tell you that website development does take intricate planning with numerous trials and errors until they formulate a plan that aligns with the vision and goal of the real estate website. Building the website for numerous real estate businesses, we’ve listed out the general outline of the real estate website development stages to help you strategies accordingly. 

Know your vision

First and foremost, it is important to know the purpose for which you’re making your website. It can be to reach your target audience, gain qualified leads or be as simple as just online exposure and brand recognition. So, first, determine your need and the reason why you’re investing in developing a website for your real estate business. 

Hire website developers

Even if you are familiar with coding and web development, designing a website loaded with features is a different ballgame altogether, and we strongly suggest that some things should be left for the professional. This way, you can focus more on your business and let the professionals handle their work. Hire an experienced real estate digital marketing agency that provides real estate website development services so that they will not just design your website but market it too. 

List your requirements

Set your requirements beforehand so that you can provide the website development team with a clear idea of the purpose of your website. A clear requirement list will make it easy for you and the development team to develop goal-oriented planning. You could state the vision/mission of your website, who your target audience is, the design of the website, features, and functional requirements to set the basics straight. 

Register a domain

The domain name of a website is like the digital address which the user will type to search your website. You must carefully select a domain name that describes your real estate business well and is easy to remember. 

Start Product Discovery

In this stage, you identify the services and products your website can offer to meet the requirements of your audience. You will have to first properly study your target audience and competitor, discuss product/service ideas to incorporate into your website, and then analyze if the listed products exist./services align with the purpose of your website. 

Create Interface Design

The user interface is the exterior design of your website, which is based on the user experience. Here the priority is given to making your website look presentable, appealing, and inviting to your audience, all while keeping the user experience of number one importance. From making sure the visual elements of your real estate website look beautiful to making sure all the elements are easy to navigate and readable, the UI designer handles all these aspects. 

Start Development

Once you’ve listed down all your requirements and narrowed down the UI and the features of your real estate website, the real implementation work can begin. The full-cycle development is now initiated where the front-end and back-end development task start. 

Test and Maintain

Once the website development phase is complicated, testing is crucial before handing it over to the client or deploying it. Undergoing numerous tests to check the website under all circumstances is worth the time you’re investing than having to fix bugs or errors later. The more test you conduct on the website, you increase its efficiency. 

Also, the job of a website development agency continues beyond deploying the website; it needs constant monitoring and maintenance to make it robust. 

Conclusion

It has been a long since real estate businesses have realized the power and reach the internet and online platforms bring for their business to flourish. The user behavior shows that more and more homebuyers are interested in looking for services online rather than visiting the real estate office. So, now is the appropriate time to invest in website development if you haven’t, or the truth is you’ll lose out on a lot of business, and for that, what you need is strong tech expertise to fulfill all your web development needs. 

 

Splendour is a complete real estate digital marketing agency with the expertise of real estate website development to design the website to generate conversion and leads. Don’t wait anymore, and get our proven real estate website development services to outshine your competitors with the best website in the industry.