Winning Strategies in Real Estate Website Development

Real estate website development is an important aspect of kicking off your career as a website developer. Whether you already have a website you need to improve or are starting from scratch there’s a few things you need to know before you begin.

There are many steps to proper real estate website development. First you must find a catchy domain name and purchase hosting services. For those who aren’t knowledgeable about website design, it can be helpful to hire a real estate website developer to help you create a beautiful website. This specific type of website should contain several features, from property listings to virtual tours which can be taken online. All these features should be easy to use to enhance the user experience.

Ready to make your own real estate website? Read on to learn all about the website features you should have and how to improve overall user experience.

Where does the development of a real estate website start?

Real estate websites serve a few purposes in the real estate business. First of all, they help to create brand awareness of you as a real estate agent to help you attract more clients. Second, they help provide a concise and convenient place to show off your property listings.

Before you can begin your real estate website development, you have to decide what kind of message you want to share with your customers. It’s best to consider your brand and how you want others to think of it.

Once you have created an image for your brand, take a moment and decide how you will convey this to customers using your logo, colors, and the tone of your wording on your website.

Creating a website which is both attractive, and gets your point across, can be a challenge. For this reason, many real estate agents choose to hire professional website developers to help them with the process.

The right real estate website developer can help you to construct an efficient and user-friendly platform for displaying your properties and enticing customers to enlist your services. Not sure where to start? Mediaboom is a professional marketing firm which can help you create a flawless website.

What do you need to create a real estate website?

All real estate websites need some features to make them useful to users. Below we will break down the basic features you will need to have to make your site a success.

Attractive domain name

Before you can create a website, you will need a domain name. A domain name is what a customer will type in the address bar to find your website.

Studies have shown that the shorter and easier your domain name is to spell, the more likely it is the customers will be able to find your site. Take the time to think of a short, catchy, and easy to spell phrase which describes your business.

Real estate industry websites can often use the realtor’s name for the domain name. If your name is long, or difficult to spell, however, it may be a good idea to think of something shorter, such as just your first name, with the words ‘real estate’ after.

After you have chosen your name, you’ll need to perform a search to ensure it’s available. If it is, purchase it, even if you haven’t started your real estate website development just yet, so that no one can buy it before you do.

Performing hosting

Unless you are a real estate website developer, you will likely need a domain host to help you build your website. A domain host will make your blank website into something you can edit and add to without needing to know how to code.

You have several options for hosting, the most common options are Wix, WordPress, and Weebly. While they all have different features, they all do require you to pay hosting fees in order to use them. If you choose a platform like WordPress, you will additionally need to hire a second company to perform hosting services, such as Siteground or Godaddy.

Once you have a hosting service set up, you will be able to begin your website development and be able to start designing your website.

Experienced web developer

If you aren’t very good at designing a website even with a hosting service, you may want to hire an experienced real estate website developer. They can help you build a real estate website that accurately shows all your services and abilities.

Websites without professional development can find it difficult to attract and retain customers, so this is one area you won’t want to cut corners.

Quality website developers may be pricey, but they will be able to ensure every step of your real estate website development goes smoothly. They also guarantee their product, meaning you will end with the exact website you envision.

Optimized site structure

Once you have the basics of a website set up, such as the home page, it’s time to take a moment and work on creating optimized site structure. A website which is designed optimally will help to ensure your customers can always find what they are looking for.

An optimized site structure will look different for everyone, but it will likely include a section for property listings, perhaps one for virtual tours, and it will be user-friendly to navigate the different aspects of your site.

If you are unsure how to proceed with site optimization set-up, it might be a good idea to take a look at the best real estate developers’ websites to get an idea of how they have theirs set up. If they manage to get a large number of customers using a certain set-up, chances are you may be able to as well.

On-site SEO setup

After the basic structure of your website is optimized, you’ll need to spend some time working on your on-site SEO set up. SEO is what helps your website be listed by search engines and brings customers to your site.

SEO optimization includes inserting keywords into your multiple property listings, writing keyworded blog posts and more. Those who are not well experienced with SEO often have better success when they hire a SEO company to help them develop their website.

Mediaboom is a real estate website development company experienced in the creation of real estate platforms. They can help you optimally design your website, as well as set up your SEO. Contact Mediaboom today to set up your consultation!

Essential Features in Developing a Real Estate Website

Now that you have a basic website set up, it’s time to discuss some additional essential features which you’ll need as you create a real estate website.

Property listing

The most important feature in  website design is the creation of attractive property listings. As a real estate agent, selling properties is your bottom line, and in order to do so, you will need to list them on your website.

Ensure each listing has beautiful pictures which accurately represent your property. Also ensure that property descriptions are properly keyworded to bring in the right customers.

Virtual tour

In a recent study, it was discovered that more and more people prefer shopping for homes online rather than in person. It can be tough to sell a home online with pictures alone, so take the time to create virtual tours of your property listings like the ones multiple listing services use.

Virtual tours can help show your buyer their possible future home without having to waste time and resources on properties they aren’t interested in. Not only does this save their time, but the time an agent would spend showing them a property as well.

User friendly interface

Besides just taking the time to ensure your real estate website development includes property listings and video tours, you also need to take the time to develop a user-friendly interface. Customers won’t be able, or return to, a website which isn’t easy to use.

You should consider all aspects of the user experience to increase user-friendliness, such as the ability for the website to work on a mobile phone, to keeping photos and videos a reasonable size to allow the website to load quickly for users.

Advanced search filter

Your website should additionally include an advanced search filter which allows the user to find exactly what they are looking for on your site. While this may be difficult to create on your own, a real estate website developer can help set your website up with one, improving the user experience.

Interactive maps

Interactive maps are an advanced website feature which can allow users to explore a listing on a 2D level. While video tours are excellent, it can be difficult for some customers to envision a property with just a 3D walkthrough.

Interactive maps can give customers a representation of where all the rooms in the property are, and if you set up to make it interactive, users will be able to go from the 2D map to photos of the room they are interested in.

Email alert for new listings

Real estate buyers won’t always find the exact property listing they are looking for when they visit your site. Setting up a feature which can bring prospective customers back at a later date is essential to a successful real estate business.

The best way to bring customers back is by having a way to sign users up for emails when you post new listings. This way when they receive a variety of properties to their inbox, and they are likely to find one they are interested in. Attain a customer’s email address can also help you engage in a few marketing techniques to bring back previous customers.

3D Floor plans and layout

A final feature you should consider in your real estate website development is including 3D floor plans that give the layouts of your properties. These 3D floor plans allow customers to see a floor plan but also envision the layout similar to a video walkthrough.

Many of the features listed are difficult to set up on your own, which is why you should consider hiring real estate website developers to help you make your website a success. Check out Mediaboom (a real estate developer’s website) for more information on hiring help to develop your real estate platform.

Best real estate developer website examples

As you can see, there is quite a bit of work that goes into website development, and it can be a lot for one person to take on. Mediaboom is a real estate website developer which can help you with several different aspects of creating the perfect website for your business.

Millennium Tower

In the case of Millennium Tower, Mediaboom helped them design and develop their website to place them in customers’ minds as a premium condo option in the San Francisco area. They also helped them create printed branded materials to pass out to interested parties.

As a result, Millennium Tower became known as the premier luxury apartment building in San Francisco and has experienced success in finding and retaining interested customers.

GFI Partners

In another case study for GFI partners, Mediaboom focused solely on website design and marketing to help GFI, a real estate company, stand out from the competition in their local community.

Thanks to the work performed by Mediaboom, GFI experienced a 300% increase in website visitors and a 46% increase in return visitors. This has put them at the forefront of the real estate market in their local community and allowed them to convert more website visitors to buyers than ever before.

Conclusion

Ready to start your real estate website development but not sure where to start? Hire Mediaboom today to develop your ideal website. From web design to SEO, Mediaboom can do it all. Contact us to see what we can do for you!