5 Common Real Estate Website Myths – Debunked
1. My Brokers website is good enough
Wrong! More often than not, a Brokers website does more to advertise the brokerage than any one particular agent. Many Agents have their own website, quite often more than just one. It’s entirely appropriate to create your own website and market it yourself to use as an independent lead generation tool.
2. I need a .com name
It’s not a deal breaker if you can’t get a .com domain name. What you need is a short punchy domain that someone is likely to remember. Nine times out of ten, the short dot com address you want has already been taken. Do a GoDaddy search for the domain you want and if it’s unavailable, they’ll recommend alternatives. Try a .net or .biz domain name. But for god sakes don’t hyphenate.
No-One-Remembers-These-Names.com
Common sense stuff here, but you’d be much more likely to remember DanObrien.biz then DanObrienRealEstateAgentLLC.com. The longer the name gets, the more unlikely it becomes that someone will remember it.
3. I should hire a web designer
What for? For a couple hundred bucks can create your own website complete with domain name registration, hosting AND a sleek web design that will look like you spent thousands.
Purchase a cheap domain name and hosting through GoDaddy, for $4.99 a month. Right off the bat, that’s hundreds of dollars less than a web designer will charge. GoDaddy comes with WordPress, and you can install it with just a few clicks into your hosting control panel and trust me when I tell you that you don’t need a web designers help to do it, the entire process is pretty painless. Read this helpful article.
You can purchase and download a WordPress template from ThemeForest.net or TemplateMonster.com and install a beautiful looking WordPress Real Estate template that you can completely customize yourself. A quick Google search turned up: 17+ Free (and Premium) WordPress Real Estate Themes
4. I don’t need IDX
Without IDX, you have a website that’s all tell and no sell. 95% of your visitors are on your website looking for home listings. Sure, your website has to look great, but without showing your listings, you have all the sizzle and none of the steak. You might be able to use the IDX feed from your MLS or you can find an IDX vendor that has access to the feed and pay a monthly fee to use it on your website. IDXPro (my employer) has a copy & paste quick search page that installs quickly to any website.
5. I should let them view all my listings
This is perhaps the one Agents struggle with the most. Forced Registration is a must. Teaser Registration creates 14x more leads. Forcing visitors to register in order to view listings is the best way to capture leads. By giving your visitors the ability to view a few listings before asking them to register you allow them to get a feel for your site before asking them to give you their information. It’s more organic than asking for that information up front, and a much more aggressive lead capture strategy than not asking for it at all.
drewmeyers
Posted at 22:02h, 01 JuneI agree with what most of what you say, but frankly, number 3 is terrible advice for an agent (who is serious about their business). There is a difference between putting up a basic bare bones WordPress site and putting up a real fully functional and professionally designed real estate WordPress site. I’ve seen a lot of agent sites, and still have yet to see one done entirely by an individual agent that would meet my expectations if I were an agent selling real estate full time. Jay Thompson is the exception, but people don’t often realize he’s spent 5 years tweaking his site and learning PHP/CSS. Compare a site like LoriBee.com (a client of ours) to any agent site running AgentPress or Genesis or Headway (or anything else) that has been put together by an agent…it’s night and day in my mind.
Obviously I’m biased, but building your own website makes zero sense if you ask me. Does the ROI of doing it yourself make sense? Look at the numbers and you tell me. https://geekestateblog.com/the-roi-of-setting-up-wordpress-yourself/
M Squared Real Estate
Posted at 04:56h, 02 JuneAgree with Drew on all points with one addition… GoDaddy is perhaps the worst hosting choice for WordPress, second to 1&1. Godaddy leaves little room for the agent/broker to grow their online business. Email marketing, intranets, niche sites, landing pages, etc. go ahead and forget about these offerings with your discount host. Manage your domains with GoDaddy, host your website elsewhere.
You’re building a web presence; a virtual office. The primary medium for which clients will learn about you, your services and interact with your organization. If $60/mo a month ($30 for a virtual server / $30 for IDX) isn’t in your budget, please, don’t create a website. You’re just contributing to the devaluation of an already underappreciated industry.A few years ago, yes, you had to shell out a few grand for a quality website if you were to contract the work. Not today. Take your indecisive self over to Virtual Results, pay $699 and get a website that will cost you $2,000 elsewhere. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. There is plenty of time to further customize your site, add features, content and upgrades. But, this is only possible if you start with a solid foundation.
drewmeyers
Posted at 05:04h, 02 June100% agree with the godaddy criticism. From very trusted sources of
mine, godaddy is about the worst actual web host for a WordPress site
you can choose. Leaving your domains there is fine though.
Ben Fisher
Posted at 18:03h, 02 JuneWhenever Diverse Solutions services my area, you’ve got my business Drew! Got a domain name just sitting and waiting lol…
drewmeyers
Posted at 18:05h, 02 JuneGlad to hear it. Now, just waiting for Diverse to get their act
together with your MLS 🙂
Ben Fisher
Posted at 18:09h, 02 JuneI bug them asking every few months. Nothing new yet. Hopefully soon.
drewmeyers
Posted at 05:08h, 02 JuneAnd on point 5 – forced registration can work. But so can not forcing registration.
It depends on where you are at with your business as to the best approach. If you have more business than you can handle, and you don’t want to spend countless hours moving an early home buyer lead to a point where they are actually ready to buy…then don’t force registration. Rather let the consumers see all the listings and contact you when they are 100% ready. But if you are struggling to find business, then yes, forced registration is probably a better approach.
Joe Trusty
Posted at 06:52h, 04 JuneMaybe I’ve been doing this too long but I believe anybody can pull this off by watching a 5 minute YouTube video. Go on http://www.themeforest.net and take a look at some of these templates. They are so simple to manipulate into
a website that it completely negates the need for a web designer. Half of them come with pre-populated stuff that you can just edit out in WordPress. I mean do you really need a web designer to click install? Do you need one to slap in a logo and an agent photo? I’m
sorry. Cut and paste IDX and copy and paste widgets and scripts make the
entire process something anybody with a comfortable ability to click through a website something anybody can accomplish without knowing any HTML.
Joe Trusty
Posted at 07:01h, 04 June@drewmeyers:disqus , my company has performed exhaustive analysis on the subject. The figure I quoted is based on a pivot table we did of clients with and without it enabled over a course of years. Agents with it enabled performed 14x better.
@msqrealty:disqus , I’m in no way a fan of GoDaddy, HostGator, 1and1 or any of these fly by night self hosting companies. But for the average agent trying to build a business on a budget, it’s a start. I’m not talking about this being a magic bullet for the seasoned well healed broker. Those guys should definitely shell out top dollar to promote the business in the best possible light. Hell go to an agency if you can afford it. But for the average agent, it’s definitely within the realm of possibility to put up a very decent looking website without ever stepping foot in a web design studio.
April @ Park City Real Estate
Posted at 04:46h, 07 JuneYou’ve got a very helpful tips for us. I’m thinking of making my own website, maybe I can try your tips.
Sullivan County NY Real Estate
Posted at 00:20h, 10 JuneWe can debate forced registration all day. Some love it, some hate it. I don’t do it, and I have tried both ways. Fake names and no response seems to be the norm for forced. I get plenty of leads from my site without it.
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Posted at 10:24h, 13 June[…] 5 Common Real Estate Website Myths – Debunked – A fantastic article from Geek Estate Blog. Still believe your Broker’s site is good enough? […]
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