Real Estate Search For Dummies
First off, thanks Drew for allowing me to contribute here along with many of the best real estate tech writers around. Much appreciated.
Recently I began to build my online presence as a real estate agent in my local area, Park City, UT. Prior to doing so, I taught myself anything and everything about real estate marketing, building wordpress sites with idx, basic SEO principles, link building, and anything else I could learn. I started out doing so for my dad who works in the industry and slowly ventured out into running my own business and building sites and marketing myself.
While researching site options and different ways to construct a site for real estate, I noticed a common trend happening among many real estate sites. Nationally and locally.
The guys over at 1000 watt consulting wrote about this recently as well stating how real estate search has gotten to complicated and needs to be simplified. There is a reason why 90% of visitors to most realtors sites are just using the search feature. Why do you think companies like Boomtown find so much success for their agents? They offer an MLS search. Nothing more, nothing less. They understand what the consumers are looking for and they offer just that.
Real Estate Webmasters is one of my favorite platforms and I would love to own a site built by them someday. Their new LEC 6 design impressed me so much I keep revisiting the site just to see the layout they have come up with again so I can try to emulate it. I would love for my site to offer that level of simplicity and value to my visitors. The main search feature is prominent, and they only had 3 tabs (in the demo shot although I am sure most agents ad more) . Buy. Sell. Explore. What more do you need? This kind of simplicity is what I believe real estate search needs to be toned down to. Where everything a visitor would like to see on a page is all above the fold, aesthetically pleasing, and SIMPLE.
Often times we offer an absurd amount of features that clog up the site with unnecessary junk. The consumers want to search homes, the quickest and easiest way possible. While we still need proper calls to action and registration pages for lead generation, the rest has plenty of room for simplification.
What are your thoughts on how search has become lately and where the trend is heading?
drewmeyers
Posted at 17:10h, 14 JulyAgree. too many people put too much irrelevant crap on their sites, which kills conversion. Just wait until you see our next theme we’re adding to our predesigned platform. Super simple and straight to searching homes — and conversion.
If anyone wants to see it privately, shoot me an email. drew at virtualresults.net
Ben Fisher
Posted at 18:12h, 14 JulyThe next theme is amazing Drew. Great work!
Morgan
Posted at 19:39h, 14 JulyHey Ben,
I noticed you referenced the promotion blog post, as opposed to the post that is actually about the LEC 6 (Thanks either way) – here is the post I have started regarding LEC 6 http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/morgan-carey/12471/show/
In it I explain why I chose to limit navigation amount other things (you mentioned “I am sure most agents ad more”) but that is actually not an option in LEC 6 – those three main tabs are your three main featured areas – the reason? Because that’s all the user should ever need.
That being said, we do still have traditional body content area, left nav (further down past the CTA’s) and of course a nice web 2.0 footer tying it all together – which helps with SEO and conversion (for the few users that do actually like to read) – so there is a little bit of everything (including a free mobile IDX platform)
If you want to see my finished product – you can view a live demo here: http://6.rewlec.com – your additional feedback is greatly appreciated and I am happy to answer any questions you have regarding why we build things the way we do 🙂
Ben Fisher
Posted at 19:49h, 14 JulyHey Morgan thanks for the info. I think it is great you limit this to those 3 tabs. The overall design is very impressive. Hoping I can get one someday!
Morgan
Posted at 20:28h, 14 JulyYou are in Park City Ut, right? Unfortunately we only sell one of each LEC design per market (to ensure customers don’t have to compete against the same design in their market) – that being said, I would be more than happy to design you a custom site if you like – (or you could work with one of our template products with integrated IDX until budget permits – right now templates are free, and built in IDX is 50% off.
Give me a call some time or shoot me an email (morgan @ realestatewebmasters.com) – Anyways, don’t want to turn your post into to much of a self promotion, so if you want to chat let’s take it offline.
Riverside Home Source
Posted at 21:58h, 14 JulyI actually have a different opinion, I think that simplification is used as a sounding call, but it’s misunderstood by most Realtors who think it means they can have a website that is all graphics, but no content. It’s always been there, the desire for the golden ticket and the website that will magically fill their email boxes with leads ready to buy.
Realtors are seeing more and more Truila, Homes, Zillow sites that are showing up organically for terms like “riverside real estate” and think, “hey! If I just had a simple site with a search and a HUGE flash slideshow, I’d be right there too”. The sad realty is that in order to rank and get a good amount of traffic, which may or may not actually convert, you really do need to WORK (or pay someone to) consistently over time. The problem with the “simplification” is that in order to rank you’ll need to make up for the decrease in relevant content with an increase in relevant inbound hyperlinks, which take more effort to gain than writing ever does.
Ben Fisher
Posted at 16:25h, 15 JulyI agree with you that an over-simplification would be more detrimental than helpful. I was meaning to simplify in terms of use and navigation, not just pretty images and less content. I am currently going through my site and creating navigation much easier for users to search property, which is what they are there for and I tend to get away from it sometimes.
Alex
Posted at 02:08h, 24 JulyGreat to see you join the contributor ranks at GEB. I’m also a big fan of REW, Morgan et al do great work.
Ben Fisher
Posted at 16:06h, 05 AugustThanks Alex! Glad to be able to share some information here as well.
Pierce Pola
Posted at 16:18h, 04 AugustRecently I began to body my online attendance as a absolute acreage
abettor in my bounded area, Park City, UT. Prior to accomplishing so, I
accomplished myself annihilation and aggregate about absolute acreage
marketing, architecture wordpress sites with idx, basal SEO principles,
hotlink building, and annihilation abroad I could learn.
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Posted at 14:48h, 03 October[…] options for upgrading my site and inevitably ended up choosing Real Estate Webmasters which I have mentioned on here before. I had to have an impressive IDX integration that was indexable but also flowed very well as I know […]