What are the Best and Worst Real Estate Agent/Team/Brokerage Websites on the Web?
What are the best and worst real estate agent/broker websites on the web today?
Best
Here are two of the best in my mind.
What’s not to like? My prediction — this will be the best site in the entire industry within 6 months. I’ve seen some of the new stuff Dominic has been working on the last few weeks (such as new “building” pages) — and they are wicked cool.
Disclosure: Dominic Morrocco, a partner with M Squared, and I are good friends, and he is a client of Virtual Results where I used to work.
I simply LOVE the design of this site, and the focus on the commute information to Manhattan. Further, if you use BoomTown – check out the integrated BoomTown search experience into her primary site.
Disclosure: This is a site by Virtual Results, my former employer.
Worst
What do you think? Do I dare call out some bad ones? In the name of radical honesty, I will call out a few subpar (to put it nicely) sites I’ve come across…
In all honestly, I’m just beyond confused as a user as to what they want me to do when I get to the home page. It’s too cluttered with irrelevant information. So..instead of try to figure it out, I’d just go back to Google and look for another site with a simpler user interface.
PrudentialHomeSale.com [Added February 25, 2012]
Z57 and Advanced Access
Any of the thousands of sites built by Z57 (like this one) or Advanced Access (like this one) could be on this list.
Your Thoughts
Note that I’ve seen a lot of agent and broker websites, but no where near all of them. These were the sites I liked the most, and least.
What are your favorites? And what horrible sites have you seen lately in dire need of an overhaul?
Fred Romano
Posted at 06:54h, 01 FebruaryWow you are right! M2 is awesome and The Crye-Leike website is just awful in my opinion. We’ve spent a lot of time developing our site, maybe you can let us know what your think of http://flatfeerealty.com
M Squared Real Estate
Posted at 08:28h, 01 FebruaryYou know I like your site. It started out good and only got better. Curious to see what you have in store for the future.
Danb
Posted at 08:11h, 01 FebruaryM2 is really well designed. Presenting that much information in a way that is not confusing is no easy task. The two very clear calls-to-action at the top tell the visitor exactly what they want them to do. Well done.
Matt Pernice
Posted at 03:27h, 04 FebruaryThis new digital age in real estate, having a high quality site is crucial to your success.
M Squared Real Estate
Posted at 08:31h, 01 FebruaryThanks for featuring M Squared. We do have -a lot- of development currently in the works for Spring / Summer release.
Some new developments:
– Complete, native mobile site (built on wordpress, too!) Not a “make your site mobile-ready plugin,” but a complete, full-featured, mobile site.
– A real estate search interface that has been described as “Real Estate Porn.”
– Much, Much better neighborhood pages and condo building directories, can’t elaborate more at this time.
Oh yeah, some fun with Google Places… see image attached.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 08:45h, 01 FebruaryYou guys are so far ahead of the competition, it’s not even funny.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 09:23h, 01 FebruaryAnother of my favorite sites is http://sandiegocastles.com/ — largely due to the fact that Kris is such an amazing writer, so there is always good content there. And also because I oversaw the development of her site 🙂
Anonymous
Posted at 12:22h, 01 FebruaryAgreed. M Squared = An inspiration for all real estate sites…
Eric Estate
Posted at 10:43h, 02 FebruarySadly, the number of good sites is far FAR below the number of bad Real Estate Websites. Almost none of them do anything to connect with the consumer.
Michael Borger
Posted at 15:35h, 02 FebruaryWow, M2 really is a winner. I’ll be analyzing it further for ideas to implement on my own site. It’s clear, informative, comprehensive yet not overbearing with proper calls to action. Thanks for sharing.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 03:10h, 03 FebruaryYea, they’ve got a damn good site…the DC market doesn’t stand a chance against them.
Greg Geilman
Posted at 01:08h, 03 FebruaryI totally agree. There are soooo many bad realtor websites out there. I think our clients today are attracted to sites that show that we have at least a small sense for marketing and style. Our site gets some pretty positive feedback. http://www.southbayresidential.com
Seth Price
Posted at 07:58h, 03 FebruaryHawaiilife.com has a great site, though I am not sure the home page is as compelling since they removed the large image. It’s possible that it is converting better. Any others that are powerhouse sites?
theBrokerList
Posted at 11:04h, 03 FebruaryNobody sees more websites, twitter sites and Facebook pages, of late, than our team. OMG, we vet every single cre member on our list and have to visit all of the sites, blogs and digital content as part of our review. It is so eye opening and educational. We love this article and point. There are more poorly done sites and many are from the larger organizations. The issue is stale content, lack of organization and no social media interaction or icons or anything that is alive. Heck some do not have links to the branch offices at all. Many are just the same old link to Loopnet or no way to reach the cre people at the firm. The larger firms have horrible URL habits and no SEO thought at all.
Our entire goal with our project is to end this madness and jump over this mess (it will take these firms years to reconcile) and give brokers, managers and leasing agents a way to get online fast, free and easy. Each member gets a profile and can actually give their firm a profile too. We are a cre digital content portal to add your links, feature some HAVE posts (optional) post a WANT and message other B2B colleagues all in one place.
Most company websites do not permit all of the content, freedom and ability to toot your horn, add your links, etc. so you can get found online. Many large firms employ high priced IT folks to manage this stuff and they are clueless about our industry. They are not thinking about marketing or search at all.
Also, because we are meeting so many cre firms, we are now being asked to help our members create great websites too! It is just happening organically and naturally. They find us and ask for help because they know their site is so old or poorly designed and they do not want to get ripped off. Thanks for this great article!!
~theBrokerList Team
Restaurant Brugge
Posted at 03:54h, 06 Februaryreally good post thanks
web designing
Posted at 03:55h, 06 Februarygreat post thanks 4 this post
Calvin Courter
Posted at 16:55h, 09 FebruaryDominic,
How did you customize the forced login with IDXbroker? Could I hire your developer?
derrick
Posted at 19:31h, 24 AugustStay away from ERIN CLAPPER in honolulu hawaii. Worst person ive ever met. Over promise under deliver.
Robin
Posted at 19:00h, 23 FebruaryWow. That’s all you could do is bash someone? Good input.