223 billionaires on the Forbes list made most of their money from real estate.
Investors, property developers, and business owners have found the real estate market a good place to make money.
But now that pandemics are happening, it is hard for real estate agents to reach the right people.
One of the best ways to grow your real estate business is to use the Internet to reach millions of potential clients worldwide.
In this guide, you’ll find how to make a top-notch Real Estate Website Development to get people to buy.
Let’s get started.
Why spend money on Real Estate Website Development?
The goal of real estate agents has been, for a long time, to get their classified ads in local newspapers and magazines. But everything is going digital now, and it became clear at some point that having a website can give a real estate business more ways to grow and develop.
On the Internet, there are many platforms, channels, and websites that your customers visit and where your business can have a presence. Because of this, it is now more complex than ever to be heard over the Internet.
It is tough to get people to pay attention. Some real estate professionals think this is a good enough reason not to set up and maintain a website. But just because there are a lot of places for your current and potential customers to go on the Internet doesn’t mean you have to be there on all of them to get their attention and get lost in the digital space.
Your real estate website is the only place you don’t have to compete with anyone else for attention. Banner ads from your competitors are much less likely to be on your site than on social networking sites. So, when you have a platform you can use only for yourself, it’s a good idea to think of it as your marketing engine.
1. Getting leads
First, you can get help getting customers interested in your site and capturing possible leads. Here, the goal is to get enough traffic to bring in many clients. For these results to be satisfying, the website needs to be optimized. Below, we’ll talk about the best ways to do this.
2. Showing that you are an expert
People only trust real estate agents who take care of their reputations well. A website is a great platform that you can control completely. There’s a good chance that not all clients will always be happy and satisfied. Still, you should stay on track and keep an eye on all the online reviews. Be honest and show that you know what you’re talking about by sharing custom content on your website. You might also want to start a blog. Use your website to its fullest extent. Testimonials, awards, and other praise are all excellent ways to build and keep your reputation.
If you’re still not sure about getting a website to help buyers and sellers with their real estate needs, here are five more reasons why you should:
3. Knowing about a brand
Every real estate agent is a brand that sends a specific message to the people they want to work with. So, a website isn’t just a profile page or a brochure that looks good. With a good, consistent design, your website should be a reliable way to back up that message. Brand awareness means that people who buy and sell homes in your area will eventually know who you are. It gets better by doing things like:
- Spending on brand-related ads in an intelligent way
- Providing the correct information that gets people’s attention
- Getting to know the people in your audience and working with opinion leaders
4. Information that is always up to date
People who visit your real estate website should be able to find out what’s for sale in the area and what’s currently on the market. Real estate websites with good local content and a good search experience will get a lot of traffic.
5. Time-saving
The most important part of a realtor’s job is to close deals. This means keeping track of all the paperwork, going to properties with clients, helping them stage and prepare their homes for sale, and staying in touch via email and other means after the sale. With a custom website with features that looks good and brings in new customers, you can focus on these tasks and do the most important things.
Important Article: Why Should you hire offshore developers for Website Development?
Different kinds of Real Estate Website Development Platforms
1. Marketplaces
A marketplace is where buyers and sellers (or renters and buyers) meet. It is a common and well-made kind of website. Both sides are free to use the platform in any way they want. Sellers can list their homes on the website and use an online calculator to determine how much they should ask. On the other hand, buyers can look for a house or apartment to rent or buy, look at photos, read descriptions, and look at the house plan.
Redfin, Trulia, Zillow, and Airbnb are some examples.
2. Renting websites
There are a lot of websites whose only goal is to rent. They have two sides: landlords and people who want to rent. Their primary purpose is to link both sides together. Also, some get to run the properties after signing the contract.
Examples: Trulia, Lovely, Rentals.com
3. Agents’ websites
This is the type of real estate website that most people use. It’s like a brochure that shows who you are, what you can do, and why people should choose you as a real estate agent. You could add some more details. Like your history, listings, and how to get in touch with you. It’s the first thing people who might buy from you see.
Michael Calcagno, Guy Yarkoni, Nancy Hamilton, and the John Flanagan team are excellent examples.
4. Websites that list properties
Property listing websites are meeting place for people who want to buy or rent a home. Different real estate agents can list their properties on this kind of website. Brokers, real estate agents, and real estate companies all use this system. Buyers or renters can look through the listings to find a good fit, see information about the property, and ask for a tour.
Zoopla, Rightmove, and Realtor are some examples.
Only four of the most common real estate websites are on our list.
Critical Elements of a Good Website Design for Real Estate
How complicated your website needs to be will depend on what you want it to do. If you want to make a big aggregator, it will be more complex than making a simple website for a tiny local realty. Still, we’ll list the most important things you need to think about when building your website:
1. The Right Technology Stack
One of the first things that come to mind is the technology stack, or the frameworks, programming languages, technologies, etc., that you will use for development. The stack must be planned with care and attention for the development process to go smoothly. First, you need to choose the right platform for listing syndication. ListHub, Point2, 365 Connect, RealBird, and JbGoodwin Realtors are some of the most popular. As for languages, the most common ones are PHP, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and its frameworks. On the other hand, Ruby on Rails could also work. Amazon and MySQL are both excellent choices for databases.
2. Listing Fees
Real estate marketplaces can use listing fees. It works like this: sellers must pay a 1% fee to the platform before listing a property.
3. Searching and filtering
Users need to be able to look for and find properties. Also, they need to be able to narrow down search results based on specific criteria. The price, location, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, total square footage, etc., are all things you have to include. To do this, we’ll need to develop efficient search and filtering algorithms that return accurate and relevant results as quickly as possible.
4. Paid Ads
One of the most well-known ways to make money is through paid ads. It works well for real estate platforms because everything is set up well. You can make money by promoting ads and making sure that the right people see them.
5. Great and simple design
Your website shouldn’t look like it was made in 1995. Instead, you want a design that is simple and up-to-date. Simple means the user focuses on one or two things simultaneously, not on a million different things. Have you ever been to a website with so many columns and boxes that you can’t figure out what’s going on? Yes, you should not do that. Instead, it would help if you went for a simple, easy-to-use design that makes the website both easy to use and easy on the eyes.
6. Maps
Real estate and maps go together like peanut butter and jelly. By letting users use a map to find properties, the search process will be more straightforward, and the user experience will be better. Maps are also used on the most popular real estate sites and apps. Mapbox, Zillow Neighborhood Boundaries, Google Maps, Walk Score, Area API, School Digger, and Yelp Fusion are some of the most used map APIs. The API data must be added to the rest of the website’s functions.
7. Security
Your users want to know that their information is safe. Putting in enough money and time to build a reliable security system for your website is worth it. If a hacker attacks works and personal information about users gets out, it could hurt your reputation. Now that we’ve discussed what a good real estate website should have, let’s discuss the exact steps you need to take to make one.
Related Article: How and Where to hire Django developer for Website Development
Are You Looking for Real Estate Website Development?
When you make a custom real estate app, you don’t have to have more features than your competitors. First, you need to improve how they work. There are no limits to perfection, but you should come closer to it than anyone else.
If your product is excellent, you won’t have to spend too much on advertising and SEO. People will love it for how helpful it is and share your website. Focus on development, not marketing, if you want your real estate website to stand out from the rest. If you hire the right development team, you’ll get a good return on investment (ROI) and be successful once people realize you can solve their problems quickly and satisfactorily.
