Who SHould I get My Real Estate Website From?

My Business is Referral Based, so I was never in a hurry to create a website. But, I know I have to get with the program so that is what my May Goal is going to be. There is so much to choose from, I cannot decide! Any recommendations? I want something cost effective, that will allow me to provide the consumer with what they want...Property Search, Community In fo, Articles, and Forum on the Purchase and Sale of Real Estate.

I am really looking forward to hear what you recommend. A referral is always better than innie minnie miney mo!

Thanks so Much!

Minerva

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:01AM

Joshua Dorkin

BiggerPockets Founder · Denver, Colorado

10630 posts
46531 Influence
24 Awards

Icon_minipost Apr 22 '09, 06:15 AM

I'd recommend using the Wordpress CMS to establish your web presence. It is cheap (free) and you can do a ton with it, including blogging. Most people I know aren't going to use the property search on an agent site (that is a debate we can have), and I see little reason to have a forum on your site. The blogging format allows for conversation and questions, without the worry of moderating a forum, which can be tedious.

Just my $0.02

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:01AM

Joshua Dorkin, BiggerPockets, Inc.
E-Mail: webmaster@biggerpockets.com
Telephone: 877-831-4704
Website: http://www.biggerpockets.com
Be sure to check out the BiggerPockets Blog at http://www.BiggerPockets.com/renewsblog/

Mark Brian

Real Estate Agent · Anderson, South Carolina

313 posts
2065 Influence
6 Awards

Icon_minipost Apr 23 '09, 02:43 AM

You need an IDX solution of some sort if your MLS allows it. You get the lookers to your site with that.

Content is king. You get the people that are curious about the process with your content.

A simple template site might work for you. There are wordpress templates for real estate, not sure about cost. I used Open Realty, free to download but you need to pay somebody to host your site.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:01AM

Minerva Paniagua

Residential Real Estate Agent · Manteca, California

4 posts
23 Influence
1 Award

Icon_minipost Apr 23 '09, 02:56 AM

Thank You all so Much! I will definetely look into these. Thanks.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:01AM

Calvin Neely

· Georgia

173 posts
224 Influence
1 Award

Icon_minipost Apr 23 '09, 05:29 AM

I have used a point2homes site but they just eliminated their free sites and it is now about $10 a month. Not bad for the money. Realty Soft and Soft Reaty also provide canned sites to consider. However, the blogging sites really seem to be doing well on search engines.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:01AM

Steve Bell

Real Estate Investor · Los Angeles, California

11 posts
-55 Influence

Icon_minipost Jun 19 '09, 02:49 AM

Need a website for your REI business?

There is no doubt that websites are a powerful tool for real estate investors to both buy properties, as well as sell properties using various internet marketing methods.

Ideally you would want to have separate websites for different aspects of your business, for example maybe one for buying properties and the other for selling properties. Perhaps have a separate one for leasing properties.

And in some cases its nice to be able to create disposable websites, for example if you want to create a site for selling a particular house. You could register a domain name like 123MAINST.com and then point that to a website that explains all the details of that property. Then you can put that address on all your marketing material.

[AFFILIATE PITCH REMOVED]

All the best,

Steve Bell

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:39AM by Administrator

Will Barnard

Rehabber · Santa Clarita, California

7238 posts
54461 Influence
23 Awards

Icon_minipost Jun 19 '09, 02:56 AM

Minerva,

We use a company called alamode for our website. It was made for real estate agents (even though we are not agents) and it works great and has many options and features.
If you go to my website (see below in my signature) you can see what I am talking about and you can also find a link to the company at the bottom of the home page.
It allows for just about everything. We have property listings, a forum (which can be a pain to moderate as Josh stated, but we do not use it that much, I prefer BP anyways for that!), you can post artilces, have a blog, and much more. The price is very reasonable too!

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:39AM

Will Barnard, Barnard Enterprises, Inc.
E-Mail: info@barnardenterprises.com
Website: http://www.barnardenterprises.com
info@barnardenterprises.com

Justin S.

Rehabber · Chandler, Arizona

1162 posts
12272 Influence
14 Awards

Icon_minipost Jun 19 '09, 03:16 AM

Minerva-

I'm using Just Host for mine. You can make it very simple or as complicated as you want. I'm still learning it, but they have a lot of free addon. Blogs, forums, realty sites, php forms, a bunch of stuff that I need to google first before i know what it is. :)

The basic service is $4.00 a month. Once they got done selling stuff to me, I'll be spending about $100/year. Which is pretty cheap for webhosting. They have template builder or you can build your own with Dreamweaver and upload it.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:39AM

Justin S., Wheelhouse Properties
E-Mail: wheelhouseproperties@gmail.com
Telephone: 4806780446
Website: http://www.wheelhouseproperties.com
Realtor, Re-modeler, Cash Buyer

Wendy Polisi

Real Estate Investor · Atlanta/Alpharetta, Georgia

5 posts
26 Influence
1 Award

Icon_minipost Jun 19 '09, 03:23 AM

I would have to second Joshua's recommendation of using WordPress. We didn't do this on our site and I wish we had.

The dynamic format will help you easily create a Web 2.0 friendly site. The plug-ins that are available will allow you to do just about anything!

If you aren't tech savy and don't want to create the site yourself, you can always get on elance and hire someone to do it for you. This is a much more economical option than hiring a local firm to do it for you.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:39AM

Chris Barnes

Residential Real Estate Agent · Syracuse, New York

127 posts
1790 Influence
6 Awards

Icon_minipost Jun 19 '09, 03:39 AM

If your looking for something a little more advanced, but still easy to use check out Joomla. It is free and you can host it for as little as $6.95 per month.

There is a small learning curve, but once you play around with it it becomes simple to use. It has everything your asking for.

Chris

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:39AM

Paul Caparas

Residential Real Estate Agent · San Diego, California

6 posts
37 Influence

Icon_minipost Jun 23 '09, 04:37 PM

I currently use Real Estate Webmasters which is a bit expensive but worth it. Other companies that I heard were good is Z57, 1parkplace, LinkURealty and point2agent. Oh, I almost forgot, Wordpress is also good way to go.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:43AM

Account Closed

77 posts
406 Influence

Icon_minipost Jul 10 '09, 03:02 AM

Wordpress 2x. It's just good. (period)

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:55AM