Websites For Real Estate

websites for real estate

Do you know what I love? I love it when I get a client inquiry through my business website. My business website is one of the most cost-effective marketing activities I undertake. The reason it’s so cost-effective is I don’t pay for an expensive website with hefty ongoing fees.

Instead, I use a WordPress theme that I installed in less than a half hour. After that I just added loads of great content such as images, articles, videos. All of this content ranks well in the search engines and I gain a great deal of new business through this very inexpensive website.

Any business or professional can easily build a very high-converting (turning website visitors into customers) website using a WordPress theme. Realtors are no exception. In fact there are WordPress themes built specifically for realtors. One of my favorite realtor WordPress themes is AgentPress by StudioPress.

More than one real estate agent website equals more business

Beyond looking great, when you use a WordPress theme from StudioPress, you can build as many real estate websites as you like with a single theme purchase.

Why would a realtor want more than one website?

Let me illustrate with an example. Suppose you sell both condominiums and detached homes in an urban area. You know the demographics of those people. You also know that the benefits offered by a condominium and detached home are different. Instead of writing about both in one website, why not have one site dedicated to condominiums in your area and another site dedicated to detached homes. You can break it down even further such as waterfront, estates, home for under $100,000, etc.

These separate microsites serve two important purposes.

First, you look like the condo expert.

Second, you can target condo buyers easier when your website is dedicated to condo buyers and sellers.

I can tell you that the best thing I ever learned in running an offline service-based business is learning how to build my own websites and blogs. I have several websites that target each type of customer.

Now to the heart of the matter – the AgentPress Theme review

This realtor WordPress theme is built on the StudioPress Genesis Framework which gives you outstanding flexibility, customization, and extremely easy-to-use features.

You don’t need to know any website coding language in order to get a fantastic and highly functional website going when you use a WordPress theme, including a theme designed specifically for realtors.

Real Estate Listings Search Function

The AgentPress theme by StudioPress is an ideal WordPress theme for realtors / real estate agents because it’s designed for optimally featuring your listings. In addition, you can incorporate a blog and your visitors can search your listings with a multi-variable property search function.

Because this is a WordPress theme, you can add as much content as you like whenever you like without knowing any computer / html code. In fact, you can get this theme for your real estate business up and running without knowing any computer / html code. It’s incredibly easy-to-use and very professional looking.

SEO Ready

This realtor WordPress theme comes with a built-in SEO configuration panel which makes it very easy for you to properly optimize your real estate website and blog for search engine rankings. You still need to do some off-site SEO or hire it out, but the on-site SEO is very easy to properly configure with AgentPress theme by WordPress.

Navigation Made Easy for Your Prospective Real Estate Clients

The Genesis Framework offers numerous methods for you to customize the navigation menus in your website and blog. Additionally, the AgentPress theme offers a property search function that is ideal for having your website visitors search your property listings.

Ramp Up Your Realtor Marketing With Built-In Twitter

AgentPress includes a built-in Twitter widget that you can connect with your Twitter feed so your posts and tweets are tweeted to your followers. If you’re into social media marketing, this is a must-have feature on all your realtor websites.

Incredible Property Photograph Display Options

Your entire home page with AgentPress is your featured home gallery. You can add photographs of your listings along with property descriptions. You also have the option to have large featured property listings at the top of the home page that can be configured as a slide show creating a dynamic-looking website.

What if you simply want a WordPress blog?

Perhaps you already have an established realtor website with all your listings. If that’s the case, then consider starting a blog or a real estate WordPress website on something topical that targets your prospective clients. You could write a blog about local businesses, attractions, schools, the economy, detached home prices, condo-living, staging, etc.

If this is where you wish to take your realtor marketing, the consider any one of the StudioPress WordPress themes (my favorite WP theme developer by far). You convert pretty much any of the themes into a personal blog very easily or use the default layout.

What I Don’t Like About AgentPress

I have to minor complaints about AgentPress. They are:

1. You can’t do multi-variable searches for listings. For example, if your visitor wishes to search by price and number of bedrooms, it can’t be done unless you install the “custom search” WordPress plugin and configure it for searches. However, if you subscribe to a listing service with an iframe code (or however your listing service provides code for inserting in your wbsite), you can insert it in your WordPress theme and then have your full listing search functionality installed on your realtor WordPress theme website.
2. The drop down menus can be sticky.

More about the Genesis Framework

1. Customization:

You can customize your footers, headers, and sidebars.

2. Generous license granted:

You aren’t restricted to using AgentPress on only one domain. You can build as many realtor websites as you like.

3. Featured Posts function:

You can list out your blog post titles on your home page and/or your sidebar. For example, if you have a series of blog posts you’ll wish to make very easy for your website visitors to see, you can list them on your home page and/or sidebar very easily in the widget panel.

4. Widget friendly:

Widgets in WordPress enable you to place pretty much any type of content (text, images, and/or video) in various locations – wherever the widgets are configured. The key is having a WordPress theme that offers many widget locations. AgentPress (and many StudioPress themes) offers many widget locations which gives you huge flexibility in quickly and easily inserting all types of content throughout your website.

5. Support:

The StudioPress forum is extremely active. I know, because I’m on it weekly getting tips, ideas, and help for building and customizing my theme. There’s a limit to the design help you’ll receive; however, the StudioPress-approved moderators are very prompt in answering questions.

websites for real estate