Real estate is one of the most competitive and appealing corporate world markets. Particularly in Australia, where the market is quite active.
Along with its fast-growing competition, the real estate market shifted online due to the growth of the internet and smartphone users, which brought notable development that has significantly impacted the industry. Most of the transactions are now done online. Buyers and sellers can connect and find each other online, particularly on real estate websites.
Refusing to follow this trend risks losing a sizable portion of the market. So, if you’re in the real estate business, having a top-notch website is essential if you want to succeed.
We will specifically cover how to build a real estate website in the sections below. Digital Rescue, one of Melbourne’s leading web design agencies specialising in property web design, will share some insights on how to build an interactive website for real estate agencies or property brokers.
Is Building a Real Estate Website Worth the Investment?
Real estate agents have traditionally sought exposure in local publications by running classified ads. But as more and more things go online, it became apparent that having a website might open up more opportunities for a real estate business to expand and thrive.
To answer the question, is building a real estate website worth the investment? Absolutely, yes!
Having a website can help you benefit from the following:
- Lead Generation
- Establish Your Expertise
- Increase Your Brand Awareness
- Able to Provide Up-to-date Information
- Save You Time and Effort
The 3 Pillars of Real Estate Website Design and Hosting
When you’ve decided to launch a website, it’s important to consider the fundamental requirements for building a real estate website and how to make visitors appreciate their interactions with it.
Your real estate website should be built and hosted on the following three pillars:
Strong SEO Strategy
You must be aware that a real estate agent who wants to demonstrate knowledge ought to develop a blog on their website. The advantages of blogging, though, might go even further. It may eventually assist in generating more leads.
When the content of your website or blog is updated to make it more relevant and appealing to search engines, search engine optimisation is taken into account. Working with SEO experts who can give specific advice on enhancing your site’s exposure in search engines via organic or algorithmic search results is frequently a good option.
Luckily, here at Digital Rescue, we work closely with our companion company TopRankings and their identification and skilled use of carefully-identified key search terms and ongoing SEO Campaign. We are confident in providing the ideal and effective SEO strategy that will help achieve the best result.
Effective Domain Name
A good domain name is crucial to the success of your website. You only get one chance to make this choice, so you should be careful and succeed in connecting your business to the market on your first try.
Here are some tips to consider:
- It should be short, professional, and consistent with your brand identity.
- Consider using keywords related to the real estate industry.
- Avoid using your name unless you already have a well-established reputation.
- Don’t use acronyms or abbreviations.
Simple to Navigate and Responsive Design
A real estate website typically has so much information that it can be challenging to explore. However, a good user experience indicates that visitors won’t waste time figuring out how to navigate your website. It should more closely resemble a life jacket, whose placement is confirmed at the safety instruction presentation but not regularly checked. Instead, one just knows where to look when the jacket is needed. Therefore, make sure that your site has the following features to ensure optimal functionality:
- Contact page
- About us page
- Users can get from one page to another with ease
- Well-designed, informative and interactive page
- Optimal viewing and seamless interaction experience
What Are The “Must-Have” Features For A Real Estate Website?
The goals you’ve established for your website will determine how complex it needs to be. Naturally, building a massive aggregator will be more difficult than creating a straightforward website for a small local real estate company. However, we will highlight the basic “must-have” key features that you must take into account when building your website:
Access to Multiple Listing Services (LMS)
Users should be able to access MLS data from a decent real estate agent website. MLSs, which serve as local databases of properties for sale, allow sellers and property owners to make their listings public and available to various agents. The local MLS database is directly accessible from an agent’s website, thanks to MLS integration.
The disadvantage of this type of integration is that access is not restricted, despite the straightforward and practical management and configuration of the entire process. The ability to extract listing data from MLSs and include it in your website is made feasible through the Internet Data Exchange (IDX).
Able to Do Live Search
Searches for real estate properties and rentals must yield relevant results. Users need a complete set of search parameters, including listing type (buying, renting, or selling), price, property type, number of bedrooms, amenities, facilities, year of construction, and more, for that to happen. With the help of a particular tool, users can map out precise search parameters to capture the area in which they are looking for a property.
Showcase Relevant and Professionally-Looking Property Images
Although the responsive design and easy navigation guarantee a good user experience for visitors to your website, the success of a site is determined by the number of deals that are concluded with its assistance.
However, prospective tenants or buyers must first show interest. Images of properties that have a professional appearance pique this desire. Setting strict guidelines for the size, type, and resolution of photos on your site is a fantastic idea because relevant and high-resolution images speak for themselves.
Add Video or Virtual Excursions
Even more, can be learned about a real estate asset via a tour of a particular house than can be conveyed by the most in-depth and impressive collection of photographs. While a video tour is a terrific alternative, Augmented and Virtual Reality technology, on the other hand, may give consumers broad-brush but equally thorough knowledge of exterior and interior modelling.
Integrated Messaging Tool
To discover the ideal place, buyers must properly express their needs, and sellers and real estate agents must adequately address these inquiries. Therefore, everyone should find an integrated messaging tool convenient. For contacting property owners or realtors, you can either use a live chat, the quickest way to get feedback, or a direct text, audio, and video messaging system.
Advanced Features for Real Estate Website
Basic features serve as the framework for a reliable, search-engine-optimised website that is simple to use and find online. In contrast, advanced features of a real estate website offer more possibilities for enhancing the user experience.
Calendar
By integrating a calendar function with your real estate website, you can enable consumers to check the availability of real estate agents and schedule meetings to tour the property. Property owners, realtors, and clients can access the calendar this way and view and update event details unless they are prohibited from doing so. Additionally, for added convenience, you may allow the synchronisation of user profiles with outside sources like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.
Calculator
By taking into account factors including annual household income, salary and other incomes (before taxes), mortgage loan length, interest rate, and more, this feature provides a financial tool for determining the affordability of a home. It is also excellent when the cost of purchasing versus renting a real estate asset is clearly demonstrated.
Detailed Listing
The properties that appear in search results interest prospective tenants or buyers who are keen to learn as much as possible about them. You must therefore make sure that such options for the display of these particulars on your website exist.
It is easier to understand where the property is located, for instance, if neighbourhoods in the city are broken down and coloured according to how bad, extremely bad, neutral, good, or great they are.
Thanks to this feature, you may now display the data on demographics, crime rates, the median price of real estate, and other topics.
Final Thoughts
There is no denying how technology has changed the real estate industry. These days, a real estate agent cannot succeed without a website. Today, we went into great length on the features that the ideal real estate website must have.
Building trust and starting to close more residential and commercial real estate deals than ever before while satisfying all of the client’s needs and desires is becoming simpler with a custom website.
Suppose you hire and trust the superbly talented teams at Digital Rescue and our companion company TopRankings. In that case, you are multiplying your chances for success and getting a perfect website in the end.
Contribute to other people’s happiness and give them a free hand in finding a perfect place to call home. Contact us at 1300 912 950 to book a free chemistry call.
