A complete guide to building a real estate website
The real estate industry is undergoing a massive change as technologies are the real drivers behind its growth. In 2022, 51% of buyers have found their property by searching online. The promising growth of this industry has made many real estate owners go for the digital transformation of their businesses.
If you are a real estate agent who is doing business through referrals, cold calls, and struggling to survive among fierce competition, this article will guide you to escalate your business and will assist you to build a real estate website using real estate classified script and get hold of your audience and your stand in the market.
Why is it so important to build a real estate website?
Some may wonder why we need to develop a real estate website when we can continue the business with the traditional offline method. We would like you to check out a few fascinating stats on the real estate business that will change your mind and will make you focus on moving online.
- 70% of real estate businesses own a website to run their business successfully.
- Each month more than 120+ million times prospects visit property websites and 36 million unique visitors visit the platform every month.
- More than 74% of buyers have used their mobiles to buy property online.
- With effective marketing automation software, real estate agents have witnessed a 451% increase in qualified leads.
- Around 90% of real estate agents use Facebook to promote their property listings.
- 33% of buyers have bought houses after getting impressed with the property shown using AI and AR tools.
Hope these figures are more than enough to prove how significant it is to build a real estate website that will guarantee you better conversions.
Real estate web development: Benefits
So far, we have analyzed how your target audience is giving importance to real estate websites to find their properties. Now we need to understand how we are going to be benefited by developing a real estate website.
- Wider customer base — your real estate website can be visible to all who are available online. This will increase your brand visibility and simultaneously you can get a greater conversion with the increased customer base.
- Greater brand value — being online is a boon to your business. If you properly utilize social media channels then for sure you can easily get higher brand reach.
- 24/7 availability — being available online means, your property listing is available to view around the clock. A prospect can visit your website at any time and can leave their messages. You can notify your mobile about customer inquiries
- Utilize digital marketing opportunities — you can make use of your website and can implement all digital marketing strategies that will give assured results. Any marketing technique will be effective only when you have a website.
Real estate business model: how does it work?
The online real estate business model is very simple to understand. The main objective of the platform is to connect buyers with sellers’ properties. Any real estate website will carry three main functions which are rent property, sell property, and buy property.
Seller — selling process with real estate website
1. Sellers will first register themselves with the real estate website.
2. They will next list all their properties on the platform. Some may be for selling and some for renting.
3. With clear descriptions, they will list their properties. They will enter no. of rooms, property size, no. of floors, car parking facility, and many more.
4. The property will be available for buyers to view. If any buyer is interested in the property a notification will be sent to the concerned seller and he can have an in-app chat with buyers.
5. If both parties agree with their terms and conditions, the buyer will initiate the payment process.
6. The platform will deduct its commission value and will transfer the rest to the seller.
Buyer — buying process with real estate website
1. Buyers will register with the real estate website.
2. Will search for the property by choosing their preferred location and property details they want to buy or rent.
3. The platform will list down all relevant sellers who match the requirement of the buyer.
4. The buyer will check all sellers’ profiles and will compare the properties.
5. The buyer can chat with the concerned seller and can know more about the property and if the terms are comfortable the buyer can pay the seller through the app.
6. The buyer can meet the seller and proceed with the property registration process.
Admin — real estate website management
The admin will be a mediator between sellers and buyers and allows his platform to display all available properties for buyers to buy. The admin will manage all sellers and buyers who have registered themselves with the platform.
The admin can set a commission model that will make sellers pay a commission on each property sale or rental they make through the website. The admin can also have subscription plans that will let buyers subscribe and avoid any service charge they need to pay while purchasing any property through the platform.
Things to consider while building a real estate website
You have understood the real estate business model. With this knowledge, you will able to manage your real estate website. Now we need to know how to develop a real estate website that will get you better traffic and good conversion.
To reach our goal in our business, we need to focus on a few crucial aspects while building a real estate website. Let us analyze those elements and start to build a real estate website with customer-centric features.
1. Simple navigation
60% of visitors leave the site if it does not support better navigation. A user-friendly website will have cool navigation features that will make visitors find it easy to get to the exact property page they search for.
Your real estate website should have an About page that will have complete details about the real estate agency or the owner. Listings should be kept on a separate page so that visitors can directly enter that page and start searching.
The contact page is very essential and it should provide complete details about the real estate owner. Multiple communication channels should be available on the website that will let the visitors instantly get in touch with the seller.
2. Advanced search and filtering options
Each real estate website will contain thousands of properties listed on the website. With normal search, visitors can filter rent, buy, house, or condo. But this will not be sufficient to offer a better user experience.
An advanced search option is needed that will further break down the search and will let visitors get to the exact property page they are searching for. For this multiple filters should be provided. Some of the property filters are
- Property type: apartment, single villa, commercial building, etc.
- Number of bedrooms: this will let visitors choose the number of bedrooms which can be 1,2,3, or any.
- Budget: this is a very essential filter as each visitor will have their budget fixed already and they need to see properties that lie within their budget.
- Location: This is also very crucial as people will be more conscious to live in their comfortable location.
- Luxury features: apart from all the above, there are many more additional luxury requirements like a swimming pool, BBQ area, car parking, and many more.
3. Geo-location mapping
Property rental or buying is all about location. People have their priorities and will search accordingly. You need to link your listing to Google Maps. This will let the buyers check with the property whether they lie near transport hubs, schools, hospitals, and many more.
Having an interactive map is an added advantage for any real estate agent. You can use an aerial view of your property and can post them on your website. This will give a better understanding of the surroundings of your property.
4. Device responsive design
89% of people use their mobile phones to access any online platforms. This proves that having a responsive design for your real estate website is mandatory. Visitors will bounce out of your website if it is non-responsive to their device.
A good responsive design will enhance user experience and will make them stay on your site for a long time. They can view images with better resolution and can have seamless navigation. You need to put extra effort into building a responsive design.
5. High-quality videos and images
Real estate websites that have videos have 90% conversion rates as visitors are easily convinced about the property. Not all properties can be visited physically in the very first stage. First, they will check all videos and images about the property and then they will proceed further.
Having an eye-catching video presentation and image posting will help you to attract more audience and it has a major role in getting you the potential buyers. Even in the post-pandemic, people hesitate to travel and meet others. So, the images and videos you are going to have in your platform need to give the look and feel experience.
6. Contact forms
Contact forms are very essential for any real estate website. This will be a medium of communication for visitors as they get connected to you. They will also fill in their details like mobile number, email id, and many more. You can easily maintain their data and can get in touch with them whenever you announce any new offers.
Through contact forms, you can also understand your visitors’ needs. This will get you a clear picture of what type of property your visitors are searching for, and this will give insights about what listing can be added to your website by analysing visitors’ preferences.
7. Internet Data Exchange integration (IDX)
IDX is a policy that uses multiple listing services and will let all real estate agencies share listings that are available in their areas. The entire business operations are carried out through cloud-automation systems.
The IDX system will display all listings on your websites. The visitors can search for currently active listings. The system will protect visitors’ information and will let them choose which agencies they can share their information.
8. Focus on SEO
Search engine optimization is one of the best digital marketing techniques that assures better results. This process will enhance your website’s visibility to all online audiences. It is also a great lead-generation strategy.
As we have already discussed that people buy the property after searching them online, for this we need to get our website to be listed on the top of the search pages. This is possible only when doing SEO for your website.
How to build a real estate website?
Now we have come to the right session of our blog. You have been so patient in learning about the significance of building a real estate website and things to consider during the development process. Now we will get into the real estate web development process.
You have two options to build a real estate website.
a. Building a real estate website from scratch
b. Choosing a reliable real estate website script.
Building from scratch is very challenging as it will take more time to complete the product and you may need a heavy budget to invest in the development process. You need to find a perfect and experienced development team and then should share your requirements with them and get the product completed. For any beginner or startup, we will not recommend this method, rather we would recommend them to go for a real estate website script.
Benefits of choosing real estate website scripts
- Scalable and customizable — although real estate website scripts are developed with all essential features, you can ask for customization and get your website to meet all your real estate business needs.
- Quick launch — as the real estate website script is already developed, you can easily deploy the website in a few days. It is good to start your real estate business instantly as the competition is getting tougher day by day.
- Cost-effective solution — when compared to website building from scratch, real estate website scripts are much cheaper and affordable.
- High success rate — as real estate website scripts are widely implemented with many real estate businesses, you can find all the essential features and functionalities that will take you on the path to success.
Get your premium real estate website script with Appkodes
Appkodes is a leading and trustworthy app development company that can support users of all business sizes to have a reliable digital platform. You can get your real estate website script with Appkodes which provides full-transparent and customizable source code.
Multiple features that include SEO-friendly design, Analytics and reporting, in-app chat, featured promotions, push notifications, multi-currency support, multiple payment options, and many more are supported through the real classified estate script.
Appkodes has greater credibility as it offers great customer support and will make sure that each client receives what he wants for his business. With 10+ years of experience, Appkodes has greater market understanding and customers’ frequently changing buying behaviour. Get connected and give life to your dreams with Appkodes.
