I know a lot of people on here are concerned with gaining leads off his/her website. But what does your website or "brand" say about you and your product? Do you have a personal brand? Do you have a personal logo design? Do you have a non-generic looking website?

All and all, I am trying to figure out if it's worth it to spend money on creating a beautiful looking website. Is it worth it for graphic design, logo design and website development. Or do I just stick with the generic looking website every Realtor has? I would imagine if it was so "worth it" every Realtor would spend money on building a fabulous brand/website. After all it only cost one of two sales, right? Why doesn't every Realtor spend money on this?

The only thing I can come up with is... It's not worth it…? What is the correct answer? Are Realtors just too fugal to spend or is all this just money wasted?

Thanks in advance.

- Will

I think most realtors are too ignorant to fully understand the value in a good website.

That said, most realtors don't understand what a good website is.

Hint: it's about the content more than anything else. You can't get good content with a cookie cutter site.

You need to have something that is a fine balance between beauty and function (both for consumers and seo purposes).

Many Realtors err on the side of "cool sites" without much content. Won't work.

Some err the other way with a lot of content but that is not organized properly or is not user friendly. Won't work.

The trick is in finding the balance between the two.

Seeing as how most people start looking for homes online, I think it's important for every real estate professional to have some type of web presence. A friend refers you to another friend who has been searching listings online, odds are pretty good that friend is going to google you or look at your website before calling.

While I think everyone should have some type of web presence, I think the type of site depends on the type of business that you do. Most of my lead generation is online so most of my site is setup to capture contact information in exchange for useful reports, etc. I just finished a site for an agent in my office who does very little online but wanted a site that reflected her and her style of business so it's more of a brochure site that features listings, sold properties and testimonials. Right now, I'm working on another one that is a mix of the two.

A personal website is very affordable and is so easy to get that I don't think anyone should be using a cookie cutter site their broker gives them. Brand yourself, not your broker.

Oh, and if someone is quoting you something equal to two transactions to put a site together, you're being robbed. Or you split is really jacked.

You want to make your website "sticky" - so that potential buyers use it as a resource and when they're reasy to pull the trigger, they think of you. And content is king.

Put it in another perspective, do buyers go to automotive websites to learn abour car salemen? Of course not. They want to see inventory, they want to see product information, they want a CarFax report.

Same with real estate. They want information on inventory, links to school data, community events, local government, shopping, restaurants, and so forth. A good agent website that is frequently updated will bring potential buyers back again and again.

Lead generation is what selling real estate is all about, plain and simple.

If your site is generating leads then spending money to make it fancy might generate more leads or it might generate higher quality leads or it might chase people away. It all depends on your market.

Personally, I have never had trouble generating leads with ugly duckling websites.

All you need is a call to action that people want and way for them to find it.

I believe a website is necessary. Simple is good, but it has to look good as well otherwise it will be overlooked. There are tons of websites out there, so yours stands out form the rest. I would also do newsletters or football magnets. Marketing is key and you want to get your name out there. I have sent out Chicago Bears schedule magnets with all my contact info on them and got more responses than ever. If you put forth the money in the beginning, it will be worth it at the end.

I refer current clients to my website to search homes, find local phone numbers, and read some of the info posted on them. I think they are important aside from lead generation. Of course lead generation is the primary reason for my site, but there are other benefits.

A website can make you good money in this business. It is a lot of work to make your website gain traffic. Just like anything else, you have to keep it up and the moment you stop so does the money.

I get calls and messages all the time from prospects who want to know more about a property they've seen on my site. Its interesting because I have no listings at this time. Instead, prospects call on listings from other agents with whom I have an agreement. They may also call on listings found through IDX.

Some other values of a website

--Syndication: We covered this before on another thread, so I won't go into it again here.
--Seller's portal: When I do have listings, sellers are able to access an area of my site to see the amount of activity being generated.
--Contact me: The site provides another way for prospects to contact me. It's funny. I get email messages through my site from SEO companies all the time and I think, "well you found me."

Sure, it could be more visually appealing, but functionality and reach are priority in my opinion. I'll tune it up a bit, when I have the money to put toward that lower priority.

I couldn't agree more with Perky Realtor (funny how I always tend to agree with Perky Realtor!). In any event, a website is a tool or resource to aid in your productivity. It is supposed to provide your clients and other visitors with value and easy of use. But it is also supposed to help you grow your client base. This means having great content and superb search engine rankings for your target market. Good luck!

A good website is crucial. There are tons of templated sites and companies that will sell you anything but you have to make sure your information is current and informative. Just about everyone is doing their homework online now and come to you with very pointed questions that they have learned from some other site. Keep it fresh and you will get leads from it. Converting them on the other hand is up to you.

It is very important to have a website presence. Sure you want it to look attractive for your clients, but it also should have SEO with the correct codes in the content to be found in the search engines.

Just having a pretty website isn't enough, you want to be found in the search engines when people are looking for real estate agents in your specific area. With the right codes embedded in the content you will show up in the search engines.

Also,I have started a new project to help real estate agents pump up and give pizazz to their listings by putting movie quality videos on their sites. I have done a couple videos already for some agents in California and the results turned out very well for them.

I have extremely lowered the price to help agents make more money from it. I have done some research and noticed that agents are using just slide show videos or the virtual tours and those are usually around $150.00. I have also found that those videos are kind of boring and don't have much to them. Thats when I decided to pump up the videos and make them better both financially and visually.

If you want more information on these videos you can email me at admin@freesiteanalysis.org or go to my website at www.freesiteanalysis.org and I will be more than happy to answer any questions.

I have some friends that are real estate agents and they were wondering on how to better sell their listings, so I gave it some thought and figured out a way to help them, and they love it!

I just thought I would share that bit of info. :)

I think Perky presents a good argument as to the problem that many realtors lacking a good understanding of the internet, and of how internet marketing works, face when deciding upon an online strategy for their business. A well-maintained website can serve a variety of purposes for your business and is definitely a very beneficial asset to have in your marketing arsenal. That said, many realtors do not understand the numerous variables and interactions involved in building/maintaining an effective web presence, and hence they often will focus too much one variable (an attractive, functional website, for example) and not enough time on other equally important variables (search engine optimization to drive traffic to the website, just to name one).

The problem I see with spending a lot of money on websites is that google is only going to ever show a few of them at the top of the search results.

If your website is not on the first page then it is often not worth the effort to create an maintain. Websites either needs to be a core marketing effort that you spend a lot of time, money and effort on to be at the top. Or you go with a cookie cutter site you can refer existing clients to.

I was asking myself the same questions as you were when I began looking into a website. I think Gayla touched on what made me focus more on my site. When I googled my name, I was not first on the list. In three days I focused my site to make sure when you type my name, my site is first.

It was quick to move up because not much competition for it on google. But think of what all people search for in real estate, and try to be first on the non-conventional searches, and you'll see much better results.

Plus, don't spend too much money on your site. With all the site builder software out that is free, I only spent $124 for the year and that included the domain name. I have the space to keep about 20 listings on there. I use links back to my broke site for more properties which reads the cookie showing it was from my site and I get the lead. Was well worth the investment. Also, most of the software make SEO much easier to obtain.

It depends where you live and what your target market is. We have found in our research that in most areas higher-end lead are generally referral based.

Don't go into it lightly.

Think about your web page as if you were the visitor.
What would you be looking for?

Look into an autoresponder.

Be patient - it will take a lot of time for your site to begin to draw visitors.

Learn about SEO = Search Engine Optimazation

Learn HTML

Find examples of web sites you like.

Remember - Visitors aren't customers & customers aren't clients.

Most web page designers don't "get it" & most charge way too much.

Find a specialty you like & stick with it.