Hi all,

I'm a future real estate agent and I would love to learn all I can about developing a strong real estate presence online. What is the best way to go about that? Where do I go to learn about it? Any classes or books I should get? Online class? I find myself lost just reading some of the conversations on here!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

Mir - another hopeful RE agent in San Diego

just from my personal experience most people dont like the "personal messy agent" site, which most of them are, they would prefer a profesional looking site to search homes like realtor, homegains, etc.

say i would say keep it clean, REAL clean, and get your IDX link from your board.

Here is my OLD website, its the best i could do with what i had for free. My new one i spent 2k, its 80% flash, CLEAN, and only 9 pages to the whole site.
www.free-homeguides.com
(ps, this was before i completly change the site to homeconsulting, llc instead of "myself")

Just another piece of advice. Dont use Flash. Search engines have a hard time with flash and it will hurt you more than help.

Flash websites are very attractive but the search engine spiders dont like flash. Plus another disadvantage is load time with flash. Imagine going to a website and having to wait 60 sec or more for the site to load. Most consumers you have about 30 sec to catch their attention. If you havent by then, you just lost them.

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The Best Real Estate Agents in Las Vegas and Atlanta in the Las Vegas Real Estate Market Atlanta Real Estate Market offering Las Vegas Homes for sale and Atlanta Homes

And Flash, like audio, gets old after awhile. Good for first-time visitors but not returnees.

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South Bay:Torrance Real Estate

From what I gathered, the best method to building any website and hoping for success is to make a through plan of attack well before you actually start. I think most would agree that you would like to make your site Search engine friendly from the very beginning rather then "overhauling" it after you created it. It was good advice to keep it clean. I would also second the avoidance of flash and other such neat things. Clean and simple. I would say your hardest task would be finding your keywords to target and sticking to them. Use Overture, it's your friend. And content is always a plus, as for real estate utilities are usually a good replacement for content. I.E. mortage calculators - many of which can be found as free scripts to add in, real estate glossary's, and neighborhood profiles. If you can do all that and still keep your site simple and clean cut, have the IDX feed, your probably off to a great start.

Just my two cents.
~Matt

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Coos Bay Oregon REAL ESTATE - Century 21 Best Realty Inc.

Definitely limit flash. Also I think that the bigger the website, the better your chance of keeping the customer that shows up. The only cavat to that is have pages of good content, not pages for pages sake. A good example is the guy who has "printer friendly" pages for the his link exchange pages. Instead having pages on different developments, cities in your market, things to do, etc.

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Visit the most comprehensive Las Vegas Real Estate and Henderson Real Estate website online. Or look at pictures of my Parrot

Thanks so much for your ideas. Considering I have very limited knowledge about creating a web site, are there any classes are easy-to-understand books to read? Or would I be better of just hiring someone to create it for me? If that is the case, how much does that normally run and where is the best place to look for that type of service? I also want to be able to update it myself. I don't want to rely on the webmaster to do it for me.

Thanks all!

Mir

With a question like that you are going to be getting a lot of posters making offers to you. Like me.

With regard to creating your own or getting someone to do it for you, you need to think about where you are going to be making your best money. Are you a really good sales person? Then you shouldn't be spending time in the office working on the website. Even if you have to pay quite a bit more than you could do it yourself, it is better to get it made for you.

Sorry...this part has to go. There are NO blatant solicitations allowed on this site.

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Real Estate Website Content | Black Diamond Real Estate | Turner Valley Real Estate | Real Estate Website Developers

[This message has been edited by Rich@vtws (edited 11-18-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Rich@vtws (edited 11-18-2004).]

OK Everyone,
PLEASE lets lighten up on the solicitations. Put your site in your signature...participatre honestly and [eople will contact you if they are interested. Word to the wise...if someone from this board contacts you...you better deliver

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Rich
VTWS Real Estate websites are among the top lead
generating Real Estate Websites in markets across the United States for Realtors and Companies alike.
Real Estate Search Engine Optimization

www.m-w.com defines blatant as: "completely obvious, conspicuous, or obtrusive especially in a crass or offensive manner" -thought the edited part may have been obvious but definitely not crass or offensive - sorry for any crossing of the rules

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Real Estate Website Content | Black Diamond Real Estate | Turner Valley Real Estate | Real Estate Website Developers

There are quite a few companies that specialize on real estate sites. For your first site, you might want to consider one of those. Be prepared, they aren't cheap. Here's a short list of the top providers: advancedaccess.com, homes.com, point2.com, number1expert, and here of course! If you go to a personal webdesigner, you may or may not have better luck. I would definitely do some research, see examples of their work and where those site rank in the se's. But keep in mind that the webmaster of the site has quite a lot to do with that as well, mainly you'll need to know the tools available to you to create new content and update the site.

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Visit the most comprehensive Las Vegas Real Estate , Summerlin Real Estate and Henderson Real Estate website online. Or look at pictures of my Parrot

Thanks for your ideas everyone. This is something I really need to do my research on. I appreciate you all heading me in the right direction.

Mir

Mir,

Not sure if you have made a decision yet but I think point2agents is still free and easy to use. I assist the new agents in my office in setting up their initial sites there. Free works and on a tight new budget, it is the right price.

J

Always remember one thing. Most consumers dont care about what you have for information on your site even though to have it available is important. Consumers only care about 2 things. Pictures and being able to search for homes.

The rest of the content you have on your website is really just fluff. I am sure that most real estate webmasters would admit that the most visited page on their real estate website is the home search page.

That is so true - just check any website logs. Although I wouldn't recommend this I have one client who cut his site down to just a couple of pages - the entry page and a Home Search form - no other info (not even about him) - and there was no drop in business.

The other pages are helpful to some of your existing clients etc. but for anyone who finds you on the web they are generally meanngless. Try and tell that to someone who just signed up for a site because they offer "hundreds of pages" though

Just a quick followup - something I have been saying for years is that the most important thing about a Realtor's website is its search engine positioning. As long as it has good positioning and a Home Search form you will make money. You don't even need listings on the site. All the content and the design is meaningless if the site can't be found.

I agree one hundred percent with you Doug. I rememeber when I first came to you, young and dumb about real estate and the internet..lol you tired to tell me haha

Well I have personally seen it to many times now. SOME UGLY websites ranked number 1 making a ton of money. Goes to show you # 1 doesnt always mean the best.

Your thirst for knowledge has served you well

froggiam - you show a thirst for knowledge also so I am sure you will do well in your future internet endeavors too. Just remember that you can't cross the bridges until you come to them - don't research forever. Sometimes you just have to do it and learn from your mistakes!

That is so true about mistakes. I have made a few and will admit it, but as long as you can learn from your mistakes and you will make some, you will do very well. The internet is just like anything else you get out of it what you put into it. Best Of Luck

Don't use frames! Frame-based websites are disliked by search engines and users alike. We recommend http://www.gridsix.com

And on the note of Flash: many search engines now index Flash content. If done right, Flash can be a pleasant addition to any web site.

Hi raustin...
Please forgive this visit by the posting police
Your reccomendation for gridsix doesn't have anything to do with your relationship with them would it

In the furure...

If anyone wants to ask people to take a look at their product and why it's great, their iss a new forum for that but replying to posts without full disclosure is not allowed.

Terribly sorry... So if I post in the appropriate section and then link to that post, we're cool?

Raustin,
Just posts any topics about your service that you would like to in one of the product forums so everything is above board and everyone knows what it is. We just like to keep things clear and keep the regular forums free of solicitations

Learn HTML and CSS, but learn mostly CSS. PHP and SQL are great too.

you are puting right step for your real estate business. I prefer to have website whose each and every keyword have its own targeted keyword so that it help visitor to easily find what he is searching also easy for you to target on search engine

It is a lot of work to be competitive in such a demanding market like real estate. Working daily on promoting, linking and adding content is the only way to go.

Have you thought about just buying a template and building a site on wordpress. I wouldn't become a subdirectory of a main site like Active Rain.

I say this as both an broker and a web developer. A pro site is well worth the money and will pay well over what you paid for it, if you get the correct firm. I have been doing this on my own much like the intro video to this forum states since around 1993. Long gone are the days of throwing up a few keywords and you are found. The competitiveness of the web today is extreme. Maybe create a well "informational" blog, but you should have a real web site worthy of the price tag of the items you sell. A good agent does not have the time to learn this quickly and it changes all the time. So do your self a HUGE favor invest in a professional company. I learned my lesson after many years so I finally created my own web company since many of my businesses are web based and hired people who know what they are doing. Free advice is what you pay for, and you get what you pay for in the end. With that said, I do learn from free advice but its not my mainstay. I am not trying to sell anything here as we are very busy and we are small, but the admin at the top is 100% correct--if you do not get found then you might as well not have a site. You can do some of your own SEO and we encourage our clients to do that. Yet today unless your a vet and keep up , you may never get off the ground and need a LOT of guidance.

You could learn to become a web designer, but it would be best if you would focus on your profession. I find that the people that most likely succeed become excellent in their own field.