10 Ways to Create an Engaging Real Estate Website

A staggering 99% of home buyers use the internet to search for a home.

You want to ride that virtual wave if you're a listing agent. And to capitalize on all the home-seeking activity happening on the internet, you need an online presence. 

A realtor's website serves two primary functions. Prospective buyers can check out your listings, and home sellers seeking a real estate agent can discover your services. Both of these functions help you grow your business and, in turn, earn more. 

Dive in by using an easy website builder with aesthetically pleasing templates or hiring a professional site designer to craft a one-of-a-kind page. Whichever route you take, you’re taking a smart path. Creating an engaging real estate website keeps your business on the map. 

Here are ten tips for making your site shine.

Use high-quality photos and videos 

An image says a thousand words, and you want one of them to be “wow” when a potential buyer views a listing. Use professional photos and videos on your site, helping a property make an excellent first impression. Underlit images or ones that don’t clearly express the beauty and dimensions of a space can turn folks away. 

Be mindful of not using media that’s too high-quality, either (a web professional can help with this). You don’t want your site to load slowly, as a sluggish page can negatively impact user experience. Browsers may lose interest as they wait. 

Include homes’ locations

Many home buyers aren’t just shopping for a property but also a neighborhood. Provide the exact location of a listing, so page viewers can ensure the home is in an area they like.

Go a step further and embed a map on each property listing page. This way, viewers won’t have to navigate away from your site to look up the home’s location with an external mapping service.

Make searching for homes simple

Even the most beautiful websites can fail to garner interest from users if functionality is lacking. So, help visitors find their ideal home with a property search.

Add an advanced search feature that allows users to filter by price, property type, and other details like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms or the current status of the home (i.e., available, under contract, etc.) 

Do virtual tours

Give prospective buyers an immersive, interactive experience of a property by hosting virtual tours on your site. Viewers can walk through homes, experiencing their dimensions and layouts better than through photos and videos alone. 

Creating a virtual tour is easy. There are plenty of apps that help agents make this digital asset. 

Limit text

Text-heavy pages can be hard on the eyes and turn viewers away—especially if they’ve come for photos of a house they’re interested in buying. Limit the text on your website to only the essentials, being especially careful with the verbiage on your home or landing page. Too much text in these spaces can force a page visitor to scroll endlessly looking for the information they want, which can be frustrating. This being said, there’s nothing wrong with including a comprehensive description of each home on their respective listing pages or more in-depth texts about your expertise on the About page. 

You may also want to consider doing search engine optimization (SEO). Run your site texts through an SEO tool that will help you determine good keywords to include. Pepper these words into your text, and web browsers will have an easier time finding your site and putting it in front of your target audience. 

Make contacting you easy

The primary reason for having a site is to drive business, right? Don’t lose a lead because your webpage doesn’t have clear contact information. Make it easy for interested buyers to learn more about home or a potential listing client to contact you about your representation services. 

Include your phone number and email address at the top or bottom of your webpage. And drop in a user-friendly contact form, too. Finally, add buttons linking to your social media accounts so that folks can follow you on these platforms, too. 

Don’t skip the About section

An About page is your opportunity to brag a bit, proving to potential customers why they should work with you. Share your professional accomplishments, like statistics, rankings, and awards. Imbue the text with your voice so that readers can get a feel for your personality. 

If you work in a team, be sure to include your colleagues on this page. This way, a prospective client gets a comprehensive idea of the people who support your real estate business (and may, in turn, support them in their transaction). 

Include client testimonials

Let the words of satisfied former clients speak on your behalf. Include testimonials that highlight your skills and personality. A report from PowerReviews shows that 99 percent of consumers read reviews before making a purchase, so highlight your best ones on your webpage and help forge a lead. 

You may also want to include some longer client success stories, detailing how you helped someone earn more on their sale or find an ideal home. 

Make sure your site looks good on mobile

Data from SemRush shows that mobile site visits outweigh desktop visits by 313 percent. In other words, people really prefer surfing on their mobile devices. So, your page should load quickly, look sharp, and be correctly proportioned for cell phones. 

A web designer will handle this development aspect, but if you’re creating your page solo using a site builder, be sure to toggle over to the mobile view before publishing content. This preview feature, readily available on website design platforms, helps you catch an odd spacing problem or subpar image quality before you go live.

Include a call to action 

Titus partners with the best listing agents in the real estate industry to offer their clients a unique financing option. With a zero-interest closing line of credit (CLoC), a home seller can fix up their property pre-market, driving a higher value sale and, in turn, better commissions for you, the agent. 

Learn how to team up with Titus, and put a call to action (CTA) on your site letting sellers know that if they work with you, they’ll gain exclusive access to a credit line to help them ready their home for sale.