With over 1.4 million realtors nationwide, your website needs to stand out.
The average home buyer or seller is not looking for an average realtor. They want the best. The best are successful because their websites are unparalleled.
You work day in and day out procuring the perfect homes. So why don't people know about them? Why is nobody asking you about your properties?
Your website is lacking.
The best personal real estate websites employ a multitude of features to keep their leads flowing. While reading through, keep in mind how many of these elements your website includes. Lacking in any one them may be the reason you're not reaching your peak number of leads.
What Makes the Best Personal Real Estate Websites Successful?
There are three main criteria for creating successful personal real estate websites.
- Ease
- Quality
- Accessibility
The best personal realty websites are easy to navigate. They make you, the realtor, accessible. And the quality of their properties is unlike their competitors. Does this sound like you?
If you can't provide a potential lead with these three things, you won't have a lead.
Ease
As a realtor, your job is to make the home buying experience as simple and pain-free as possible for your clients. This starts on your website before your client even meets you.
To ensure that you successfully snag your leads, your website has to be easy to navigate.
The best personal real estate websites use these six important features.
Include a Map View
A specific neighborhood, city, or even street can be a deal-breaker for potential home buyers.
Do they need to be close to home, close to family, or the best restaurants? Adding a map feature allows your potential leads to see what you have to offer in the area they're interested in.
With an easy to navigate map, they can find their dream home on your website before even looking at pictures.
Smartphone Friendly
Your potential lead is not always going to house hunt at home on their desktop computer. Technology is changing, and so should your website. If not already, your website design needs to go mobile.
Make your website mobile friendly and adaptive. Soon you'll see the number of leads increase.
Advanced Search Option
There's a good chance that not everyone visiting your website is a first time home buyer or seller. This means they know exactly what to look for.
Incorporating an advanced search will give your potential buyers the power to sift through your portfolio. An IDX search bar is a great way to do this. An IDX search bar gives your potential clients the option to find exactly what they're looking for.
IDX search bars allow for more complex searches and attract more potential buyers. You should also make sure they can save their searches to make it easier to come back to.
Ability to Sort your Listings
Again, people have their deal breakers. It's nothing against your or your properties, but your leads know what they want and they want to find it fast.
Your potential leads don't want to search through dozens of properties. If a pool is a deal-breaker, make it easy for them to find those properties.
By supplying your website with a sort feature, your leads can find the properties that are best for them. You can use parameters such as price, age of the property, or square footage to get started.
Functional
As important as aesthetics are, your website still has to be functional.
Your website is a reflection of your talents as a realtor. If your client doesn't find your website reliable, why should they trust you to buy or sell their home?
Your website has to be up to date, and this doesn't only include listings. Make sure your contact information, search bars, and parameters are all functioning too.
Attractiveness
Functionality aside, your website has to be visually appealing.
This goes deeper than images or font though. Not only does your website need to be readable, but your aesthetic has to be clean and professional.
Jamie Tian does a great job of this. Not only is his home page simple, but it also directs the eye toward the navigation tabs.
Quality
Your properties should be the star of your website.
The best personal real estate websites prove that they have the best to offer. They showcase this through the quality of their images and provided resources. If your website says one thing about you, it should say you buy and sell OUTSTANDING properties.
You can prove to your client you are capable of buying or selling their home in a few different ways.
No matter the vessel, you have to provide quality.
Image Galleries
Even when a prospective buyer has narrowed down their choices, you still have work to do. Once they've found something they like, they're going to want to see pictures, lots of pictures.
Imagine if you were buying an expensive suit online. Would you want to buy it if it didn't include pictures of the back of the suit or the pants? No. Your buyers don't want to see a house that doesn't show the living room or backyard.
Your likelihood of finding a buyer for that home will decrease.
The more pictures, the better idea your leads will have of what kind of property you're offering. Even more informative are 3D models.
Though sometimes pricey, 3D models have increased in popularity because of an increase in remote home buying. If you have the resources, 3D models are a great way to entice your buyer from the start.
Matterport is an industry leader in 3D real estate modeling. Their detailed 3D software allows potential leads to get a feel for the inside of the home by taking virtual tours.
Social Sharing Tools
So the potential lead on your website didn't find their dream home, that's okay. You still have an opportunity to gain a lead.
With a social sharing tool, your properties reach potential buyers they otherwise wouldn't. Make your listings shareable so more people hear about them!
Incorporating this tool allows a dead lead to refer you to people in need of your service.
Testimonials
If there's one thing potential clients trust, its reviews from real people. Testimonials provide unbiased advice from people who have worked with you. This is important in establishing a positive professional reputation.
What better way to keep someone on your website than highlighting someone else's stellar experience? Good feedback from the clients you've worked with will only reinforce a potential lead's confidence in you.
When a deal is final, ask your clients to let you know how you did by filling out a testimonial. The key to getting as many as possible is to make it as easy on them as you can. Make these visible on your home page or next to your listings.
Resources
Providing valuable, quality information on your website is crucial to standing out. It allows you the opportunity to engage with potential clients in a variety of ways.
Do you primarily sell family homes in the suburbs? You could consider adding a list of the best schools and grocery stores in the area to your site. Adjust the resources you provide on your website to your targeted market profile. This will increase your odds of finding the perfect buyer.
Other examples of relevant resources would be market information or local community resources. This information can be helpful regardless of your target market.
Landing Pages
A landing page is important because it expands upon the information your lead is looking for. In the resources you provide, you will most likely want to incorporate landing pages.
A landing page is usually to provide additional information in a focused format. You still want your website to look clean and professional, but provide as much information for your leads as possible.
Accessibility
The best personal real estate websites are always accessible to their clients.
Your properties should be the star of your website, but you're the one that's going to get them sold. Your leads should have a clear line of communication with you.
A lot of questions come up during the home buying or selling process, so you have to give your leads a way to ask. Accessibility comes in a few different ways:
- blogs
- clear contact information
- ample amount of follow up
- website chat features
Blogs
You have to provide the information your leads will come back for, even after they've found or sold their home. This means posting valuable information through other means, such as a blog.
A blog on your website allows your clients to access your expertise outside of the buying or selling process. It gives you industry credibility and shows your clients that you're willing to answer their questions directly.
You can post about projects you're working on, new properties, or new neighborhoods you may be selling in. You can also answer common misconceptions or clear up questions about the buying and selling process. A comment section would also be a great way to connect with potential clients.
The content is up to you, as long as it's interesting and relevant to your target market.
Now that you have a blog, your potential and current clients have access to a different side of your services. When they are ready to buy or sell, you'll be the first one they think of.
Clear Contact Information
The most important aspect of your website is contact information. If a potential client is interested in your services, this is the first thing they will look for. Put this front and center on your website.
Invite the potential leads to call, email, or send in an inquiry card to get more information. You don't want to clutter up your website by providing blocks of text. Instead, prompt this contact information in case they have more questions.
Follow Up
You need to be easy to contact. If a buyer or seller has a question or concern, they need to be able to reach you quickly and easily. This is what the contact information is for.
However, adding Call Now buttons, your email address, and inquiry or guest cards on your website will increase your number of leads as well. Once you have these leads, you need to know what to do with them.
Start by responding immediately. Your leads shouldn't go unanswered for more than 24 hours, and if they do, you've most likely already lost them. The sooner your lead has an answer to their question about a property, the more likely they'll be to act on it.
Live Chatting and Texting Features
When you're available, use a live chat or text software. Your leads will increase because people don't want to be ignored.
On email, sometimes responses can become delayed. Avoid this by employing a chat program that directs leads to specific pages on your site. More complex questions can get directed to your office for immediate response.
Immediate response times let your leads know you're there ready to help them. When they decide to buy or sell with you, they'll remember this dedication.
Jill Dojka asks her site's visitors to text her twice on her home page. By providing more access to your services, your buyers and sellers will feel more secure.
Personal Statements
Let your clients get to know you before they decide to buy or sell with you.
To be more accessible to your client, you should be willing to provide your experience. You're proving that you and your property are worth their time and money.
You can provide how many years of experience you have or special credentials you hold. Even professional organizational memberships can be important to mention. Mentioning things like this helps you create a connection with your client.
Introducing yourself to prospects shows that you are willing to prove you're the best realtor to buy or sell their house.
Jason O'Beirne does this on his home page, which is also an About Me page. He introduces himself and his team while detailing his working experience.
Put These Tips to the Test
Tailor these tips to your website and watch your leads grow.
If you make your website easy to navigate, your leads will want to stay on it longer. If your pictures and content are quality, you'll generate more interest. If you are accessible, you have the power to show your client why you're the best.
Now that you have the same tools as the best personal real estate websites, you can apply them to your own. Ease, quality, and accessibility are the key features you want to have. While I detailed several different ways to achieve this, use what works best for your website!
Need more local marketing tips? Check out our entire Guide to Local Marketing for Real Estate Professionals
