Most Real Estate Websites Stink

Most potential buyers and sellers of real estate start their search for a house or property online.  Most find or clarify who they might wish to represent them online.  Real estate agents and brokers dominate online.

The problem is that the actual web presence of most real estate agents and brokerages are simply atrocious.  They are bad, and bland, and uninformative.  They offer nothing to the viewer.  Too many rely either on bad templates executed poorly, or on companies that charge good money but really only rely on templates themselves.  And, the free websites that agencies provide?  Most are just useless.

Then there are the websites on the other side of the spectrum. Design is great, but it is all just a show.  There is so much flash that for a second you might forget that the site has no real content.

Content is king.  It is not only key for placement on Google and other search engines, but what people are really looking for is content.  And, not just a list of your listings.  How too articles, posts, descriptions.  Detailed information about your market, school districts, values and the like.  Not just bad link to the MLS.  Or, what about those agency sites in which you have to input your personal information just to access MLS.  Talk about disrespecting the consumer.  Forget the flash.  A little design would be nice.  You need video.  Not slick video.  Youtube video.  Simply video that talks to people.  We are talking cheap tech, easy to use, easy to set up, and nobody does it.

It took me 10 minutes with Illustrator and Typepad to set up this site.  The site I describe might take an hour.  I am not an expert. Yet, real estate agencies and brokerages pay out the nose for this stuff and it simply does not look good.  It impresses nobody.  And why should it.  A web designer knows nothing about your market, your abilities or how you sell a property.  I hate to say it, but most sites look the way they do because they are afterthoughts in which little personal time is spent on the site by the agent or brokerage.  Someone pays to have it thrown together because, well, you are expected to have a website.

If you expect to succeed in real estate, you had better darn well concentrate on the Web a little bit better.  That is my advice.  If your brokerage is not helping you do this effectively, is not motivating you to do this actively, is not pushing you to add content, content, content, then what good is the brokerage.

Think about it this way.  How can you succeed in a market dominated or motivated increasing by the Web if you and your brokerage do not have an aggressive web strategy?  Forget about how many clients or customers you represent.  Think about how many you have given up.

Most potential buyers and sellers of real estate start their search for a house or property online.  Most find or clarify who they might wish to represent them online.  Real estate agents and brokers dominate online.

The problem is that the actual web presence of most real estate agents and brokerages are simply atrocious.  They are bad, and bland, and uninformative.  They offer nothing to the viewer.  Too many rely either on bad templates executed poorly, or on companies that charge good money but really only rely on templates themselves.  And, the free websites that agencies provide?  Most are just useless.

Then there are the websites on the other side of the spectrum. Design is great, but it is all just a show.  There is so much flash that for a second you might forget that the site has no real content.

Content is king.  It is not only key for placement on Google and other search engines, but what people are really looking for is content.  And, not just a list of your listings.  How too articles, posts, descriptions.  Detailed information about your market, school districts, values and the like.  Not just bad link to the MLS.  Or, what about those agency sites in which you have to input your personal information just to access MLS.  Talk about disrespecting the consumer.  Forget the flash.  A little design would be nice.  You need video.  Not slick video.  Youtube video.  Simply video that talks to people.  We are talking cheap tech, easy to use, easy to set up, and nobody does it.

It took me 10 minutes with Illustrator and Typepad to set up this site.  The site I describe might take an hour.  I am not an expert. Yet, real estate agencies and brokerages pay out the nose for this stuff and it simply does not look good.  It impresses nobody.  And why should it.  A web designer knows nothing about your market, your abilities or how you sell a property.  I hate to say it, but most sites look the way they do because they are afterthoughts in which little personal time is spent on the site by the agent or brokerage.  Someone pays to have it thrown together because, well, you are expected to have a website.

If you expect to succeed in real estate, you had better darn well concentrate on the Web a little bit better.  That is my advice.  If your brokerage is not helping you do this effectively, is not motivating you to do this actively, is not pushing you to add content, content, content, then what good is the brokerage.

Think about it this way.  How can you succeed in a market dominated or motivated increasing by the Web if you and your brokerage do not have an aggressive web strategy?  Forget about how many clients or customers you represent.  Think about how many you have given up.