Ankush Tripathi on
Nov 23, 2022
Building a website has never been easier, no matter your profession. Website building for real estate offices is no exception - there are tons of sites you can use. Many will meet your needs with very little technical know-how, and the best real estate website builder tools have drag-and-drop design dashboards that make it easy.
Here's a look at the eight best options for making a website for realtors.
Why Do Realtors Need a Website?
Like any other profession, realtors need a website that represents their business in the best possible way.
In today's market, your site is likely the first impression you make on clients. They expect the site to be modern, professional, and useful. It needs to provide them with the information they're looking for - your listings and an MLS search tool-and make it easy for them to contact you. It needs to do all this flawlessly, or they will call the agent whose site works and looks better.
What to Look for in the Best Website Builders for Real Estate Agents
Real estate agents need a web-building tool with the following qualities.
- Easy to use
- IDX integrations for MLS listings
- Attractive and professional templates
- Lead capture and CRM options
- SEO-friendly design and tools
Easy-to-Use Interface
Your website is an enormous part of your business, and keeping it up-to-date is vital. Much of it can be automated, but you'll still want to make changes, post blog updates, and keep the content fresh.
To do that, you need to pick something easy to use. Unfortunately, in the world of web builders, ease of use isn't always a priority. Some of these programs are most useful for professionals. If you're trying to do the work yourself, you need something easier to use.
IDX Integrations
The most important thing your site will do is provide visitors with the ability to browse MLS listings...both your own and everyone else's. The ability to do this requires an IDX (Internet Data Exchange) integration. This tool works on your website to connect to the MLS.
Once the integration is running, it will pull the data from the MLS. That means you can update listings in one place. Keep your MLS listing updated, and then make sure your website connection settings display as you want them to. For example, you can set up a filter to show a page of your listings, or enable website visitors to make custom search queries.
Attractive Templates
These days, your webpage is the face of your business. You need it to be beautiful, organized, professional, and welcoming. A lot of this comes down to excellent design, both from the graphics and the user interface perspectives. And while you might be gifted in some of these fields, starting with beautifully designed templates makes building and keeping your site updated all the easier. The less you have to do to improve the templates, the further ahead you'll be.
Lead Capture, Schedule a Showing, and Contact Forms
Any type of marketing depends on a sales funnel. The first step of the funnel is capturing leads, which is the most important part of your website. To accomplish this, your site needs to be built to encourage visitors to interact with it and tell you that they're interested.
A lot goes into this, but the goal is to establish a relationship with your clients. That takes more work than simply getting their email address or encouraging them to call you. Ideally, you'll have a customized email marketing solution set up and integrated through your website. You'll also have integrations to get them to follow you on social media. You may even use a CRM software to store customer data and track customer interactions.
Nearly all web builders will include tools that give you a basic contact form, only few have the specialized tools that real estate agents will want. Many agents use integrations that include a scheduling option right on the listing webpage, so visitors can click "schedule a showing" right there. This makes it easier for clients to commit to seeing you in person instead of filling out forms or picking up the phone.
SEO Friendly Design
Your webpage needs to be built from the ground up with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind. Some SEO is in how you word and organize things, but some of it comes from the design and backend functionality. To that end, the website builder must have put in the work to ensure your site won't be limited in any way.
Here is our selection of the Best Website Builders for Realtors:
The number of options for building websites is a bit overwhelming. If there's one thing you should realize, it's that every choice has its pluses and minuses. Not all real estate website builder interfaces offer the same sets of features.
So start your search by inventorying what you want from your real estate website creator. Then, with this list of "must haves" in hand, compare your options carefully.
Pixpa
The Pixpa website builder is great for creative professionals like photographers and artists for building portfolio websites. Pixpa offers over 150+ pixel-perfect, modern and responsive templates to fit every style and requirement. These templates are some of the most beautiful and professional you will come across, and they are fully customizable to meet your needs. Adding pages to your website is a breeze with Pixpa's drag-and-drop page builder. As a result, many professionals now use Pixpa to build their websites, and it's perfect for real estate agents.
Features
For small businesses, Pixpa offers everything you need in one place. What sets them apart, however, is their gorgeous templates that are modern, responsive, and can be fully customized.
Pros
- Stunning websites for realtors available
- Complete customizability over design and layout, with no restrictions on branding
- Easy-to-use design tools that don't sacrifice capability for ease-of-use
- Excellent customer support and help available 24/7 via email and chat
Cons
- IDX is supported through integrations and embed tools only
Pricing
Pixpa offers monthly pricing, with big discounts for paying for one or two years. For example, when you pay for two years, the Basic Package starts at $3.60 per month, while the Professional is only $10.80 per month.
The Bottom Line
Pixpa is an affordable alternative to real estate industry sites that cost ten times as much. You can easily set up a beautiful site with all the functions you need while getting a modern and professional website made quickly.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a popular builder for business websites, offering some great features when used as a real estate agent website builder.
Features
It's a powerful platform offering better pricing and higher-end service than some bargain builders. In addition, Squarespace regularly scores higher for help and support than some of the others.
Squarespace offers 100 free templates to choose from, five of which the company has identified as perfect for real estate professionals.
Pros
- Ability to customize designs and layouts is more limited than other website builders
- Lots of choices of business elements and integrations, like Mailchimp for lead capture
Cons
- Templates are not IDX ready, but it's easy to add this functionality
- Not as intuitive as some other options
- Lots of SEO guides available, but the site offers little support on how to use them; in other words, you may need to get professional help with SEO
Pricing
For non-e-commerce platforms, Squarespace has two pricing plans: Personal and Business. The Business Plan is the most appropriate for small real estate offices. The cost is as low as $23 per month if you pay annually. As with other builders, you only need to upgrade to an e-commerce option if you sell products directly from the site.
The Bottom Line
Squarespace is an industry leader, and you likely will be satisfied with their options, even if they are a bit limited for real estate agents.
Wix
Wix is consistently rated as one of the easiest-to-use website builders. Of special interest to real estate professionals, Wix includes a set of templates perfect for the industry.
Unfortunately, the site also has some limitations you must be aware of before diving in. If you want your site to talk to the MLS, you'll need to do some coding or hire someone to do it for you. Even still, many users report that such custom integrations are buggy on the platform.
Features
With over 800 template options and drag-and-drop ease of creation, Wix is one of the most popular website builders on the planet. There's a lot to like with Wix if you're looking for a simple business listing website. It's easy to use, the templates are attractive, and there's an extensive marketplace of add-on apps to increase the functionality of your site.
Pros
- Includes 16 real estate-specific templates
- All templates are available with the free plan
- Wix's App Market allows you to add functionality like forms and events
- Very easy to use, drag and drop interface
- Includes the Wix SEO Wiz that provides personalized recommendations
Cons
- Wix does not natively support IDX integrations for real estate agents; however, there is a workaround using Velo by Wix (requires coding)
- App Market upgrades will cost extra
Pricing
With Wix, the free plan has limited functionality. You'll have to evaluate which functions are must-have items for your business. Most real estate agents will benefit from the Unlimited plan, which includes 10 GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, video, and your domain name. The price of Unlimited starts at $22 per month. You can compare Wix pricing plans here.
The Bottom Line
Wix is a great website builder, but the limited support of IDX integrations is a problem for realtors.
Placester
Placester specializes in website building for real estate. But, as is the case in many other industry niches, that level of customization comes with some downsides. First, it means it's much more expensive than generic options.
Features
It's hard to find more options for the real estate agent than Placester. The best thing, however, is the company's DIFM plan. With this service, Placester will make a website for your company and handle all the setup for you. It's like having an expert real estate web designer on staff.
Pros
- Custom solutions for any sized real estate agency
- Lead tools and IDX integrations are always included
- Reasonably priced, custom-built solutions through the Placester DIFM plan
- DIY option includes templates for pages, IDX integrations, blogs, and much more
- Discounts for NAR members
Cons
- More expensive than general-purpose web builders
- DIY builder is not as easy to use as some commercial builders
- Lacks the same backing and investment as big companies like Pixpa or Squarespace, so expect the designs to be dated and performance to be slower
Pricing
Pricing for Placester is discounted for NAR (National Association of Realtors) members. DIY plans start from $79 per month, or from $99 for non-members. Placester will build the site for you starting at $119 per month. All subscriptions are billed annually for the best rates.
The Bottom Line
If you'd like professional help building your site, Placester is a great option. However, if you want the DIY option, you can probably find better templates with similar functionality elsewhere.
Propertybase
Propertybase is much more than a website builder. It's an entire agent support system. Tools and products beyond basic websites include CRM, marketing, lead management, workspace, and analytics.
Features
Propertybase's website builder features "Zillow-like" property search features, fully branded websites, and specialized tools to capture more leads and show up in local SEO results. In addition, their simple website builder uses drag-and-drop design tools offering customizability.
Pros
- Industry-specific IDX tools
- Great integration with Propertybase's other products, like CRM and leads management tools
- Premium website design services available
- Emphasis on SEO results
Cons
- More expensive than generic options
- Best suited for large agencies and real estate companies
Pricing
Propertybase offers a custom solution for each client. As a result, pricing is not generally available on the website. If you request a demo, you will connect with their sales team to create a product package that precisely meets your needs.
Prices start at $349 per month for Propertybase GO, which includes a website and the Propertybase GO CRM solution.
The Bottom Line
The cost is much higher than simple web builders, but you'll likely come out with an all-inclusive solution for your firm's technology needs, with a website, CRM, and sales funnels included.
Weebly
Weebly is a drag-and-drop generic website builder, much like Wix. But Weebly is more limited and has fewer template options. Plus, it offers fewer customization options. As a result, Weebly is a useful tool for an individual agent looking to make a simple business listing page, without all of the bells and whistles.
Features
Weebly's strongest feature is its ease of use--Weebly is built for beginners. It's a general-purpose website builder, so don't expect native templates to be aimed at real estate purposes. But with a little tinkering and some third-party integration apps, Weebly can be used to make a decent and well-functioning website.
Pros
- Includes basic SEO and lead capture tools
- Templates are simple but beautiful and professional
- Beginner friendly -- super easy to use drag and drop builder
- Custom HTML, CSS, and Java tools for more flexibility
- Video and audio supported, including video backgrounds
Cons
- IDX is not natively supported, but you can add a third-party script using the embed function (one company that offers this is Add On IDX, for example)
- Not much customization available to the templates
- You may not be able to download all site data if you want to migrate away from Weebly in the future
Pricing
Weebly offers packages from free to $26 per month, billed annually. However, free sites cannot use a custom domain and are not customizable. As a result, going for at least the Professional Plan at $12 per month is recommended, which will get you your domain name and site customization.
The Bottom Line
Weebly is a good choice if you need a basic builder with IDX functionality, but you might have to source some third-party add-ons to get it going.
Intagent
Intagent is a real estate industry-leading technology provider that competes with Propertybase and Placester. In addition to websites, they also offer mobile solutions, CRM and lead generation, social media services, and virtual assistants.
Features
Intagent combines many great features into one easy-to-set-up package. The best thing about Intagent is that it's all available in one place. Not only are all of the templates designed for real estate professionals, but they all include every tool you might need from lead capture and CRM to IDX options and SEO optimization.
Pros
- Tons of beautiful templates to pick from
- Mobile friendly designs
- Loaded with real estate-specific features like IDX integrations, CRM lead management, forms, and social media tools
Cons
- Higher price point than general-purpose website builders
Pricing
Intagent charges $49 per month for basic websites. If you want help building the site, they charge a design fee of $795.
The Bottom Line
If you want a real estate-specific solution, Intagent is worth a close look. Of course, the price is higher than others, but the time savings may make it worthwhile.
WordPress (.org)
WordPress is the most widely-used website-building platform, but it works completely differently from the examples above. WordPress is an open-source software package that allows you to build websites of any kind. However, to add anything beyond basic pages and blog posts, you'll need to find and purchase add-on templates and software upgrades.
We should note that WordPress.com is completely different. The .com site is a drag-and-drop web builder similar to Weebly or Wix, but it has limited capabilities. It's best left to small sites that don't need many extra features. It is probably too limited to consider for a real estate website builder.
Features
The open-source nature of the WordPress ecosystem is its super power--it is possible to do literally anything with the site. But--and it's a really big "but,"--all of the separate software providers mean that every site is unique. Some add-ons and templates are well-supported and have great customer service. Others do not. The result is often a difficult-to-parse mess of choices and a mind-numbing amount of trial and error to make anything work the way you want.
Pros
- Unlimited design options, templates, and integrations from numerous suppliers
- Complete and total customizability
- Many free tools are available for everything, but the best ones are paid
- Good for large businesses that have the time and personnel to support the web building process
- Good choice if you plan to expand your site greatly in the future, or you need custom features you can't find in any other builder
- Top SEO results--WordPress is the favored platform by SEO professionals
- Fewer limits on video, photo, or bandwidth than commercial website builders have
Cons
- Very difficult to use
- Buggy
- Requires finding your own hosting provider and domain name purchase
- You must shop for each upgrade, template, or integration separately
- Most effectively used by WordPress professionals
Pricing
The WordPress framework is free and is usually included when you purchase webspace from a hosting provider. Every upgrade you make, however, will likely come from an independent company that charges for their services.
So, to work with WordPress, you will need to pay for at least the following services. Some may be free, but generally, the best ones are paid. For each of these items, there are hundreds of options to choose from.
- Web hosting, about $3 to $20 per month
- Domain name, about $10 to $15 per year
- Professional template or hire a web designer, cost depends on business needs
- IDX integrations, from free to $100 per year
- SEO optimization, from free to $120 per year
- Lead capture, mailing lists, contact forms, from free to over $100 per month
The Bottom Line
WordPress is great for folks needing complete flexibility but is best left to professional web designers.
Conclusion
No matter what your needs are, you should be able to find a real estate website creator that meets your needs. From the beautiful and affordable templates available on Pixpa to the hands-off design services and help available from Placester or Intagent, there's something out there for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do realtors build a website?
Realtors can use one of the many drag-and-drop website builders available. These websites allow you to create a custom website that is as simple or complex as you need it to be.
Which website builder is good for selling?
Real estate agents need their websites to support IDX integrations. This tool lets your site communicate with the MLS, which helps you capture leads and make sales.
How much should I spend on a real estate website?
The amount of money you spend on your website is tied to how complex you need it. It's possible to build sites for free, but these are usually simple and not customized. Expect to spend at least $10 to $20 per month for a properly branded professional website. If you pay a designer, the cost may be much higher.
Is WordPress good for realtors?
WordPress offers enormous functionality and options, but it is notoriously hard to use. Website builders, like Pixpa, Wix, or Squarespace, are better options for most professionals because they are much easier to use.
Gurpreet Singh
