Looking for a good place to design my website. Does anyone have any opinions on any or what I may need out of this website…
Thanks,
Peace in the chicken greasejavascript:replaceText(’ :bobble’, document.forms.postmodify.message);
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check out www.homestead.com as long as you can cut and paste you can design away… And I think they are 20 bucks a month
If you’re interested, there are several pre-fab real estate investor websites out there for less than $400. Google “real estate investor websites” and you’ll get several hits.
what are you wanting to accomplish with the site? That makes a huge impact on the cost and who you go with to build it.
GooD Luck! :beer
Great question, because if you just want to have a website in your marketing and drive leads to your website in order to capture prescreening info, then a pretty simple, cheap site will do that for you. However if you’re looking to use pay-per-click or Google Adwords you’ll need a more sophisticated site.
I’ve been through a fair share of webmasters. The one I settled on was www.pixelus.net. He’s fast and does everything by code and original. No wysiwyg’s for this place! So far I have not found anything they can not do.
GooD LucK! :beer
I’ve seen a lot of Real Estate Websites, there are many different companies that can make them for you.
In particular, I like sites that use flash. A La Mode does a great job, and I also particularly liked a site that was created by Superlative.
I had 3 rental websites and my real estate broker’s website done all by the same company and I have been pretty satisfied with the results. It was Sofna Solutions and the URL is http://www.sofna.com/ :smile
It may be easiest to just go with a prefab type site. Getting into having sites designed can be a real pain and you can find pre-made real estate investor websites all over the web. Pretty cheap too…
Personally, I am not much of a fan of pre-fab sites. They always seem to come up short on several levels with little built-in flexibility.
I have created dozens of websites on different subjects and I have found two methods that work well for me.
Method 1: using an Automated Hosting Service. That is simply a webhost that offers all kinds of bells and whistles that someone with zero website creation skills can use to create their own professional looking website. My favorite is Automated Hosting Service is: http://thirdsphereautomatedhosting.com
Method 2: Hire a professional web designer to create a website for you from scratch. You will still need a webhost also.
My favorite place to find web designers is: http://www.elance.com
Good luck :biggrin
I have used about 10 differnet pre-fabed sites from Template-Monster. They have a large array to choose from.
If you want a website that will generate leads you need to purchase a monthy subscription to a website that is already set up.
Or you can build your own site and pay $3-$9/click to drive traffic to your site…this adds up quickly.
The already built websites like mine (follow profile) is on the 1st page of Google and other search engines for many key word phrases home seller search for, sell my house, buy my house, sell my property…etc.
Just depends on what you want from a website. If you build your own you will not have any traffic for quite some time without doing some SEO, and then you are probibly still a year out or so from being on the 1st page if you know what you are doing.
You’ll have more flexibility creating your own website but it takes time and it will also take 6 months to a year to get it naturally ranked on the search engines if you do SEO properly. A good (and cheap) web hosting service is http://www.1and1.com and they have some pretty easy to use Website Builder tools.
Or alternatively you can search around for a canned website if you don’t mind losing some flexibility when trying to update your site.
One of my favorite hosts is, Host Llama, there site is http://hostllama.duoservers.com they have great deals, everything you would need to start your own web-based RE business, even if its not web based it would greatly boost your overall sales.
If you want to set yourself apart and reach Gen X & Y buyers, follow T Rex’s advice and incorporate Flash into your website. This could be as simple as property slideshows and short intro videos. Some moving parts are a near-must.
Also, templates are great but just make sure to use a unique, aesthetically-pleasing color scheme that will help your site look a little less canned.
Keep in mind, flash work can get expensive, so is it worth it really for what your looking at your website to do?
I would also recommend elance.com and find a web designer that has done real estate related websites. You can get a professional designer/developer team for a lot less than you would pay if you went to a company in your city. But if you have the money, get someone good in your area.
If you’re interested in free sites, then another source I used a lot is oswd.org. They really have some great templates there and all of them can be used freely. All you need to do is establish the linking structure and write all the content; the design is already done for you.