7 Features Every Real Estate Website Should Have (+ 11 to Grow Into)

What kinds of features, tools and content should a real estate agent’s website have? This is a common question I’ve encountered many times over the years. And today, I’ll offer a list of some of the things a real estate agent website should have.

Features a Real Estate Website Should Have

I’ve created two separate lists below. The first list includes things that every real estate website should have, regardless of your specific business model, niche, or target audience.

The second list includes some things you might want to have down the road (but don’t necessarily need from the start). These add-on features give you room to grow and expand, when you’re ready to take your site to the next level.

Things to Have at a Minimum

So let’s start with the basic requirements. Here are some of the features a real estate website should have, at an absolute minimum…

1. Agent profile: Who are you? What are your skills and qualifications? What makes you different from all of the other real estate agents in your area? In other words, what’s your bio and background? This is something you should have on your real estate website — a detailed profile and bio including your background, qualifications, and experience.
2. Analytics: A website analytics program (like Google Analytics) will allow you to track visitor behavior and engagement. This in turn can help with your content development and search engine optimization. Every real estate website should have analytics installed. Without it, you have no idea how your site is performing in terms of traffic visibility
3. Contact information: This one might seem obvious, but we have to mention it all the same. A real estate website should prominently display the agent’s contact information, including their phone number and email address — ideally on every page. This makes it easier for potential clients to get in touch.
4. Lead capture: A real estate website should have some form of lead capture in place. For instance, you might have forms that visitors can use to request more information or to schedule a showing. Consider connecting it to a CRM program, covered in the next section.
5. Mobile optimization: The website should be optimized for mobile devices. This allows visitors and potential clients to view the agent’s listings via their phones, increasing engagement.
6. SEO optimization: A real estate website should be optimized for search engines. This will increase its visibility and help potential clients find the agent’s listings, blog content, etc. FYI, our website offers a wealth of tips and advice on search engine optimization, geared toward real estate and mortgage professionals.
7. Testimonials: The website should feature testimonials from past clients, which can give potential clients some insight into the agent’s service and expertise.

Things to Add as Your Website Evolves

You could consider the previous list “Real Estate Website Development 101.” Now, let’s move up to the advanced class. The following features can help you take your website to the next level, offering more value to visitors and potential clients.

1. Blog: You don’t need to to have a blog on your real estate website. But you could certainly benefit from doing so — and so could your visitors. Blogging allows you to publish a steady stream of content over time, tailored to your local real estate market and audience. They can help you attract visitors through search engines, boosting your visibility and supporting your broader marketing goals.
2. CRM integration: To have a successful real estate website, you need some way to capture and manage leads. This prevents you from losing a person’s contact information, or forgetting to follow up with them. That’s where the customer relationship management (CRM) system comes into play. to be successful, a real estate agent website should have some form of CRM system installed.
3. IDX integration: IDX (Internet Data Exchange) integration allows you to display MLS listings on your website, making it more comprehensive and useful. It can also help you generate leads from potential clients, when they request more information about a particular property. Because of these benefits, IDX integration is a must-have feature for real estate websites.
4. Language support: If you work in a market with an ethnically diverse population, you should ensure your website supports multiple languages. There are many tools available that allow you to offer your content in multiple languages, at the click of a button. This will help ensure you don’t lose any potential clients along the way.
5. Listings: Offering property listings can increase visitor engagement and help you capture leads. These listings can include detailed property information, high-quality photos, virtual tours, and more. you can add listings to your website through IDX, as mentioned above, or some other program. There are many ways to do it. The point is, a real estate website needs to have listings in order to be useful and successful.
6. Neighborhood info: Home buyers often spend a lot of time researching individual neighborhoods online. But in many cases, there’s not much information available on this topic. If you want to attract these people to your website, make sure it has comprehensive information about local neighborhoods within your market area.
7. Property alerts: In order to generate leads and better serve visitors, a real estate website should have some kind of property alert feature. These tools send email notifications to potential clients when new listings that match their criteria become available.
8. Social media integration: Are you active on social media? If so, your real estate website should have links to your various social media accounts. If you’re using the WordPress program, this is very easy to do. WordPress plugins can help you integrate your social media accounts onto your website, with just a few easy steps.
9. Videos: Many studies have shown that video content is more engaging than written content. So, if you want to take your real estate website to the next level, consider including some kind of video content. You could create videos about local real estate market conditions, virtual tours, property walk-throughs, etc.
10. Virtual tours: The website should offer virtual tours of properties, whenever possible. This will help potential clients get a better sense of the property, without having to physically visit it. It also gives you one more way to generate leads and feed them into your CRM system, mentioned previously.

We Can Help with Blogging and Content Strategy

Without quality content, a real estate website is just an empty shell. It doesn’t help your visitors, and it won’t help you turn those visitors into potential clients.

On the other hand, a content-rich real estate website will keep people on-site longer, making them more inclined to contact you. And that’s where we come into the picture.

We offer blogging and content-related services to real estate professionals across the United States. We can help you launch a blogging campaign and sustain it over time. We produce high-quality, original content tailored to your market and audience. Please contact us if you have questions.