In today’s digital landscape, a real estate website isn’t just a “nice-to-have”, it’s your business’s digital storefront, lead generator, and competitive edge all rolled into one. However, when it comes to creating one, the primary concern that the majority of real estate agents grapple with is whether or not they require a website, but rather, ‘how much would it cost to get a website that effectively drives results and boost conversion rate?’
Indeed, the cost of a real estate website can be a moving target and depends on a number of factors that may be difficult to decipher. Are you looking to have a clean and minimalist design that is well optimized for mobile devices to showcase your listings? Or considering integrating more advanced features like live property updates through IDX, easy lead management through CRM integration, or even an SEO tools to help get the top ranking? This raises another question about whether one can manage the work on his/her own, use a template-based platform or hire the top web design company to build a site for the brand.
So, in this guide, we’ll skip the confusion and get straight to the essentials, revealing all the major expenses and potential costs of developing a real estate website.
Market Overview and Importance of Real Estate Websites
The global real estate market, valued at over $326 trillion as of 2021, is one of the largest and most dynamic sectors. It consists of residential, commercial, and industrial properties that are directly influenced and operated based on current interest rates, economic growth, and government policies.
In this ever evolving landscape, real estate websites have become essential tools for buyers, sellers, and agents alike. A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors, reveals a staggering 97% of U.S. homebuyers used the internet to search for homes in 2021. Apart from listing, these platforms offer valuable features such as pricing trends, neighborhood details, and mortgaging tools that assist potential buyers in making wise decisions.
6 Major Aspects To Focus On While Creating Real Estate Website
Some of the most important considerations that define the cost of your real estate website are as follows. Every one of them will make a big difference in the final cost, and knowing them will aid in the decision of deciding what functionalities are essential for the type of website you want.
Type of Website
The first criterion is the nature of the modern website you want to develop. There are two primary categories for real estate websites:
- Simple Showcase Website: This kind of website is mainly limited to static content, including the agent/agency, profiles, services they offer and simply entered properties. These websites are easier and popularly lesser in expense as compared to the other websites.
- Complex Real Estate Platform: This type involves things such as; a searchable property database, dynamic maps, clients login, CRM and online appointment booking among others. It is undoubtedly true that creating a complex platform like Zillow or Redfin will dictate a higher cost.
2. Design Complexity
The design of your website is another important factor. This means that the client will get exactly what they want: are they satisfied with a simple design without the additional details or are they looking for something more cutomized individual design?
Customs mean that you want a unique look and feel that must be created in-house, which takes more time and thus costs more, if your site has to feature a great UX and UI that will effectively woo users.
- Template-Based Design: Although it tends to be more affordable and quicker to deploy than the customized tools that some real estate experts may desire.
- Custom Design: Very bespoke, but it takes more time in designing hence, increasing the price.
3. Features and Functionalities
You can have different functionalities to your website depending on the needs of your business. For a real estate site, consider these key features with best website navigation practices:
- Property Listings: Should be an indispensable part of any site that is aimed at the sale of properties. Connector with MLS (Multiple Listing Service) will enable you to feature reside property listings, features critical for nearly all real estate systems.
- Search Filters: Giving the abilities to filter properties by price, size, location, and others can significantly enhance the user’s experience but at the same time directly contribute to the development time and costs.
- Map Integrations: Adding Dynamism to property search using Google Maps or other services will be an added value added feature but this comes at a cost.
- User Profiles and CRM: Such a system will be most beneficial to real estate businesses, for customer management in particular, as a capability for storing user information and monitoring interactions.
- Mortgage Calculators: Can increase user engagement adding creation of value for every instrument like mortgage calculators or loan estimators.
4. Content Management System (CMS)
The tools and the platform you utilize to manage your content will also be determinant with the overall cost that you will incur. A CMS is where you’ll upload and update property listings, blog posts, agent profiles, etc.
You might choose from:
- WordPress: One of the most common CMS, is characterised by flexibility, operational simplicity and relatively a low price. WordPress has numerous integrations with thousands of other websites, and most of the small to medium real estate websites use WordPress.
- Custom CMS: In case you are building a big and multifaceted real estate platform, you may need an individual CMS that fits the MLS and can boast of features. It may sound obvious but building a bespoke CMS is going to take longer and thus, cost more.
5. Development Time and The Team Size:
In most cases, the development time is known for team size, and it is usually represented in the form of a ratio.
Another factor that links with the cost of your website development is the time it will take to complete the timeline. Longer project means you are going to pay more to your developer in terms of the number of hours utilized in the project.
Moreover, it is characterized with reference to the size of the development team. Is it a single developer that you’re hiring and which country is he/ she from or are you hiring through a development agency that has multiple programmers, designers, project managers etc?
- Freelancer: It is easier to hire a freelancer since they are relatively cheaper than full-time employees but this means that you end up missing out on so much support and diverse skills provided by an employee.
- Web Development Agency: While web development companies can provide all the web services an agency offers, like designing websites, developing and marketing websites, they will be more expensive because of the experience, maintenance and support they bring and the team they work with.
6. SEO and Marketing Integration
It does not matter how well a real estate website has been designed; the website will not be useful unless your audience can find it. Many of you would know that SEO or ‘Search Engine Optimization’ is a major determinant of organic traffic and would involve both ranking factors and on-site optimization.
Further, features like Google Analytics, integrated email marketing application, social links will also contribute towards the total cost.
Depending on the leading web design companies, some of these are included in the development package while others may need you to call an SEO or marketing specialist.
Real Estate Website Cost
The cost of building a real estate website can therefore, go high depending on the factors discussed above. Here’s a rough breakdown of the potential costs:
1. Simple Real Estate Website
A straightforward website, which presents just basic information about the agent or the company, or maybe even a small agency design, ranges from about $2,500 to $10,000. This would include a simple page of property listings, a contact form, and a more general ‘about us’ page. Such sites can be created on WordPress with ready-made templates, thus they are less costly.
2. Intermediate Real Estate Website
If you are building an intermediate level website for real estate, you may require a few more facilities which comprise MLS linkage, searching tool, map link up and secondly, you may need to design the website according to your choice.
Such websites normally cost between $10,000 and $30,000 with. It is perfectly suitable for agencies of a middle size, which need something more than basic features and settings.
3. Complex Real Estate Platform
The most complex real estate platform that includes features such as, superior search mechanism with filters, user accounts, CRM, Google map integration and building your own CMS may cost somewhere between 30,000 to 100,000 US dollars or even more.
The final cost is based on the number of features, the design’s complexity, and where and who the development is being done.
Additional Costs
Domain Name: $10-$50 per year based on the type of extension(. com,. net,. real estate and others).
Hosting: The cost of hosting is relatively cheap starting from $10 going up to $500 this depends on the amount of service and bandwidth provided.
Maintenance: Once the website is constructed, it becomes necessary that constant checks are conducted to avoid any hitches and. Generally, monthly website maintenance cost are usually between one hundred dollars and one thousand dollars or even more if the site is intricate.
How the Hiring Model Impacts the Cost of its Website
The cost of the real estate website also comes down to the hiring model that you consider. Thus, hiring models have their advantages and disadvantages and the general cost may vary greatly.
1. Freelance Developer
This is mainly true because freelancers are cheaper than other employees, especially for short-term projects. On average their rates range between $25 and $150 an hour depending on the level of experience and location. Nevertheless, freelance hiring is ideal for small websites with little functionality as compared to the large and complex ones.
Still, freelancers might not have sufficient funds, or a team to complete complex workflow, which may cause a delay in the timeline.
2. In-House Developer
Such a strategy allows you to have full control over the process since you hire a developer or a development team; however, it is the most costly. In-house developers’ remuneration varies from $70,000 to $150,000 and this doesn’t include other benefits required for an employee.
Although this model provides the greatest level of control, it is best implemented by companies that require constant web development.
- Web Development Agency
A common disadvantage of agency built websites is that they are often more expensive than DIY solutions but they are also more inclusive, since, they are often all encompassing in that they include design, development, search engine optimization, ongoing website improvement and post launch support among their services.
If an independent agency is hired for the real estate website project they may be charged between $75 and $250 per an hour.
Although, agencies are likely to charge more in the initial stages, they often help in delivering the work in less time and such resources may not be easily accessible in case of independent freelancers.
4. Offshore Development Team
Outsourcing of website development is a common practice in which many organizations hire teams in other countries such as India, Ukraine, or Philippines among others. Currently, the cost per hour of offshore development varies from $15 to $60, so these services are cheaper than ordering services from agencies in the USA.
However, there is also the disadvantage that working with an offshore team may and often does come with communication issues as well as the difference in time zones and the quality that is delivered can also vary.
Final Thoughts:
The process of creating a first-class site for real estate organization’s many benefits that will help to grow a business for years to come. It’s important to note that regardless of whether you’re a small agent who needs a simple website or a large agency that will require a comprehensive real estate solution, your costs will differ.
Also, the model of the chosen hiring style is also remembered to influence the final price. Companies & freelancers may be more cost-effective for less extensive and less complicated web projects while agencies or offshore teams are suitable for huge works & complex websites.
Last but not least, your website is one of the tools of the business plan, and it is always profitable to spend money on the site that will bring the results in terms of traffic, the convenience of navigation, and closed sales. When considering your real estate website development endeavor, spend considerable time in reviewing your requirements, analyzing the opportunities possible, and in selecting a suitable development budget for your business.