Advice needed on real estate website

[redomainer]

Hi All,

I am a real estate agent and have a unique idea for a real estate website. I've found a template on Template Monster that will serve the purpose with some some minor changes.

I have a local programmer that will start building the site out for me soon. In addition to wanting a great looking and functional real estate site combined with an intuitive real estate domain name, I really want the site to rank as high as possible. Lastly, once this site is working/producing the way I expect it to, I want to "partner" with other agents by using my site as a template and providing agents in other markets the best domain names and site.

The programmer is most comfortable working in Flash and I know very little about the programming side of sites. Here are my questions:

What are some things I should make sure the programmer includes/does when building the site?

What do you recommend I do to get the site to rank as high naturally/organically as quickly as possible? I am willing to spend the $ to make it happen if that makes a difference.

Will it help the site's natural ranking if I use Google AdWords to start?

I also saw a post from a gentleman that links people's site to 135 social networking sites-should I consider this?

Any suggestions for the site are appreciated as I meet with the programmer this week to begin. Thanks.

Bill

[copper]

As for your programmer...
Never put flash on very top.
Flash look good, but, not good for SEO purpose.
If your site is going to use database, make your urls SE friendly.

Unique contents (articles) - hire content writers?

When you write articles...
Use your main keyword as name of the url.
Use your main keyword as title of the page.
Use your main keyword as heading.
Use your minor keywords within articles.
Use your minor keywords as your sub pages url.

Example...

Real Estate
http://yourdomain.com/real-estate/real-estate.html
http://yourdomain.com/real-estate/re...te-agents.html
http://yourdomain.com/real-estate/re...appraisal.html
http://yourdomain.com/real-estate/re...investing.html
http://yourdomain.com/mortgage/mortgage.html
http://yourdomain.com/mortgage/mortg...financing.html
http://yourdomain.com/mortgage/mortgage-calculator.html
http://yourdomain.com/mortgage/mortgage-rate.html
http://yourdomain.com/mortgage/bad-credit-mortgage.html

Above is just example I came up with since I do not know much about real estate.
Basically, it should work like pyramid.
main keyword on top built upon minor keywords under.

Submit spinned articles to article directory.
Do not submit same article to many article directories.
One unique spinned article per article directory.

post comments on many high PR blogs.
There is script that you can use to find high pr blogs that match your keywords.

Do not just link to your main url.
Do deep page linking.
Do use link tag.

Match your page url, title and link tags.

Spend at least one full day doing keyword search.
Spend at least one full day on your competitors sites -
how many back links?
how many back links from high pr sites?
what kind of keywords being used on each page?
how many words used on each page?
what % of keywords used on each page?

Spend enough time structuring your site, folders, sub-folders...

There are tons more and it takes long time to get to top of SE in real estate
category as I believe competitions are tough ;-)

If you think it's too much, hire SEO specialist

[Domagon]

Flash is ok for displaying video tours of homes, etc ... but NOT for overall design - try to make the site as much text, while keeping it looking nice, as possible...

Text is easier to index, and also more accessible to those with poor eyesight, etc ...

On a related note, try to use colors that contrast well with the background - when in doubt, use black text on white background. Dark on dark bad, dark on bright usually good, bright on dark usually ok depending on the text size; don't hardcode / assume fixed text sizes - allow the user to adjust text size as needed.

Google Adwords will often help ranking despite claims to the contrary; gets your site noticed by others.

Be wary of link lists - they sometimes help, but more often than not do little to nothing - or worse, drop one's ranking.

Partnering with other real estate agents sounds good in theory, but in practice it may not work out - many agents already have a name they use, are protective of their business ...

My view is, first focus on better serving your current clients and entice others to list their real estate with you.

Then once that's going well, only then focus on networking with some other agents that compliment your business - ie. agents that list types of properties you don't, are in a region near yours, speak a different language (ie. spanish), etc.

Going beyond that may work against you - also may be a waste of time, if you are associated with a well known franchise, such as Remax, Prudential, Century 21, etc who already have well designed websites that have networking tools for local offices, and even individual agents to promote themselves.

Hope this helps - feel free to contact me privately for further assistance.

Ron

[Johnn]

Bill,

PM me if you need help. I have some expertise in this area.

Thanks,
John

[Gerry]

Copper, Domagon...

Some excellent information and very well stated. Good thread for any interest or site development.

Damn, sometimes this "forum" approach and concept actually works.

I would be curious to know if there is an MLS RSS feed available or is this a paid subscription service. I have a few Realty domains that I've been playing with.

[copper]

I would be curious to know if there is an MLS RSS feed available or is this a paid subscription service. I have a few Realty domains that I've been playing with.

Do you mean house for sale listing feed?

[smile]

anyone know Good/expensive Out of the box real estate script for this ?

[Gerry]

Do you mean house for sale listing feed?

Yes, perhaps something that is zip code or city based and searchable.

For instance, if I wanted subdomains like:

Denver.homes.com, Archdale.homes.com, Philadelphia.homes.com etc.

anyone know Good/expensive Out of the box real estate script for this ?

? I am sure you can get a good $39 script/template for $10,000.00.

[copper]

There are feeds, but, I think it's regional.
But, you must be realtor and have MLS ID# to get the feed.
Further more, feed provider is very strict about how listings are showed on the site.

Yes, perhaps something that is zip code or city based and searchable.

For instance, if I wanted subdomains like:

Denver.homes.com, Archdale.homes.com, Philadelphia.homes.com etc.

? I am sure you can get a good $39 script/template for $10,000.00.

[redomainer]

I really appreciate all the responses and advice. I'm certainly not opposed to hiring an expert at SEO and I suspect someone on the forum could direct me to the right people.

I'll give a bit more background to my plan. I've been buying "City"Homes.com domains and licensing them to other agents. I did have some success and licensed AppleValleyHomes.com and GrandForksHomes.com to other agents here in the Midwest at very reasonable rates (too reasonable). I believe "City"Homes.com domains are the best an agent can have because they are so intuitive/brandable. I also recommend these agents purchase Realty Tags for the back of their cars with the URL. As they drive, they'll be promoting their sites (don't confuse Realty Tags with the cheesy car magnets). However, I found my time is more profitable selling houses than licensing domains (takes a lot of time).

A good deal of my business comes from a loan officer in my city (Sioux Falls, SD) and I purchased SiouxFallsMortgage.com (currently I just forward the domain to his site) and SiouxFallsHomeLoans.com. I also represent a builder and I purchased SiouxFallsHomeBuilder.com and SiouxFallsBuilder.com.

My plan is to build a 4 in 1 website with a Search For Homes tab, Mortgage tab, Find a Builder tab and Insurance tab. Each of the four areas compliment each other and I (and many agents) receive referrals from the people in these other fields. Each tab will be it's own website and be linked to the other three. The appearance will be the same/seamless as viewers go from one tab/site to another. Each of my local partners (my lender, my builder, my insurance person) will have Realty Tags promoting their "tab"/site which is all part of my 4 in 1 site (cross-promotion). I have recently added a second local agent to my team to sell under me in anticipation that this site will increase the referrals I receive.

I see a lot of opportunity helping other agents and myself in the process if I take this concept and partner with agents across the fruited plain. I want to offer this website "system" ALONG WITH the best real estate domain to agents in other cities. I'm convinced the agents that partner with me will make A LOT more money.

When I refer a client to another agent in another city and they buy a $500k home, I make a referral fee from that other agent in the ballpark of $3500-$4000 instead of a few lousy pennies that I'd make if the domain is parked somewhere.

I plan to provide the website "system", domains and Hosting for free or minimal cost to the partner agents. In exchange, all I ask is that I get a referral fee on the leads that comes from the site.

Each of the sites I provide will be basically the same template with only a few modifications to personalize. The MLS feed isn't something just anyone can get, typically you have to be an agent member of the local MLS. The beauty of "partnering" with the other agents is that it will allow the site to have the listings feed since my partner agent will be a member of that local MLS. As far as I know, only Realtors are allowed by law to receive referral fees from other Realtors.

There aren't many people around me that "get" my vision for this thing or frankly understand what I'm talking about (4 in 1 site, domains, etc.).

I'd like to know what you think of the plan. Do you think I have something here or not? Any flaws in my thinking? Sorry for the length of this post-maybe it will help a few of you fall asleep tonight .

Bill

[Johnn]

It can be done.

Technically what you want is a real estate listing site with Insurance/Mortgage/Builder directory listing with optional personal webpage.

MLS feed may be available here:

http://idxbroker.com/idx_mls_coverage.php

John

[webd]

Flash should be a small component of the site. Don't code your navigation or main text content in Flash or search engines will not index it well.

Think of the Flash component as embedding Flash movies into an HTML-based site -- not a Flash-based site. Otherwise you may end up with something that is not good from an SEO perspective.