There are often heated discussions about choosing real estate websites.  These discussions usually center around whether it is better to develop a custom site, or work with a real estate website vendor that offers template websites.

If you talk to someone who builds custom sites for a living, they will tell you that template real estate websites are worse than useless, and that a custom site is the only way to go.

If you talk to someone who has a well-designed and optimized template site, they will tell you that there’s nothing better than creating a lead-generating website that you can edit yourself.

So, who’s right?

In my experience, it depends on what you want from your real estate website, and what is reasonable for you to put into it.  Very often, custom sites require more technical expertise than template websites.  See this article on real estate website alternatives for more information.  If you aren’t already an HTML wizard, it may not make sense for you to take the time away from your business to become one. 

So, evaluate a custom site designer carefully to ensure that you can manage the site with the knowledge you have.  The other key factor is to ensure that you are working with a firm that understands search engines and SEO, not just design.  I have spoken to agents who had a custom site developed, only to learn that it would be impossible to have that site ranked in search engines.

We have fairly recently established a strategic alliance with Mike Parker of The BlackWater Consulting Group.  Mike and his partners, Compass Internet Solutions, provide search engine optimization for real estate websites of all kinds.

We have also been partners with Point2 Agent since 2004, and have had excellent results customizing Point2 sites and getting them to rank in the search engines.  Our alliance with Mike Parker gives us an opportunity to concentrate on the marketing and customization work, while he excels in the area of getting sites ranked with the search engines. 

Working closely together, we can provide clients with a seamless process of getting their sites customized to be attractive to visitors and search engines, then moving right into the process of getting the sites ranked.

I was inspired to write this post after reading Mike’s latest article published in the Broker-Agent News.  If you want to know what good a template real estate website can do for you, read Mike’s article on Four Steps to Online Marketing Success - you may be surprised!