Estate Agent Website Design

What usually goes wrong

• The homepage leads with a property search that competes with portals you cannot beat.
• The valuation request is a small link in the corner instead of the main thing on the page.
• Listings are typed in by hand, so the site disagrees with the portals about price and status.
• Sales and lettings are mixed together, so a landlord and a vendor read the same page.
• Listings miss the material information a buyer is now entitled to see up front.
• There is nothing about the area, so you never appear for the searches a local seller actually makes.

Questions estate agents ask us

Do you work with independents or corporate branches?

Independents, mostly. A corporate branch usually has a site handed down from head office with no local control. An independent competing against them can win the local searches, because that is the one thing head office cannot do for a branch.

How much does it cost?

It depends on which CRM you use and how many branches or areas you cover. We give you a fixed, itemised quote after a short call, so you know the figure before any work starts.

Will the listings really stay in sync?

Yes, if your CRM exposes a feed, and we check that before quoting. The site reads from your system on a schedule, so a status change reaches the site without anyone doing anything.

We get most valuations from boards and word of mouth. Why change?

Both still work, and a seller who saw your board will look you up before calling. What they find is either evidence or a gap. The site is not replacing the board, it is deciding what happens after someone reads it.

Can you handle multiple branches?

Yes. Each branch gets its own page with its own team, listings and area content, which is also what gives you a chance in the local searches for each town rather than one page trying to cover all of them.

More questions we get from estate agents

Can our website pull listings from our CRM?

Yes. Reapit, Alto, Jupix, Dezrez and the other main systems either publish a feed or support the industry data formats. The site reads from the same source the portals do, so a price reduction happens once and appears everywhere. Retyping listings is how a website ends up contradicting Rightmove.

What is material information and does it apply to our listings?

It is the information National Trading Standards expects to appear on a property listing so buyers are not misled. It is grouped in parts, starting with price, tenure and council tax band, then moving to utilities, parking and building safety, then anything else that could affect a decision such as flood risk or restrictive covenants. It applies wherever you advertise, including your own site, not only the portals.

Should an estate agent website try to compete with Rightmove?

No. You will not out search a portal for buyers, and the attempt costs you the page space that matters. Buyers arrive on your site already knowing the property. The visitor worth winning is the seller comparing local agents, and they want valuations, fees, results and evidence you know their street.

What actually persuades a seller to book a valuation?

Evidence and low commitment. Recent sales on streets they recognise, how long those took, what you achieved against asking price, and a named person with a face. Then a request form that asks for the address and a contact detail and nothing else. Every extra field loses people who were only half decided.

Do we need separate pages for sales and lettings?

Yes. A vendor is making a one off decision worth a large fee and wants proof you can sell. A landlord is choosing a long term service and wants to know about compliance, tenant finding and management. One page addressing both persuades neither, and it competes with itself in search.