Introduction
Like many others, realtors have noticed the potential that the Internet offers, and more and more have been growing their online presence. So, if you are a realtor or real estate agency that wants to do the same, you have come to the right place. Stick with us, and you will learn which website builders have made it on our top 6 best website builders for real estate list. Read on to find out what each of them offers and how they compare to each other.
Check our Top 6 Best Real Estate Website Builders:
- Squarespace – best for its intuitive design
- Wix Website Builder – best for ease of use
How Do We Test and Rank?
In order to rank each website builder accordingly, you would need to understand what goes into the process of website building and what each builder needs to offer for it to be competent and worthy of your time and money. We know that not everyone knows all of that, and they don’t need to. That’s what we are here for. Namely, we have developed our own ranking system with which we rank each builder and provide you with only the best options on the market.
Our system involved putting each website builder through a series of tests and buying plans from each builder to test out their features in more detail. Additionally, we rank each builder based on five essential factors for building a real estate website, and each factor has its own specific percentage of importance. The five factors are:
- Ease-of-use (20%): how easy it is to use the builder’s editor and dashboard, is the dashboard easy to navigate, is the control panel easy to navigate, does using the builder require coding skills, is the builder suitable for beginners, does the builder have a steep learning curve;
- Features (30%): what kind of features does the builder offer, are the features suitable for building real estate websites, does the builder offer IDX integration, are the features enough to create a fully-functioning real estate website, are the features good quality;
- Design (25%): can users edit and change the elements on their website at all times, are the templates customizable, are the designs optimized for different screen sizes, and does the builder offer designs explicitly made for realtors;
- Price (10%): does the builder offer a free trial, does the builder offer a free plan, is there a money-back guarantee, and are the builder’s plans worth the money;
- Support (15%): what kind of support does the builder offer (live chat, email, phone, ticketing system), how long does the builder take to respond to customers, does the builder offer any tutorials or guides, does the builder’s support team possess the skills and ability to solve problems efficiently.
How to Choose the Best Website Builder for Real Estate?
Now that you have seen a preview of our top 6 picks for the best website builders for real estate and have seen how we test and rank, it’s time you find out what you need to look for when picking a website builder. Namely, when creating a website for your real estate business, you need to make sure that the builder offers the following features and services:
- IDX integration – many real estate agents, use the Internal Data Exchange (IDX) database in their daily operations. If the builder you choose offers integration with IDX, you will be able to have a connection between your website and a Multiple Listing Service (MLS). With that, you will be able to display the MLS database real estate listings right there on your website. Also, the listings will be updated regularly and will always display the latest listings available.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – since there are billions of people you can reach on the Internet, you need a way to reach as many of them as possible. That’s where SEO comes in. Many website builders offer excellent SEO tools which can help you rank better on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and more. With that, more and more people will be able to find your website by searching a particular keyword, like real estate, for example. Thus, SEO tools and features are critical for all kinds of websites, including real estate websites.
- Tools for capturing leads – capturing and nurturing leads is essential for real estate websites. With the appropriate tools, your visitors will be able to get in touch and find out more about a property they like quickly. Also, with the help of those tools, your visitors will be able to book a viewing immediately via your website.
- Customer support – not everyone knows how to build a website, even if they are using a dedicated website builder. Also, some builders are easier to use and more beginner-friendly than others. Regardless of whether the builder you choose is the most beginner-friendly one on the market or not, it would be best if you always looked for a website builder that offers constant and timely support. So, look for one that offers either support via live chat, phone, email, a ticketing system, or maybe all of the above.
The Top 6 Best Real Estate Website Builders
- Overall Score: 4.9
- Ease-of-use: 4.8
- Features: 4.9
- Design: 5.0
- Price: 4.9
- Support: 5.0
Squarespace is an excellent website builder that serves all kinds of purposes. Namely, businesses from all kinds of industries can find what they need with the builder. Also, it is an ideal fit for those who want to make a great first impression since it delivers impeccable design and high-quality templates.
Also, everyone can get the hang of and use Squarespace since it’s pretty beginner-friendly and easy to use.
Pros:
- Excellent designs
- Beginner-friendly
- Great customer support
- High-quality templates
Cons:
- No free plan and no money-back guarantee
Squarespace is best known for its award-winning, high-quality templates. It also offers intuitive designs, and it is ideal for those who want to create a modern and unique website.
| Plan | Personal | Business | Commerce (Basic) | Commerce (Advanced) |
| Price | US $19/month | US $33/month | US $36/month | US $65/month |
| Number of Products | None | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free Trials | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Additional Feature |
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Unique Features:
Squarespace Features
First things first, when we talk about Squarespace, we have to mention its templates and overall design. Namely, all of its templates are made by professionals and offer a sleek and professional look that will make your website look impeccable. Out of the numerous templates Squarespace offers, users will get access to 100 free ones right off the bat.
Squarespace offers templates of all kinds, including templates made specifically for real estate websites, art & design, photography, health & beauty, personal & CV, fashion, professional services, local businesses, community & nonprofits, food, entertainment, travel, restaurants, media & podcasts, events, weddings, home & décor, and nature & animals. Also, you can pick your template based on the type of your website:
- One–page websites;
- Portfolios;
- Memberships;
- Blogs;
- Scheduling;
- Online stores.
Squarespace Extensions
Along with its powerful built-in features, Squarespace also offers many useful third-party integration options to its users. Some of those extensions include:
- 1-800 Accountant
- AfterShip
- Art of Where
- Candid Wholesale
- Channable
- Delighted
- Dext
- Easyship
- EZ Texting
- FreshBooks
- GoDataFeed
- inFlow Cloud
- Judge.me
- Mailchimp for Commerce
- Order Desk
- Outfy
- Printful
- Printique
- QuickBooks Commerce
- QuickBooks Connector
- Smart SEO
- And more.
Even though Squarespace’s real estate templates don’t come with built-in IDX, Squarespace users can easily add IDX to their websites with the help of Squarespace’s article on how to do so. To add IDX to their websites, all users would need to find the embed code from their IDX service and add it to their website in a custom code block. In general terms, all they would need to do is copy and paste the code to add IDX to their websites! Also, thanks to its integration with MailChimp, you can easily capture leads with Squarespace.
Squarespace is a powerful platform that comes with excellent templates and high-quality, intuitive designs. If you want to learn more about Squarespace, you can do so by reading our expert review on the builder.
- Overall Score: 4.8
- Ease-of-use: 4.9
- Features: 4.9
- Design: 4.8
- Price: 4.9
- Support: 4.7
Wix is another extremely popular website builder that has more than 200 million users from more than 190 countries. So, you can see that its reach is quite long. It is an excellent platform that offers powerful features and more than 800 high-quality templates made by professional designers. So, the chances of finding a premade template with Wix are pretty high. Also, Wix is very beginner-friendly and has a free plan that users can try out before committing to a paid one.
Pros:
- 800+ designer-made templates
- Beginner-friendly
- Excellent built-in features in paid plans
- Excellent third-party integration options
Cons:
- Wix’s integration with IDX is not as smooth as it should be and can be buggy
Wix is best known for its wide range of high-quality templates that users can choose from for their websites. It also has 16 templates made specifically for real estate websites and easy-to-use drag-and-drop tools.
| Plan | Connect Domain | Combo | Unlimited | VIP |
| Price | US $4.50/month | US $8.50/month | US $12.50/month | US $24.50/month |
| Number Of Products | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Free Trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
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Unique Features:
Wix Features
Wix is one of the most feature-packed website builders that are currently available on the market. You won’t find a builder that offers so many opportunities and options as Wix. Some of its main flagship features include the Wix Editor, Wix ADI, Velo by Wix, Wix eCommerce, Wix Bookings, Wix Blog, Wix Music, Wix Photography, Wix Video, Wix Events, and Wix Restaurants. Now let’s see what each feature does.
- Wix Editor – as we mentioned, Wix offers more than 800 high-quality, designer-made templates for all kinds of industries and business sectors. Also, Wix’s editor works on a drag-and-drop basis, meaning that anyone can use it and get the hang of it, even those who have no prior experience with website building. Also, Wix’s editor allows users to have total design freedom. However, it would help if you kept in mind that once your website is live, you will not be able to change the design or template again, so choose your template wisely. With Wix’s Editor, other features you will get include advanced SEO tools, mobile-optimized templates, an App Market, and design features like animations, video backgrounds, scroll effects, and more.
- Wix ADI – Wix’s ADI is tailored-made for beginners. Namely, the ADI builder builds the whole website for you based on your answers to a few questions about your website. So, the builder will ask you things like what kind of elements you want on your website, what you want your website to look like, and other similar questions, and then let Wix’s ADI build the whole website for you. Other features you will get with Wix’s ADI include mobile-friendly websites, smart tips, the ability to customize colors & fonts, built-in SEO tools, and more.
- Velo by Wix – Velo is Wix’s open development platform that is made for more advanced users like developers and programmers. With it, they can build advanced web applications, get serverless computing, hassle-free coding, and total design freedom. Other features users can take advantage of with Velo include rapid visual front-end design, unified database management, IDE and DevOps, production-grade runtime, business and marketing tools, and more.
- Wix eCommerce – Wix is also ideal for building online stores and offers the following eCommerce features: high-quality eCommerce templates, store manager, product pages, multiple payment methods, coupons and discounts, and worldwide shipping & tax, and more.
- Wix Bookings – realtors can utilize Wix’s Booking features and allow their clients to schedule appointments and viewings directly from their websites. Also, with Wix Bookings, you can offer appointments, classes, courses, and workshops, sync Wix Bookings with your Google Calendar, send clients automatic email reminders, and more.
- Wix Blog – with Wix, you can manage your blog on both desktop and mobile, add multiple writers, and more.
- Wix Music – with this feature, you will get a customizable music player, the ability to sell your music, get advanced stats, and more.
- Wix Photography – this feature includes more than 30 media galleries, image quality tools, the ability to protect your images with a built-in watermark and password, etc.
- Wix Video – you can create, personalize, and manage your own video channel, add videos from anywhere, and sell, rent, or offer commission-free monthly subscriptions to your video channels.
- Wix Events – you can also organize events on your Wix website and send invitations, manage guest lists, sell tickets, and more.
- Wix Restaurants – allows users to create and customize menus with prices and photos, accept delivery and pickup orders via their websites, book reservations, and more.
When it comes to IDX integration, it also has to be added via code, but the process of adding IDX to your Wix website is not as seamless and straightforward as it is with Squarespace. On the other hand, Wix is ideal for capturing leads and offers many valuable, built-in lead-capturing tools like contact forms, dynamic maps, and more.
Wix is an excellent choice no matter what kind of website you plan to create. It offers a lot of powerful tools and many third-party integration options that can help you add everything you want and make your website your own. If you want to learn more about Wix, you can do so by reading our expert review on the builder.
Next Steps In Building the Perfect Real Estate Website
Okay, now that we covered all the website builders one by one in detail, let’s see what other steps you would need to take to build your website. There are usually a few uniform steps that everyone would need to complete, so those are the ones we are going to cover. Of course, depending on the builder, you might need to do additional or fewer steps, but the ones we are going to list are the most common and essential ones. For example, with Zyro, you might want to use some AI tool to customize your website in addition to other necessary steps or download specific plugins with WordPress.org.
The first step that you would need to take after choosing a website builder is registering a domain name. Also, if you already have one, you can transfer your existing domain name to the website builder that you have chosen. Choosing a suitable domain name is one of the most important steps in building a website. Your domain name should be short and easy to remember.
After registering and transferring a domain name, you will usually need to choose a plan. As you can see above, almost all website builders offer more than one price plan to their users. Choosing which plan you are going to go with largely depends on your needs and the size of the website you want to create. Namely, the cheapest plans are usually suitable for building smaller websites, while the larger plans are usually best for more extensive, content-driven websites.
Now, if you want to build your website with WordPress, this is the time when you would need to install it. If not, you can skip this step and continue with designing your website and adding features. This step involves choosing a template, editing it with your logo and business colors, and adding all the features that you like. Some features you can add are call-to-action buttons, drop-down menus, search bars, and many more. Also, this is the time when you add photos of your listings as well as descriptions and prices. However, you can always add more listings or delete old ones in the future.
The next step is adding IDX-powered listings to your website. Of course, this step is only applicable to those that use such listings in their operations. Other useful steps you can do also include adding other visual content like videos and adding links to your social media accounts so that people can also follow you there.
What Should a Real Estate Website Include?
We want to begin this section of the article by stating that everyone is free to add and include whatever kinds of features and content they like. However, if you want your website to look more professional and organized, you should include the following features and content:
- First things first, include as many photos of your properties as you can. Photos of each room, the outside, and in general, the whole house or apartment you are selling is a must for any real estate website. Also, along with the photos, you should add descriptions of the properties and the rooms.
- Include searchable listings – you should provide access to your area’s MLS listings by using an IDX database. That way, potential buyers can see the properties and contact you if they want to schedule an appointment to see them.
- Also, you need to make sure that all the links you have are working and show only the most current information and news available.
- Include relevant and important information – adding mortgage calculators or local weather forecasts is the least you can provide to your visitors. In addition to that, you should also add information like tenant rules and bylaws, which is far more valuable to your clients compared to what the weather in the area is like.
- Keep it simple – everyone wants their website to look good. However, you should design and organize your website in a way that makes it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for quickly. Also, your homepage should contain methods via which clients can contact you, information on how they can search for homes on your website, and other important information like that. Go easy on animations and flashy features.
Summary
Overall, there are many excellent options for building real estate-centered websites. And if you don’t know which options are the best and don’t have the time or expertise to find out on your own, you can use our recommendation system and choose your favorite from the top 6 best website builders for real estate on the market.
Thus, you have everything that you need in front of you. All you need to do is choose one out of the ten builders on our list that you like best, and you will be ready to get online and grow!
Let’s summarize.
