Imagine effortlessly having leads looking for houses, apartments and homes contacting you without you having to scramble for them like most real estate agents do.
This is very possible to do with a website that does that job for you and today I’ll show you how to make one.
Here is how you make a website and get leads to it:
- Start by creating a website through sources like WordPress (my choice), WiX or Squarespace.
- Make sure your niche is local real estate (counties are fine).
- Create several default pages on the website (your personal profitable, privacy policy, contact page, ect…).
- Connect the website with services like Google Maps.
- Use the website Whitespark.ca to have the website build you citations (this gets it organic leads).
I’ll go over each step shortly, but first:
Why getting real estate leads “traditionally” sucks:
Although I have personally never been an agent, I am very knowledgeable on profitable niche markets and making websites and after looking for months for an apartment and going through various agents, agencies and basically the whole system of real estate, it became very apparent to me that:
This market is HIGHLY competitive.
Agents post listings on popular sites in an effort to find leads, connect with them and then follow up with them. Unfortunately most of these channels are basically nothing more than cold calling efforts, meaning that usually it’s very hard for these channels to yield that many benefits (although they do work).
Commissions by the agent are made via a fee that is charged when the client signs a lease. Typically the commission is 10% of the yearly price of the home/apartment or consists of 1 month’s rent to be paid in addition to other fees to the agent.
Despite there being always people looking for new homes (moving in, moving out, looking for people to rent their homes, ect…) depending on the market, prices and various other circumstances, most agents I know who go about the traditional way of finding leads are usually in short supply of clients and find themselves desperately looking to get more to make ends meet.
Why going online to find those real estate leads is the solution:
Most people today rely on Google search, and real estate sites to find a home and by planting yours before their eyes, you can easily get more views without having to deal with all traditional methods normal real estate agents use. More leads come your way that way, and as a result, you have a higher chance of landing that sale.
Now the steps I gave you above are summarized and if you want to learn more about creating your own real estate website that works, following these steps is more of an overall approach, and I would recommend programs like Wealthy Affiliate to help take you through the detailed steps of that process to make it happen. This article serves as a summarized blueprint of the process.
Step 1: Creating the real estate website.
Like I said above, there’s 3 options:
- WordPress.
- WiX.
- SquareSpace.
I’ve used WordPress for most of life in my career which is internet marketing and it is my top choice out of the 3.
Step 2: Target local real estate.
If I live in New York City, I’d want to make a site that targets people in the New York City area, not necessarily just a small county within it. I can later include different pages for different counties to narrow down my content, but targeting the greater NYC area for leads would be better.
Some people choose to target wider counties, states and even the whole country and I would encourage you not to go that route, because the wider you try to reach with your real estate site, the more competing websites in the same niche you’ll encounter, so stick to local real estate because the ROI on getting 1-2 leads, even a month is substantial.
Step 3: Create a website with the following pages:
- An introduction page.
- A bio page about you and your certification as a real estate agent.
- A testimonials page.
- A contact page so potential leads can connect with you (phone, social media, ect…).
- A privacy policy.
Step 4: Connect the site with Google Maps.Â
When you look for a business, like a restaurant, you probably use Google Maps for it. Well this is something you can have your website be listed under when people type in “real estate so and so location” and to do that, you’ll want to use a service like Google my Business which will help in that regard.
Google is actually pretty awesome at helping businesses get listed on their search engine and this is one way you’ll be able to get potential leads, even for pennies,
Step 5: Use WhiteSpark.ca to get yourself citations.
Whitespark.ca is a company that helps businesses get more organic exposure on websites like Yelp, Yellow Pages and other similar sites across the internet, which if people land on, and type in say “real estate”, your website will pop up for. This can be a great way to get leads and this particular service is one of the best for it.
They can build your website 100’s of citations, which are listings across the kinds of websites I was just talking about and intelligently help your site get planted in places where potential leads are available at.
My final thoughts:
Now you can also use the traditional websites like Apartments.com and so on to place leads, but having your own central site would be something that is far more lucrative for you in the long run as more and more leads, visits to your site and exposure online through none traditional means can help you beat your other real estate competition.
Considering the aggressive competition in the real estate market and how few people succeed at it, doing something like making your own website can really help you pull ahead and these 5 steps are a great starting point for doing that.
As I said before, programs like Wealthy Affiliate help people build these kinds of personal websites for business purposes and if you have questions on how to proceed further with real estate websites, let me know below.
You really are a genius buddy. Never thought that online marketing techniques can be used for real estate!
One thing I would like to ask is for this example, we should make our webmaster setting to focus in our target area right? I never play with that setting before but I think it will show our sites to the demographic that we want the most. Am I right in this Vitaliy?
I am not sure what you mean by webmaster setting Isaac. The content you write, the keywords you chase will determine your ranking. As long as your keywords are titled set to local area listings, it will rank for local area listings.
This is really interesting, and I can see the logic in setting yourself apart from other marketing avenues that are highly competitive. I like the idea of making it a customer journey, through capturing interest on a relevant keyword, and then linking through to a real estate offering that might suit that person. I’m guessing this same blueprint could be used for any niche. Is that right?
Yes, essentially, you are doing affiliate marketing, kind of like this, but the end promotion you have differs. Either way, it’s still the same identical formula of keyword targeting then sending people to the offer that best meets their search and needs.
Hello Vitaliy!
One day I would love to buy a couple properties and rent them out,however first I got to buy my own house one day. Certainly very well written, you always seem to be very informative in your posts. Always packed full of information.
The real estate industry is extremely competitive, fighting for the little space that’s available. Although it can be done and what a very well written guide. 🙂
There’s little space, but new properties open up constantly Trevor and if you can target the new keywords for them, you will always have a piece of the traffic in the area finding your site.
Great informative Post and it has peaked my interest bigtime since I am in real estate. I invest and I own numerous mid-size rental properties. My first question is do you have to have a R/E Broker license in order to work on your own? Or, will a typical real estate license be enough to work on my own (not an agency) like you mentioned?
Is it more difficult to get ranked higher in Google by way of the local market, than it is nationally trying to get ranked in google search? Does Google search specifically have a formula that I can tap into to be ranked the highest in my particular area which is Metro Saint Louis, Missouri?
Very helpful site and especially this Post. You have me interested and these ideas are so good that I will share with my other real estate colleagues. Thanks again, Matty B.
Hi Matty, I may be wrong on the part of licenses, but for real estate, if you say don’t have one, you can mention that you are not licensed but are in the business for a long time. It is obviously better to have one and I think a regular one will do, considering that a person who comes to your site can then go through you, the broker if necessary and legally, you should be ok with the license that allows this.
Secondly, Google does have preferences for local businesses to show up for specific areas, but depending on the population/popularity of the area will be a big factor in the local business rankings and the business topic itself.
For example, if you live in New York City, it may be difficult to rank a site organically as there will probably be a ton of other real estate websites competing for that location and that keyword.
However, no matter what the competition, it is always GREAT to have lots of content on your website and overtime, it may overtake even the other sites which outrank you.
Also if you do plan to compete for your local keyword terms, consider doing website citations as they also help a local business’s rankings rise substantially. You will also want to look into starting a business page for your site, getting likes and reviews, all of which will help your business page rank better.
Interesting article. Like you say, the real estate market is incredibly competitive. Personally, I think the images on a property listing makes all the difference.
Good quality images are absolutely essential to ensure a commission when creating a real estate website.
Once you have created a website in the manner you describe, what would be the best payment portal to use for the website? I imagine the “transaction fees” will be huge when dealing with large sums from a house sale.
The listings pictures are going to be ON the site, but getting the audience within the specific location will come from keywords and content Philip. You can also label your images (the listings) on the site with keyword such as “1 bedroom house in so and so” and if people Google that in their area and hit images, they will also see that pop up 🙂
As for payment options, what I would do is create a form for people to contact the owner of the site, aka the real estate agent, then meet in person for a viewing, then figure out payment from there. I doubt people looking for homes will be ready to buy directly from the site. Most likely they’ll want to check it out first, hence why it’s important to make the contact important necessary for them to reach you by.