A real estate website builder helps real estate agents create an online presence to showcase properties they’re selling and to promote their brand to potential buyers. We reviewed 13 real estate website builders and narrowed it to the top six based on price, features, ease of use, lead generation, and best fit for users.
Top 6 Real Estate Website Builders 2019
| Real Estate Website Builder | Best For |
|---|---|
| (Best Overall) Agents seeking an affordable website with basic lead generation and CRM. | |
| Agents building a website with lead generation using Google AdWords and Facebook ads. | |
| Agents wanting a free website builder with lead generation using Zillow. | |
| Agents wanting mortgage calculators, social media integration, and other marketing tools for their website. | |
| Agents seeking a mid-priced website builder with auto dialer for bulk calls. | |
| Brokers building a website to capture leads for several agents or larger teams. |
How We Evaluated the Top Real Estate Website Builders
The best real estate website builder helps agents increase brand exposure and sales by easily creating an online space where buyers can find information about their properties and contact them. A real estate agent website builder should be affordable with a wealth of features and easy lead generation tools that don’t require heavy coding or painful implementation times.
These are the criteria we used to evaluate the best real estate website builders:
- Price: Pricing was a primary consideration in our ranking because creating an online brand can be expensive, eating up a big part of a real estate marketing budget. Getting the most for every dollar means weighing the cost of services, understanding the price breaks, and knowing about any contracts. We factored in all of these things in our ranking.
- Landing pages: Landing pages, often known as property-specific webpages, help real estate agents increase lead conversion with targeted images, verbiage, and lead magnets aimed at a specific audience. We included website builders with real estate landing page functionality.
- IDX connections: An IDX connection allows a website to automatically sync with properties listed on the MLS. This is critical to agents who want to showcase the latest properties in their area; adding the MLS to your website, therefore, a key consideration in our ranking.
- CRM: A customer relationship manager (CRM) helps you identify and track where a lead is in the sales pipeline. We favored builders that include some kind of CRM to help with lead tracking and nurturing.
- Marketing automation: The ability to set up automated emails, SMS texts, and auto-responders to engage new and ongoing leads without spending more time is vital. That’s why builders with these features topped our list.
- Lead generation and advertising: Building a website is primarily intended to build brand awareness, promote engagement, and generate leads. To generate those leads, website builders must have advertising methods, so we looked for this in all inclusions.
- Ease of use: Spending hours trying to figure out how to build a website means that you are not out making sales. A real estate website builder should be easy to use with drag-and-drop features, intuitive real estate widgets, and click-to-add content. This was our baseline.
Given the criteria above, Placester is the best real estate website builder for agents. It is particularly suited to agents are on a budget, just starting out in the realty industry, or unsure how to begin building an online presence. Combining a template-driven, IDX website with a CRM and marketing automation tools to nurture leads through the sales funnel, Placester is a remarkably affordable option.
Best Overall Best Real Estate Website Builder: Placester
Placester is an affordable real estate website builder starting at $75 with lead generation and built-in CRM. It is unique because an IDX site, lead capture forms, and basic marketing tools are all offered in one platform along with additional discounts for NAR members. The combination of low price point and robust features makes Placester right for individual agents and brokers growing a team.
Placester Pricing
Placester has a partnership with the NAR that includes a 20% discount to its various services. Its newly offered Agent Core plan starts at $75, which includes a professional website. Other plans include a built-in CRM, lead capture, and marketing tools which range between $125 per month to $250 per month plus setup fee for non-NAR members. Each package requires a yearly contract.
Placester Tiered Pricing & Features
| Pricing (NAR members) | |||
| Agent Management Tools | |||
| Yearly Contract | |||
| IDX Website | |||
| Support | ✔ | ||
| Landing Pages | ✔ | ||
| CRM | |||
| Content Library | |||
| Marketing Automation | |||
| Lead Capture Magnets | |||
| Lead Distribution Tools |
Agent Core
One of the biggest selling points for Placester is that it gives real estate agents exactly what they need to get started or establish their online brand: an economical real estate website builder for $75 for non-NAR members. The best reason to upgrade to a paid plan is the extra features needed after you build a website.
Placester’s Agent Core plan is right for new agents who are on a budget and just starting out. The website gives agents a basic online presence to which they can send traffic and collect leads while establishing themselves. While other platforms like Zillow offer free real estate agent websites, they often do so with advertising. Placester gives you a more professional-appearing website without any third-party ads.
Agent Pro
The next step up for Placester is the Agent Pro plan at $125 per month with a $125 setup fee or $99 per month with a $99 setup fee for NAR members. This adds the features that most agents expect from a real estate website builder, like a CRM for lead tracking and marketing automation for nurturing leads through the pipeline. Combined with a content library and lead capture magnets, this NAR-discounted plan makes Placester a great value.
The Agent Pro package from Placester is just right for agents who already have a lead generation system like Wise Agent or BoldLeads. If you are seeking a robust real estate agent website builder with integrated advertising opportunities, then Real Geeks or Zillow are probably better choices.
Broker Pro
The advantage of Broker Pro from Placester is the ability to manage and distribute leads to up to 10 agents for $250 per month with a $250 setup fee (or $199 per month with $199 setup fee). Without the high cost of BoomTown Advance or Chime Enterprise, Placester gives brokers the ability to move leads through the pipeline and track the efforts of agents.
Broker Pro is right for new brokers just starting their agencies and brokers who do not need extensive reporting abilities to track small office efforts. The NAR discount and generous 10 agent limit also means that larger teams can take advantage of all of these higher-level features at a cost less than $20 each per agent.
Placester real estate website builder
Placester Ease of Use
Placester offers very easy-to-use template editors. By clicking on a box, you can upload images or add text to a page. Drag-and-drop images also allow you to place pictures quickly. The content library stores images and videos you use the most for quick access. Placester is simple for even the most technologically challenged agent.
Placester Customer Service
Placester is very customer service-friendly for users with chat and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday phone assistance. Outside of business hours, agents can submit a ticket or email to get help from service representatives. Placester responds quickly according to online reviews.
What Placester Is Missing
Placester is missing a monthly plan that allows real estate agents to test all of the features before committing to an annual plan. Although there is a demo to give you a good idea of what Placester does and how it works, you might want to try the 14-day, $1 trial from Easy Agent Pro if a year contract seems too long.
What Users Think About Placester
Most users report that Placester is an easy-to-use, affordable website builder with a very low learning curve. As Placester is now a part of the Keller-Williams and NAR networks, the member discount makes it more cost effective. Find out more about Placester pricing and reviews.
Where to Find Placester
Placester is the best overall website for agents and brokers who want an easy-to-use, basic real estate website builder and starter marketing tools. Learn more about Placester and the advantages of the NAR members discount by visiting their website. Register for their online demo to find out if Placester is the right choice for you.
Best for Google AdWords & Facebook Lead Generation: Real Geeks
Real Geeks is a real estate website builder with lead generation and advertising via Facebook ads and Google Ads. The reasonably priced real estate website builder starts at $199, but Google Ads and Facebook ad management range between $300 and $500, plus ad spend. This solution is perfect for agents and brokers who want to use their website to fill the sales funnel without managing ad campaigns.
Real Geeks Pricing
Real Geeks costs $199 for one to two agents with a $500 setup fee. Each additional agent and user is $25. Self-managed Google or Facebook ads cost extra, while “done-for-you” advertising for Google Ads requires an ad budget of $500 minimum, on top of $300 to $500 for ad management.
Real Geeks Features
The features for Real Geeks stack up positively against other real estate website builders because of the built-in advertising platform. The purpose of the Real Geeks real estate agent website builder is to showcase properties with dedicated landing pages and generate leads through lead capture magnets. The integrated social media and ad platforms can give a cold site a warm start.
Landing Pages & Lead Magnets
The Real Geeks platform offers easy-to-create landing pages to capture traffic and lead magnets that entice them to leave their contact information. What’s more, it uses a quick, easy, drag-and-drop method for customizing landing pages and adding content. With this easy functionality, Real Geeks allows real estate agents to create landing pages for each ad, property, or target audience. This targeting increases conversion from interested leads.
CRM & Pipeline Management
Real Geeks offers a complimentary CRM as a part of their real estate website builder, with advertising incorporated into the mix. Like all of the other best real estate agent websites, Real Geeks CRM has marketing automation and pipeline management necessary to really engage and track leads through the buying cycle without the higher pricing of Chime or BoomTown.
Lead Generation & Advertising
The lead generation and advertising platforms are more robust in Real Geeks because of the inclusion of Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Unlike Placester, which does not offer integrated lead generation, Real Geeks keeps pace with Zillow, Chime, and Easy Agent Pro in by allowing agents to create and manage ads, while also tracking leads, in one platform.
Real Geeks Ease of Use
Real Geeks does a good job at organizing the multiple layers of a real estate website builder into an easy-to-use platform. Unlike Chime, Zillow, or BoomTown, Real Geeks understands the real estate agent who wants to build a lead generation website without spending excess time trying to figure out the platform. If you are short on time and just want a beautiful real estate website to capture leads, then Real Geeks is a good choice.
Real Geeks Customer Service
Real Geeks responds to customer service requests through email and support tickets. Some people have noted that Real Geeks support can be slow to respond, but the reality is that the learning curve is very low. If service and support are a major concern for you, then you might want to look at Chime or Zillow.
Real Geeks website and Facebook advertising
What Real Geeks Is Missing
The Real Geeks setup fee of $500 can be hard to overcome for small to midsize real estate agents and agencies. If high setup fees without a free trial are an issue, then you might want to try Placester or Zillow; both offer free or lower-cost-to-entry real estate agent websites to test features.
What Users Think About Real Geeks
Many Real Geeks users report that they moved to the platform from other website builders like BoomTown due to the competitive pricing; these same users noted they were happy with the switch. Some note that customer service is slow, but the platform is easy to learn. Find out more about Real Geeks reviews and pricing.
Best Free Website Builder With Zillow Leads: Zillow Premier Agent
Zillow Premier Agent is a free website builder for real estate agents who want to generate leads through Zillow sites (including Trulia and StreetEasy). Not only are these the biggest real estate sites in the world, but leads generated through Zillow Premier Agent are warmer because they capture site visitors interested in finding a property. Given its focus, Zillow is right for agents wanting a free website to generate leads through Zillow’s family of real estate sites.
Zillow Premier Agent Pricing
Zillow Premier Agent includes a free IDX website and CRM for all agents. Those who want to generate leads through Zillow will pay $5 to $60 per lead, depending on location and agent competition. These leads are generated through contact forms and agent profiles placed on individual listing pages.
Zillow Premier Agent Features
Like Placester, Zillow offers a free IDX website with a robust CRM to capture leads and create opportunities for agents. Zillow Premier Agent is right for agents who want an easy-to-build, free real estate website builder that connects to the Zillow, Trulia, and StreetEasy platforms.
Landing Pages & Lead Magnets
Because Zillow Premier Agent focuses on providing a real estate website builder and CRM to capture and track leads from Zillow, Trulia, and StreetEasy, the lead magnet system is limited to the sites’ pop-ups or on-page forms. You might want to examine Real Geeks or Chime if you are considering other lead capture opportunities for your website.
CRM & Pipeline Management
Similar to Placester, which does not offer advertising services, a streamlined, Kanban-style Zillow Premier Agent CRM and pipeline management are included with the free website. If you are seeking a more robust CRM included in your real estate agent website builder, however, then you might want to try Real Geeks or Chime.
Lead Generation & Advertising
Unlike general ads on Facebook and Google Ads that interrupt buyers and sellers browsing for anything online, the agent can be sure that the leads generated through Zillow Premier Agent are captured when someone is in the mindset to buy or sell a home. For those real estate agents searching for a larger range of advertising opportunities like Facebook or Google Ads, check out Real Geeks, Chime, and BoomTown.
Zillow Premier Agent
Zillow Premier Agent Ease of Use
While Zillow’s agent website and CRM are free and not as feature-rich as other builders on our list, they are somewhat cumbersome to set up. Like Chime and BoomTown, there is a learning curve to figuring out the platform and understanding the various modules. If you need a simpler setup process, consider Placester.
Zillow Premier Agent Customer Service
Zillow Premier Agent customer support is offered via chat, email, webinars, training, and events. It is understood that this real estate website builder with features for marketing and advertising might be hard to manage.
What Zillow Premier Agent Is Missing
Zillow Premier Agent is designed for experienced real estate agents who want to generate leads specifically through Zillow, Trulia, and StreetEasy. Some of the website building modules can be hard to maneuver for beginners, and there is a noticeable learning curve for most of the platform. If you are not technologically savvy and ease of use is a concern, then you might want to try Placester or Easy Agent Pro.
What Users Think About Zillow Premier Agent
Most reviewers liked the quality of leads generated through Zillow Premier Agent and noted that it was relatively easy to use the real estate website builder. There was an overwhelming concern about the cost, however. Learn more about how Zillow Premier Agent works.
Best for Site-based Marketing Tools: iNCOM
iNCOM is an IDX-ready real estate website builder for marketing-savvy agents who want built-in site tools like mortgage calculators, auto-responders, social media integration, and QR codes for $49.95 per month. iNCOM is unique because the marketing tools help you stay connected with leads from sign-up to sale. This website builder is best for agents who want to ensure marketing is integrated with their site-building and maintenance.
iNCOM Pricing
iNCOM costs $49.95 per month for all features, including IDX website, landing pages, and marketing tools. Agents can save $10 per month or $120 per year by paying annually. There are six standard real estate website templates included, but premium templates with extra agent branding and design are $4.95 per month. There is a $250 setup fee.
iNCOM Features
iNCOM stands out for their integrated marketing tools that make their website builder into a real estate lead generation and nurturing machine. Six standard templates are beautifully designed to provide real estate agents with a professional online presence for their brand, alongside property search tools to generate leads. The main place where iNCOM stands out, however, is in their marketing features like social media integration.
Standard template example for iNCOM
Landing Pages & Lead Magnets
iNCOM helps turn traffic into leads with robust landing pages that are easy to set up and customize. Lead magnets—like mortgage calculators, home valuation tools, price alert sign-ups, and more—allow agents to capture email addresses that can then be nurtured through the sales funnel.
Like other choices on our list, iNCOM website builder produces an IDX-connected, template-based site to attract real estate clients. However, iNCOM goes the extra step of giving agents the choice of premium templates as well. These nine templates—costing $4.95 per month extra—seem customized because of their non-standard real estate website design. The Billboard template, for example, highlights the recently sold properties, services, and social accounts of the agent.
Premium template example from iNCOM
CRM & Pipeline Management
The CRM included with iNCOM is ideal for connecting with leads. Agents can upload past leads and manage current leads in one place. You can set up auto-responders for first contact and drip marketing campaigns to stay in touch until the sale. iNCOM also stands out with robust reporting to monitor email campaigns and gauge results.
Lead Generation & Advertising
iNCOM offers Facebook advertising and Google Ads creation like Real Geeks and Chime. In addition to these, iNCOM surpasses Real Geeks and Chime with ReCall marketing services starting at $49 per month. ReCall marketing tags people who visit your website so you can display ads to them after they leave and navigate to other sites.
iNCOM Ease of Use
iNCOM is easy to use for agents who are used to drag-and-drop editors and text boxes. Agents can click on the template and upload images and logos, fill in the required information, add text, and change colors with ease. Plus, with online webinars and tutorial videos, agents can easily learn to use all of the tools and editing features.
iNCOM Customer Service
Customers can contact service representatives by submitting a ticket online or by calling a support phone number. Reviews note that it is easy to connect with customer service to get answers to questions and fix problems.
What iNCOM Is Missing
The standard template selection included with the monthly fee is limited to six choices. While these real estate website builder templates are very professional, it is clear that the premium templates are more eye-catching and interesting. It only costs $4.95 per month to upgrade to premium templates, but other options—like Real Geeks, Placester, and Zillow—give more templates in the basic offering.
What Users Think About iNCOM
Facebook reviews and website testimonials for iNCOM are overwhelmingly positive; users praise the professional real estate agent websites and marketing tools offered at an affordable price. Users say the features, cost, and services of iNCOM are worth more than the monthly fee.
Best Website Builder With Power Dialer: Chime
Chime is a real estate website builder with pricing starting at $499; it includes a strong power dialer to save agents time with cold and follow-up calls. The dialer feature is unique because it automatically calls potential buyers or sellers to either leave a message or connect to an agent if someone answers. Chime is right for agents who have a large call list or use cold calling as a central part of their marketing strategy.
Chime Pricing
Chime starts at $499 for the Growth plan with basics like an IDX website, blog, and power dialer for bulk calls. The Team plan increases to $899 per month and adds features like an advanced CRM, marketing automation, and lead distribution. There is an Enterprise plan that covers multiple users that would be best suited to brokers or agencies.
Chime Tiered Pricing & Features
| Price | |||
| Support | |||
| CRM | |||
| IDX Website | |||
| Landing Pages | |||
Lead Gen & Ads (Add-on) | |||
| Marketing Automation | |||
| Lead Capture Magnets | |||
| Lead Distribution Tools | |||
| Reporting | |||
| Agent Management Tools | |||
| Multiple Users |
Growth
The Growth plan has a robust IDX website builder, pipeline management, CRM, and sales reporting. Unfortunately, a blog is not included at this level, which might be a problem for real estate agents who want to share information and real estate SEO keyword-optimized listings.
The Chime Growth plan is right for established solo or growing agencies and brokers because the price and features are not a good fit for individual real estate agents. The marketing automation, team chat, and office documentation cloud storage are good features for on-the-go agents and remote teams.
Team
The Chime Team plan adds robust reporting and forecasting features. There are reports for leads, sales, transactions, and agent metrics. This plan gives agencies the ability to see sales results against goals; when operating whole sales teams, agencies can use these reports to make key staffing and advertising decisions. Additionally, this tier introduces the power dialer, which features click-to-call functionality and smart scripts for easy calling.
The Chime Team plan is created for agencies that want to focus on measuring results against revenue. With forecasting and reporting that is unmatched by other entries on this list, Chime reporting gives office managers and brokers the ability to see details like closed deals, revenue, and predicted sales from an easy dashboard. Also, this plan is a good choice for teams building out their cold-calling strategies.
Broker
The basic benefit of the Broker plan is the enhanced customization and customer support from Chime. With broker tools for lead tracking and reporting combined with multi-agent access, Chime takes a big step up to meet the needs of larger agencies on this plan.
The Broker plan is a solution for scattered teams or real estate offices with teams in different cities. Like various plans offered by BoomTown and Placester, the Broker plan of Chime is designed to help bring all agents into one system for easy tracking and reporting. Also, with 24/7 phone support, Chime Broker is meant to help agencies as they grow.
Chime real estate website builder
Chime Ease of Use
Chime has many modules—email, marketing, website, and CRM—that build on and connect to each other. This can make the Chime interface complex to use. Once you learn how to use Chime, however, it is easy. That said, it is not an out-of-the-box solution with intuitive features like Placester or Real Geeks.
Chime Customer Service
Chime can be reached through chat and phone from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. If you experience issues with service or technical operations, you can fill out a trouble ticket or email customer service for support. There is also a library of support videos for on-demand answers.
What Chime Is Missing
Chime is missing a lighter plan at a lower price without a steep learning curve. Easy Agent Pro, Placester, and Real Geeks are all real estate website builders without extra transaction and reporting modules that are more affordable to agents or small agencies.
What Users Think About Chime
Most users were very happy with Chime due to its robust features, IDX website, and CRM services. Some reviewers noted that the extra features added modules that could increase the learning curve and that customer service did not answer questions quickly or clearly. Learn more about Chime reviews and pricing.
Best Real Estate Website Builder for Brokers: BoomTown
BoomTown is the real estate website builder for larger agencies and growing brokerages because the features and pricing are geared toward multiple agents. Brokers will appreciate the team features for lead distribution and pipeline management starting at $750 per month. At this price point, BoomTown is right for brokers with bigger budgets who need to keep their team on the same page and bridge communications in the office or in the field.
BoomTown Pricing
BoomTown starts at $750 per month for one to three agents with a matching setup fee. The Grow package doubles the price and the onboarding fee to $1,500 per month for added CRM features for three to 10 agents. The Advance plan is for national, franchise-based brokerages and priced based on client needs.
BoomTown Tiered Pricing & Features
Pricing | |||
| Support | |||
| IDX Website | |||
| CRM | |||
| Lead Distribution Tools | |||
| Marketing Automation | |||
| Lead Gen & Ads | |||
| Pipeline Management | |||
| Integration | |||
| Lead Capture Magnets | |||
| Reporting | |||
| Networked Websites |
Launch
BoomTown Launch is the jumping-off point for brokerages; it includes a real estate website builder with CRM and marketing automation. Because BoomTown Launch includes up to three agents in this package, lead distribution tools are added to the features at this level. Also, lead generation tools are available at this and all levels of BoomTown, but, like Chime, Zillow, and Real Geeks, the plan price does not include advertising.
BoomTown Launch is designed for brokers just building out their brokerages. Although the cost seems to point toward a company with a larger bankroll, $750 for three agents (or $250 each) is competitive among high-end real estate website builders in the marketplace. If the $750 onboarding fee is a deal-breaker, then you might want to consider Placester or Chime.
Grow
BoomTown Grow supports up to 10 agents. In addition to Launch plan feature, this plan includes third-party integration, pipeline management, and lead capture magnets. It also features a robust mobile app for lead tracking.
BoomTown Grow is best for brokers who are in the middle of their development cycle and oversee agents who are regularly on the go and need mobile connectivity. With a price tag and onboarding fee that doubles the Launch level pricing, BoomTown Grow might be out of the range for even smaller agencies that need similar features at a lower cost. Placester Broker Pro or Chime are lower-cost options.
Advance
The biggest benefit of BoomTown Advance is the ability to expand out to include more than 10 agents with one real estate website builder platform. In-depth reporting data can help managers and decision-makers with performance and expenditure choices. Like Real Geeks, Chime, and Zillow Agent Pro, BoomTown monthly fees for a real estate website builder do not include lead generation.
Advance is a great choice for an office seeking a real estate website solution for more than 10 agents—likely a franchise-based brokerage with multiple offices. Given the extensive reporting, lead tracking, and lead generation tools, this plan is ideal for brokerages that have found an effective marketing and sales strategy and need to ensure it remains successful.
BoomTown real estate website builder
BoomTown Ease of Use
Like Chime, BoomTown is a multi-layered platform designed for teams. It takes time and investment to learn how to use this product to its full potential. The brokers who use BoomTown rave about the robust features and reporting, but this is not a quick system to learn to navigate or set up. While time investment is high on the front end, BoomTown does becomes easier.
BoomTown Customer Service
BoomTown has chat and phone customer service available during business hours. There is also a resource library filled with information about how to use BoomTown. Reviews indicate that customer service can be spotty—either very fast and efficient or slow and unresponsive. If customer service is a concern or you need hands-on support, then you might consider Zillow or Chime.
What BoomTown Is Missing
BoomTown is missing a free trial to help users understand their investment and get comfortable with the real estate website builder before spending money. At this price point, BoomTown is clearly aimed at larger agencies and brokerages, so if the price is a concern, then you might want to try the trial from Easy Pro Plus or the moderately priced Enterprise package from Chime.
What Users Think About BoomTown
Reviewers agree that BoomTown is significantly more expensive than the competition, but well worth the cost if it is within your budget. Some reviewers noted that there was a sharp learning curve due to the amount of features, but the value received in learning how to use BoomTown was excellent. Find out more about BoomTown reviews and pricing.
Real Estate Website Builder Price Comparison
| Real Estate Website Builders | ||
|---|---|---|
| Placester | Broker Pro | $99 per month $199 per month |
| Real Geeks | 3+ Agents: | +$25 per agent above 2 agents $500 setup fee |
| Zillow Premier | ||
| iNCOM | $250 set up fee $4.95 Premium Templates | |
| Chime | Team: Broker: | $899 per month Call for pricing |
| BoomTown | Grow: Advanced: | $1,500 per month with $1,500 onboarding Call for pricing |
Bottom Line: Real Estate Website Builder
These six best real estate website builders—which allow agents to secure a real estate domain name and build a web presence to promote their brand and listings—are good choices depending on your budget, the size of your realty office, and goals for your online presence. Considerations for the best real estate website builders on our list above focused on price, features, and ease of use.
Based on these criteria, Placester checked all of the boxes for affordability, robust features, and ease of use with well-designed website templates. Additionally, the CRM helps manage leads through automated marketing with drip emails and follow-up campaigns to nurture contacts through the sale. Learn more about Placester today.
Kim Mulligan
I’ve had a Placester website since 2014 before their partnership with NAR and I used to sing their praises. They used to have great customer service, now it would be hard for it to be any more disheartening. They have bugs in their site and it might take days or months to correct the issues and will bill your credit card for services not received. They will also change your account status with no notice or communication. They obviously don’t care about smaller accounts. As individual account, I can only recommend them as an online business card. The best I can say about my site is it has been frustrating and unreliable.
Emile L'Eplattenier
Hey Kim,
Thanks for your review of Placester. Since their NAR sites are free, I would assume they are trying to maybe not so subtly hint that you might want to upgrade… Theoretically at least. You might also want to try your hand at building an IDX site with WordPress. The learning curve is a little but steep, but you end up owning the site free and clear.
Nathan Walldorf
We used Placester for our company site, and it was the pits. It looked great, but Placester’s service that was supposed to drive traffic to the site did not work at all. On the search bar on the front page it says “for rent” or “for sale.” We asked that the “for rent” button go away, but they would not do it. Because of that button, we only got rental leads, which we did not want.
Emile L'Eplattenier
Hey Nathan,
Driving traffic to a brand new domain is not easy. It takes lots of hard work, and most importantly time. Even to rank for non competitive keywords can take up to a year or more assuming you’re regularly publishing content and working on your blog. There is no easy solution unless you drive traffic with paid social ads. That can work, but will cost money.
Chris Redshaw
I realize this is an old reply, but wanted to put this out there for anyone that reads this in the future. The “For Rent” tab is very easy to remove in your global site settings. I have several agents using Placester and that was the first thing I removed. This is true for both the free site as well as the premium sites. I can only guess that maybe they told you they wouldn’t do it because you can do it on your own, or you talked to a very green support tech.
Zach
does anyone have any experience with kvCore? I’m comparing it to RealGeeks.
Emile L'Eplattenier
Hey Zach,
I’ve been wanting to review kvCore for quite a while now, but we have a soft policy here of not reviewing products that don’t have straightforward pricing that we can publish. I have heard great things about the program in general, but we’re reluctant to review software that we can’t tell our readers how much it costs. If you do end up doing a demo with them, let me know how it goes, and maybe encourage them to publish their damn pricing already so we can review them.
Elizabeth Schulze
I had realgeeks for a couple of years. Spent a lot of money and got absolutely no good leads. Checked the google analytics and no one stayed on the site. I was in top 15 at my brokerage of over 300 in 2016, (2017 numbers aren’t in yet) so I am pretty confident it was the site and not me. I think it is a waste of money. Websitebox.com is a good solution if you just want something visible and know the leads aren’t going to come from the $200 a month realgeeks charges or the onetime $90 charge websitebox charges.
Emile L'Eplattenier
Hey Elizabeth. Just out of curiosity are you still using the same URL? How are you driving traffic to the site now?
Jeff Manson
You must not of had the lead capture enabled or your traffic didn’t have the intent to search properties. Real Geeks sites have some of the highest conversion and return rates in the industry. We have many clients that are getting great results. You also have to follow up with the leads to actually make sales.
Check out our review page.
Joseph K. Keresztury – Texas Premier Realty says:
Coming on board with Real Geeks has been the biggest growth step of my real estate practice. When I moved my website over from a competitor’s platform, I was a solo agent spinning my wheels trying to generate online traffic and leads. Since going with RG I have built a team consisting of two other buyer agents and currently onboarding a third with no signs of slowing down. The leads brought in via my Real Geeks site keeps their pipeline full!
Before moving over to Real Geeks I was banging my head against the wall with what I thought was plenty of organic traffic but only generating 40 stale leads per month (and they were not returning). After doing months and month of research on different platforms I was on the verge of throwing in the towel. Finally, I took a leap of faith and moved everything over to Real Geeks. Here are the results from the last 12 months with competitor vs the last 12 months of being with Real Geeks, direct from Google Analytics, while doing the exact same things to generate my organic traffic:
Pages Per Session: 1.59 to 12.22 = Increase of 10.63 pages per session
Average Session Time: 1:58 to 5:52 = Increase of nearly 4 minutes
Bounce Rate: 71.07% to 23.15% = Decrease of 47.92% !
Return Users: 38.4% to 70.1% = Increase of 31.7%
Users: 11,442 to 33,781 = Organic Traffic Increase of nearly 300%
As you can see Real Geeks outperformed in all aspects and went well over my expectations. I was not only able to get potential leads and clients back to the site due to its user friendly structure and “stickiness” but also able to get more traffic to the site all while doing the same things as before with the other competitor. As a result our leads shot up from 40 per month to over 200 per month consistently with contact information (including phone numbers), all with no additional cost!
The money invested in Real Geeks has been the strongest return on investment I have seen in my real estate practice, at a ROI of easily over 50 to 1. On dollars spent, it is a no brainer. The platform is the best in the industry for generating traffic, getting them returning to the site, and providing contact information to convert from a site visitor searching for homes to a registered lead to a closed client. Everyone on our team is on pace for their best year yet.
As a team lead, the backend of Real Geeks allows for everything I need to manage both leads and agents with ease, all in one place. The platform is always evolving and adding new features, which keeps us moving ahead of the curve.
This platform has allowed me to streamline my business while building a profitable team. If you’re looking to grow your business online there is clearly no better option.
Bren Ficoturo
Do you have any feedback for using Superlative as a website builder and their packages, including pricing?
Emile L'Eplattenier
I haven’t.