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Building my own website?

By
Real Estate Agent with Solutions Real Estate

 

Is there anyone out there that can possibly guide me in the right direction.  I want to start building my own website.  I have purchased a domain name but now have no idea where to go? Can anybody help a novice?

Comments (12)

Julie Chapman
Julie Chapman Broker - Ormond Beach, FL
Daytona Beach Shores, Florida

Brad Carroll who is a member of active rain writes the most imformative posts I have seen and his specialty appears to be webdesign.....

Welcome to Active Rain......

Oct 22, 2007 11:27 AM
Stacy Magid
Century 21 New Millennium - Woodbridge, VA
You may want to look into Point2Agent which provides a free standard website with alot of great information for potential clients.  If you want more than the standard features provide you can always upgrade and it's very reasonable.
Oct 22, 2007 11:30 AM
Daniel Sundberg
Crystal Springs Real Estate - Kentwood, MI

It all depends on where you want to start and how much knowledge you have.

Check out this post I used for feedback:  http://activerain.com/blogsview/185786/Best-Website-hosts-and 

I use Point2Agent myself, but that is mostly because it is free. 

Oct 22, 2007 11:30 AM
Natalie Langford
Realty Negotiations - Winchester, VA
Winchester, VA Real Estate
I used Myers Inc, after reading about them in Realtor magazine.  If you visit my website, you can see a site that was easy to set up using their templates and then customizing one new idea at a time.  (Many ideas came from AR).  Also, I think you can have a free site at point2agent.  Good luck!
Oct 22, 2007 11:32 AM
Jan Pickering
Solutions Real Estate - Gilbert, AZ

 

My gosh, it took 7 minutes to receive answers to my posting...many many thanks! I already have a point2agent website and it seems good enough.  I just wanted to know if there was better out there for very little money.....looks like I have my answer. All the same, I will look into your suggestions...thanks!

Oct 22, 2007 11:40 AM
Sam Miller
RE/MAX Stars Realty - Howard, OH
Knox County Ohio Real Estate Specialist
Jan - I would shy away from building your own site...buy a template site and get it up and running right away and then take your time to build a custom site if that is what you are looking for.  The amount of business you will lose trying to learn how to build a site will make your site a $50,000 to $100,000 site in the long run because building websites is not your highest and best use of your time.   
Oct 22, 2007 11:43 AM
Chul KIM McGuire
CorpusTV.com - Corpus Christi, TX

Jan,

Building a website on one's own without any prior classes or on ones own learned experience is going to be overwhelming to most people. It's also going to take a lot of time. Simply do a search on Yahoo or Google for building a website. Look for videos on YouTube.

You can look at "Open Source" websites too like Joomla. These are already created templates by website designers. Some are relatively easy to learn, the rest are overwhelming.

If you will design your own website and not get a cookie cutter website for Realtors, then I suggest you build a website that is both a realty site as well as a "community portal" where there's bunch of community info. If that second component is built well, kept updated with useful info, then that should build future clients along the road. 

Feel free to check out my website. Not a run of the mill and I don't pay a monthly fee to a company other than annual hosting cost.

Remember there are two components to having a website:

  • Cost of website design/creation.
  • Cost for created website "hosting." (Whose mega computer that the website is put onto memory that is connected to the internet and operates 24/7 with 99.999 uptime and with backup servers.)

Cheers, KIM.

Oct 22, 2007 11:45 AM
Ronald Stead
Valley HomeSteads - Woodstock, VA
Your HomeTown Real Estate Professional

Thanks for this blog. I am in the same boat and can use all the usefull information I can get.

Regards,

Ron Stead

Oct 22, 2007 11:59 AM
Fred Jaeger
High Lakes Realty and Property Management - La Pine, OR
Real Estate Connection - Central Oregon

www.z57.com is an excellent site that can provide a template, a great selection of themes and a support system that will have you running right out of the box.

Good luck.

Oct 22, 2007 12:10 PM
Bobby Carroll
Jaclyn Smith Properties - Clayton, NC
Clayton NC New Home Happiness Coordinator
Hi Jan- Welcome to Active Rain. This community is a terrific site for all kinds of helpful information and advice. The old adage remains true - you get what you pay for. For those who have the technical expertise, DIY of a website could be a viable option. Then again, is that where you should invest your time? When I was selling real estate, I never mowed the lawn of my listings - I hired the experts. Could I have mowed the lawns of my listings? Sure. Some happen to follow the same philosophy for web design and development. Which ever path you choose, be a wise consumer and learn as much as you can so you will make a smart decision.
Oct 22, 2007 12:13 PM
Jeff Payne
The Payne Group at Keller Williams Success Realty - Panama City, FL
Panama City Real Estate

I recommend looking into Real Pro Systems.   Stay away from Homes.com.  Real Pro has great service and they are affordable.

Check out my site at www.panamacityhomesource.com

If you have any questions just call me at 850-890-0132

Oct 22, 2007 12:42 PM
Erin Stumpf (Attardi)
Coldwell Banker - Sacramento, CA
916-342-1372 / DRE# 01706589 Sacramento, CA

Agent Image hosts my website...http://www.agentimage.com.

Oct 22, 2007 01:56 PM