Real Estate Websites are Not One Size Fits All

Real Pro Systems builds highly flexible websites that are easily tailored to an agent’s needs.  There is a lot of confusion in the marketplace about terms like “template” website, “cookie-cutter” website, “custom” website, and so on.  Here’s how we see the world of websites.

To us, a “cookie-cutter” website is a derogatory term, referring to a website that is not configurable; they all look alike, and the content is fixed.  For agents on a budget or with no budget, it might be the only alternative.  Sometimes these are free sites provided by a broker or offered as an add-on to a service such as an IDX.  Let’s face it; even with the lack of flexibility it’s better than no internet presence at all.  But all they offer is a “business card in cyberspace.”

Template sites are formatted with pre-defined templates.  You can sometimes add pages, but you have almost no control over the layout of the page or the formatting of the content.  These are primitive, but nevertheless, expandable websites. Generally, no content is provided, and creating your websites is a “do-it-yourself” project.  Frequently, you use an automated online system to build your website, and you have no support from a service department; you are on your own.

Production websites are mid-priced websites that come with some amount of content pre-populated.  Usually, you choose a design layout from a gallery of choices, and the company produces a website with that look and feel.  You could argue that these are “cookie cutter” in that each one is initially populated with the same content as a starting point; in order to maintain a price point, there is no choice.  But these production sites range dramatically in cost and capability.  Ironically, some of the most expensive websites in this category are the LEAST flexible!

Custom websites are just that- no strings attached as to what design elements or layout can be implemented.  Unfortunately, there’s also no limit as to how expensive they can be.  Agents often turn to a custom designer because they believe it is the only way to get the branding and look and feel that meets their needs.  It seems that most of the time, they spend $3,000 – 5,000 with a local vendor and end up with a website that is attractive and unique. There are vendors in the real estate space who will charge you $10,000-15,000 for a custom website, with unexceptional graphical design, so you don’t always get what you pay for.

Unfortunately, when you buy a custom website it typically requires you to keep going back to the designer every time you need a change made to a page because there are no built-in tools for website maintenance.  This is a terrible situation to be in because change is key to keeping search engines interested in your site.

It is essential to consider the importance of tools for extending and maintaining a website.  We need to make a distinction between website look and feel (the “skin”), the content, and the related internet marketing tools that must be integrated with a website for it to contribute to your business.  When you buy a custom website, it simply is not economical for the web designer to build a lead management system, a drip email campaign system, and email blast tool, a monthly newsletter, and the like.  And these are the very tools that comprise your internet marketing foundation!

So where does that leave us?  Real Pro Systems builds a powerful set of website management and internet marketing tools as part of the systems we offer.  The website doesn’t exist in isolation, it is part of an integrated system.  This is economical, because the cost of developing these tools is spread over thousands of clients, making it cost–effective for a beginning agent to get a powerful set of tools.  The custom website developer may only have a handful of real estate agent clients, and cannot afford to be building production software which is what these related marketing tools are.  So custom website design is not software tool production, and leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to internet marketing.  A gorgeous custom website may make a good impression, but without effective internet marketing tools integrated, it will not be nearly as effective at generating business as a modest production website system.

When we look at production website vendors and their tools, it is eye-opening to see the fundamental differences in what they offer.  Even our entry level Real Pro Silver system comes with a rich lead capture and follow-up system that rivals products costing five times as much.  And users of all of our systems including Silver can easily add as many pages of content to their websites as they wish.  The menu choices and arrangements (“navigation”) can be completely customized so it doesn’t even resemble the original production website.  SEO settings are completely configurable too.  We have had clients use our websites for niche marketing, recruiting agents, and even for a political campaign!  A “cookie-cutter” or “template” website doesn’t offer this range of flexibility.

Even with other prominent production website vendors, you don’t have this flexibility.  With some, it requires a call to customer service to get any changes made.  That might be OK if they offered good response to these requests, but unfortunately, that often is not the case.

The other factor that plays into this (and is invisible to the real estate agent) is the website’s architecture.  This ultimately is what drives the degree of flexibility in the system.  Many websites “hard-wire” the website look and feel into the “back end” code of the site, making changes nearly impossible.  Real Pro Systems’ Web 2.0 architecture decouples the look and feel of the website from the operating code of the internet marketing system.  This means that the flexibility of the website look and feel goes beyond adding and formatting pages, and goes beyond choosing a design from a gallery of layouts.

With Real Pro Systems’ architecture, you can commission us to create a completely custom look and feel for your website, but still retain all the benefits of the product-quality tools built into our systems!  Whenever we release a new version of our tools, you get those changes, just as if you had a production website, because it is built on our system.  No one else offers this flexibility.

In contrast, with every other company in the real estate web space, you get a limited set of choices- run with a production or cookie-cutter website and use the tools they provide, or go to a custom website designer and forget about the benefits of integrated tools.  At Real Pro Systems, our ever-expanding range of solutions enables you to choose the solution that best meets your needs, and your growth path is assured from Real Pro Silver (your internet foundation), to Real Pro Gold (advanced internet marketing) to Real Pro Platinum (the ultimate internet marketing and business management system).

Any of our systems can support a fully custom website, and as your needs grow, you can upgrade from one system to the other, retaining your custom website look and feel!  When you buy from Real Pro Systems, you not only get a great system with flexibility, but you have great flexibility across a range of systems.