4 Tips for Finding a Great Web Designer


In today’s world, no matter how skilled or experienced you are with real estate, many of your efforts will fall to the wayside if you don’t have an eye-catching, effective web presence. With over 273,785,413 people using the Internet in the U.S. every day, failing to build an attractive webpage for you and your real estate business prevents you from targeting a massive audience that could ultimately help you succeed in a highly competitive industry.

In fact, recent studies show that nearly half (42 percent) of recent home buyers use the internet as the first step in shopping for houses, and a whopping 92 percent of buyers used the web at least once during their shopping process. Though a majority of these buyers browse popular real estate databases, houses featured on these sites are often linked back to private real estate agents like yourself. However, if the webpage linked to your agency’s houses is unwelcoming and difficult to navigate, buyers won’t be hooked.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a web design pro or experienced tech pro to build your real estate business a webpage that captivates, informs, and encourages buyers to utilize your helpful services. With these four tips, you can learn how to find an expert web designer that will make your real estate website shine.

1. Consider it an investment 

 The sole purpose of hiring a great web designer is to build a website that has all the features, bells, and whistles needed to make it truly superb. Consider your website one of your greatest ROI assets and don’t hesitate to spend the money needed to make it an effective investment. Even if you have to save money or take out a small loan to hire an experienced professional, paying for premium themes, features, and elements will better attract and motivate shoppers to buy, which means—if you play your cards right—that your website will eventually pay for itself.

2. Check out references, testimonials, and past work

 You want to find a web designer who can bring your webpage vision to life by mimicking your professional personality, goals, and values. The best way to do this is to do a little background digging into the past projects potential designers have worked on. After collecting a list of possible web designers you’d like to use, don’t hesitate to ask them for references, inquire about testimonials from past clients, and visit sites and projects they’ve listed in their portfolio. Do these sources feature elements you’d like to see on your own page? Do you feel inspired to work with this person? Do they have the style and experience you’ve been looking for? By doing your due-diligence in researching possible web designers, not only can you have confidence when working with this person, but you can also begin to develop a rough outline of what you’d like to see on your page in relation to their past work.


 3. Know Your Vision

Similar to the tip above, having a specific idea of what you want your page to look like is key. What kind of drag-and-drop features would you like to see? How many point-and-click elements do you want? What kind of correspondence options will you need? Do you want to have several different tabs on your page or just a few? What’s the general layout and design theme you’d like to see? Ultimately, the more you can tell your designer about your wants and needs, the greater your chances of finding an expert who fits the bill.

4. Be smart with bids 

After you’ve collected a list of potential web designers, open up your project for bids. In other words, tell these pros what you’d like to see (note tip above) and ask them to give you a detailed bid of how much they’d charge for the project. Once you’ve accumulated bids, you’ll have a choice to make. And while it’s in human nature to select the lowest price, this doesn’t always mean its the best for your needs. Go back and review the track records of your top contenders and choose the person who has proven they can master your design without blowing your budget.

To learn more about how you can master the world of real estate, enroll in a Rules of Renovation Seminar, today.

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