Do realtors need their own website?

Do realtors need their own website? If a good share of your business comes from referrals and past clients, you'll want one sooner or later, because the brokerage profile page belongs to the brokerage and usually goes away when you leave. If you mostly work leads your team or brokerage hands you and you plan to stay put, the profile page can carry you for now. The rest of this post covers both cases, what a site costs and the rules to check before you buy a domain.

What the brokerage page does well

A brokerage profile page costs you little or nothing, it's often ready the week you join, and it sits on a name buyers may already know from yard signs. It usually comes with the brokerage's listing search, the required disclosures already in place and a contact form that reaches you. For a newer agent who hasn't built a referral base yet, that covers a lot.

It also keeps you out of the website business. Nobody at the brokerage will ask you to pick fonts or renew hosting.

What it can't do

Most profile pages run on one template: headshot, a box of bio text, your listings and a form. Every agent in the office gets the same layout, and a few things don't fit in it.

The first is your story. A referred client wants to know who you are and how you work before they call, and that takes more room than most bio boxes give you. How to write a realtor bio people actually read shows what goes in that room.

Your reviews are the second. Some profile pages pull reviews in and some don't, and you rarely control which ones show. On your own site you pick them, add the client's first name and what you did for them, and link each one to where it was posted. The rest of what a referred client looks for is in what to put on a realtor website.

The biggest gap shows up when you change brokerages. The old profile page usually comes down or gets reassigned, and the address on your business cards, email signature and social profiles stops working. A past client who passes your link along sends their friend to a dead page or a list of other agents. Contacts who came in through the old page's form may stay in the brokerage's system. With your own domain, you update the brokerage name and license line in the footer and carry on.

When your own site isn't worth it yet

Your own site probably isn't worth paying for yet if most of your deals come from leads your team or brokerage assigns. The same goes if you're part time and know you won't touch the site more than once a year. A "recent sales" list stuck two years back can make a referred client wonder whether you're still working.

It can also wait if your brokerage profile already lets you write a full bio, use your own photos and show reviews, and you expect to stay where you are for a while.

If that sounds like you, spend the effort on your brokerage profile and your Google Business Profile, and come back to the question once referrals and repeat clients make up more of your year. Register a domain in your own name in the meantime. It's a small yearly fee, and it's the one piece that moves with you whatever you decide.

What an agent website should cost

There isn't one price, because agents buy sites in a few different ways. Some brokerages offer a template site, sometimes included and sometimes for a monthly fee. Real estate website companies sell template sites, usually with a setup fee, a monthly subscription and IDX search built in. A designer or agency builds a custom site for a larger one-time fee plus hosting. And a do-it-yourself site builder costs a monthly plan plus your evenings.

The fair way to compare them is the total over three years, since most agents keep whatever they pick at least that long. Add the setup fee to 36 months of the monthly fee, plus any add-ons such as IDX. A quote of $[setup fee] up front and $[monthly fee] a month comes to $[setup fee] + 36 × $[monthly fee]. Put every option through the same sum, including the one that's "free" through your brokerage, where the cost may show up if you leave.

Then ask each provider four questions:

• Is the domain registered in my name?
• Can I take my content and reviews with me if I leave?
• What happens to the site if I stop paying?
• Is there a contract term or a cancellation fee?

Brokerage rules to check first

Talk to your managing broker before anything goes live, and check your brokerage's advertising rules. They vary by state and brokerage, but a few come up again and again:

• Your brokerage name, and often your license number, have to appear on the site, sometimes in a set size or place.
• Many brokerages want to approve an agent's site or ads before they're published.
• Using the brokerage's name or logo in your domain may need written permission, and you'd lose that domain when you leave, so build it around your own name.
• Listing search on your site (IDX) runs under MLS rules, usually through your broker's IDX agreement.
• If you're a REALTOR® member and want "realtor" in your domain or business name, read NAR's rules on the trademark first.
• Fair housing applies to your site like any other ad. Describe your services, and leave out who a home or area suits.

Do realtors need their own website? Common questions

Can I use a Facebook or Instagram page instead?

Social pages help people find you, but the platform decides the layout and can change its rules whenever it likes. Most agents who use both link the social page to the site, so a referred client who looks you up finds the same story in both places.

I'm on a team. Do I still need my own site?

If the team gives you most of your leads and you plan to stay, the team page may be enough. If you're building your own referral base, a site in your name is where those clients will find you years from now, whichever team you're on.

I already have my own site. How do I know if it's working?

Run the free site check. It shows what a referred client sees on your first screen and what's missing.

If you decide it's time, we build and look after real estate agent websites that put you first and your listings after. It's $99 to start, refunded if you pass on the preview, and $399 all in at our founding price for the first 25 clients. Hosting is $99 a month. Here's Elena Marsh, one of our sample designs for fictional businesses.