In order to get the best real estate investor website for your business, it’s important to understand what you should look for when shopping for a website. In this article we walk you through what to look out for when choosing your website.
Even on this day and age, I still come across so many people running real estate investing businesses without a website.
And when I talk to them, it usually turns out they have no idea if they need one or not.
Most of them do not even understand what this website thing is all about. Others think only the big guys should have a website.
Let’s make one thing clear – you must have a website for your real estate investing business. Otherwise you’re losing a lot of deals.
In this article we’ll cover how you can identify and buy a good website for your real estate investing business.
We’ll be answering these questions:
- What Is A Real Estate Investor Website?
- How Do You Identify A Good Real Estate Investor Website?
- What Types Of Real Estate Investor Websites Exist?
- Should You Combine Business Models In One Website?
- What’s The Best Website Builder For Real Estate Investors?
What Is A Real Estate Investor website?
A real estate investor website is a virtual tool that allows you to run real estate investing online, whether you buy or sell houses, you are a landlord, or you do wholesale real estate investing, sell notes, invest in apartments (multi-family), you are looking for private money, or any other real estate business model. It gives you a virtual presence where potential clients can visit your business online and initiate real estate transctions.
To be clear with some terminology, a real estate investor website can be referred by a variety of names – Real estate investing websites, Real estate investor website, Real estate investors websites, Websites for real estate investors, and so on….
This brings up the most basic question:
What is a website?
A website gives you a virtual presence online, where you can engage visitors that want to learn about you or your business and probably do business with you. It gives you the ability to market yourself to people even if you never meet them. Every website has 3 things:
- Domain name – the unique name that identifies your business, e.g. com
- Hosting account – the physical, server where it’s hosted
- “The website” – Virtual files that contain the content you see online
Why such basic information? I get asked this question from time to time, so I think I should answer it here. If you are reading this article, you are looking at a website.
Let’s look at each one:
1) Domain name
A domain name is a name that is unique to you or your business, such as myname.com or mylocalhomebuyer.com, etc. It points to your website so when people type it on their browser, they visit your website. A domain name can only be registered once, e.g. yearly, and it has to be renewed whenever it expires.
Think about what name you would like for your business before you get a real website because this will become the gateway to your business. There are numerous free tools to check if a domain name is take or not.
Most website providers can register a domain for you, or you can register it separately with registrars like Godaddy.
2) Hosting account
A hosting account is where the website is physically located. This is usually a virtual space on a server. A hosting account has all the resources needed for a website to run online.
Most real estate investing websites bundle a hosting account with the website, so you don’t need any technical expertise to have a real estate investor website.
3) The website
These are virtual files that sit on a server, containing the content that you see online, such as this page. A website is usually installed on the hosting account (server) before it can be available online.
The information you see when you go to a website is served by these files.
Again, when you buy a real estate investor website, you usually won’t need technical expertise to differentiate this.
But sometimes you will need to separate them.
How Do You Identify A Good Real Estate Investor Website?
A good website real estate investing website should bring you more business and make it easy to run. The website must:
- Attract real estate leads organically – through SEO and social engagement
- Engage those leads to take specific action
- Nurture those leads until they are ready to close deals with you
- Be easy to use
- Make your work easy
- Adaptable to suit your business model
- Have a variety of customizable designs
- Be affordable
- Be uniquely yours
As you probably know, having just a simple “informational” website is not enough for your real estate investing business.
Let’s look at each of these qualities:
1) Attract Real Estate Leads Organically
Obviously, you must attract new clients to be successful. Therefore a good website for real estate investing must attract leads organically through the search engines.
For this to happen, your website should be
i) Optimized for search engines to rank higher on Google
A website makes it easy for people to find you on the internet.
This includes motivated sellers and people looking to buy your houses or other prospects that you target.
Websites that are well optimized are placed higher up in the search engines – especially Google. The higher you are, the easier it is for people to find you.
This heat map picture from moz shows how people interact with search results.
As you can see, most people scan around the top of organic listings. Fewer and fewer people scan down the page.
Therefore the goal of a good real estate investing website is to rank as high as possible to attract more leads.
How do you rank your real estate investing website higher on Google?
For this to happen, your website needs to have:
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Advanced on-page SEO
On-page SEO means that each page follows Google SEO guidelines. The page meta data for the Title, Description and keywords should be clear. The content for each page should also target relevant keywords.
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Target your content to your local market where you do business
Your website will rank especially well when you target your local market. For this reason, interactive real estate investor websites are delivered fully optimized and targeted to your local market.
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Improve user experience
Optimize website speed to load fast, ideally under 3 seconds. Visitors should be able to navigate easily and find key information on the fist page. Especially they should also be able to take relevant action without having to scroll – e.g. signing up, or tapping your phone number to call you.
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Optimize your website for mobile first
This is the first SEO signal Google looks at. This means your website must have good SEO and mobile optimized. This article goes into the details of why your website must be mobile optimized.
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Update your content regularly
Post new content. Search engines love fresh content. And they’ll reward you for it. This short video explains it.
In order to enable you to post new content, our websites are delivered with a fully optimized WordPress blog.
It’s important that your website has all the tools you need to improve your SEO continuously. SEO is always an ongoing process – especially creating fresh content.
With Interactive real estate websites, you can edit any content on the websites directly on your virtual back office.
ii) Have good social engagement
Social media is huge in today’s market. People like to share things on the web – such as your properties, or your web page.
Consequently, providing this ability attracts more leads for you – and more closed deals.
Again our interactive websites are fully equipped to handle this.
2) Engage those leads to take specific action
The goal of a good real estate website is to have most visitors take action on your website – such as call you or sign up on the website. It should be equipped with the following tools to make this possible:
- Video speaking models – that welcome visitors to your website and prompt them to take action
- Personalized Ebooks – Ebooks that solve a common problem your visitors have, personalized with your name as the author.
- Squeeze pages for all purposes – to collect any information you need and do targeted marketing campaigns
- Offer multiple clear calls to action – to prompt your visitors to take action wherever they are on your website
- Optimized for mobile devices – most people will visit your website on a mobile device. Search engines rank mobile first as we have seen.
A website for real estate investing must handle all the leads with kid’s gloves – like gold.
You only have about 10 seconds to win or lose a website visitor – or they leave for ever. And the website should convert these leads when they land on your website.
Let’s look at each in more detail:
i) It should have video speaking models
Ever seen a life-like person appear on a website and start talking to you? These “speaking models” capture instant attention of a website visitor within a few seconds without being aggressive.
They must be natural, kind and friendly, and offer a message that appeals to the website visitor.
And also offer a compelling reason for website visitors to take action, such as signing up.
Only our interactive real estate websites come equipped with speaking models. This video shows you how this works.
ii) It must be equipped with personalized Ebooks
When you offer your visitors free Ebooks that solve a problem they have, you create an opportunity to nurture these leads with automated follow-up marketing.
People love free stuff – especially when it appeals to their needs. Offering Ebooks that are personalized with you as the author adds credibility. Interactive websites are equipped with this.
In order to get access to the Ebook(s), they must sign up. You can then use this email for automated follow-up marketing.
Follow-up marketing converts leads to people who close deals with you.
According to Followupsuccess,
- 2% of sales are made on the first contact
- 3% of sales are made on the second contact
- 5% of sales are made on the third contact
- 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
- 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
It’s a no-brainer – when you get a website that attracts leads and follows up with them, you’ll close more deals.
With one deal bringing in like $5000, $10,000 or more, how much more money can you make with the right website?
This nurturing goes hand-in-hand with number iii) below.
iii) It must have squeeze pages for all purposes
A squeeze page is a landing page that offers a free gift (such as an Ebook) in exchange for contact information.
Again this allows you to nurture your visitors to close deals once you have their information.
A good website must come equipped with this, and the ability to create your own squeeze pages whenever you need to.
iv) It must offer multiple clear calls to action
Until someone takes a call to action on your website, you have no way of doing business with them.
Taking action includes signing up (such as to get an EBook, submitting their house information, etc.), or calling you.
Your ultimate goal is to get every visitor to perform a targeted action on your website.
In order to do this, a good website must have clear calls to action placed strategically on the website.
These calls to action act as “baits” for them to take the next logical step – e.g. sign up or call you. Until a website visitor takes this step, you have no way of doing business with them.
v) It must be optimized for mobile devices
The content must be nice and easy to read on mobile devices.
Any phone numbers should be mobile active, you they simply need to tap on it to place a call.
When they are filling out forms, the forms must be short and easy to fill out. Addresses must be equipped with Google autocomplete to make signing up easier.
3) It Must Nurture Those Leads Until They Are Ready To Close Deals With You
An effective real estate investing website should have in-built follow-up autoresponders for automated email marketing. Website visitors that sign up as leads will then receive carefully timed email messages crafted to warm them up so they can close deals with you.
As we’ve seen above, in order to warm up website visitors to do business with you, you must nurture every lead carefully by follow-up email.
Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Source: Online Marketing Institute).
Most people forget to follow up by the 4th follow-up. In the process they lose 80% of potential business!
Our interactive real estate investor websites come with inbuilt autoresponders and pre-loaded with carefully timed follow-up messages to nurture all the leads your website collects.
Of course you can also create your own messages as necessary.
4) Easy To Use
You should not have to be a rocket scientist to manage a website.
Preferably, you should manage everything from a simple virtual back office. You should be able to handle everything from a point-and-click interface, even if you are new to computers.
With a good website, you do not have to mess with stuff like HML, PHP, etc.
5) Make Your Work Easy
Getting a good website does not mean spending your life managing your website!
Your business should become easier and more productive, such as automating follow-ups, making offers, selling, wholesaling or renting houses, etc.
By getting a good website, it should allow you to do more deals as it reduces your work and increases efficiency.
This means it must be fully equipped with all the features you need to run a successful real estate investing business. This video demonstrates how these features help make your work easier.
6) Adaptable To Suit Your Business Model
No matter how you invest in real estate, a good real estate website should adapt to suit your business model.
Which means you do not need to buy a new website every time you get a new business idea.
You should be able to make any changes yourself without having to hire a web developer or an expert.
Interactive interactive websites can adapt to any business model quickly, usually with a few clicks even if you are new to computers.
And if you happen to have very specific needs, you can still adapt them to suit your exact needs.
7) Have A Variety Of Customizable Designs
An effective website must look good to the visitor. It must deliver trust and credibility when the visitor lands on your website.
It should be simple, clean, well designed and informative.
And it must be created with conversion in mind, with all the interactive elements we have covered so far strategically placed.
For this reason, a good website must have a wide choice of customizable designs with built-in conversion optimization in place.
Only interactive websites come loaded with numerous customizable designs.
Equally important, the website must offer the ability to customize content, forms and other elements on the website.
8) Be Affordable
Obviously you must afford the website to use it in the first place!
Unfortunately, most real estate investing web sites are quite costly.
Most will offer a costly monthly fee, which can end up costing thousands of dollars every year.
Of course, cheap does not always mean low-cost. An affordable, good website will make you $$$.
Granted, one deal lost because you have a bad website can cost you thousands of dollars.
Our websites come with a low one-time payment, and you own it for life.
The video below illustrates this point quite well.
10) Be Uniquely Yours
Does the website give you full control and privacy of your data?
The web site must belong to you. Its data belongs to you, and it must be treated that way.
You should also be able to host it wherever you want with no limitations if necessary.
Our websites are the only ones that offer this capability.
What Types Of Real Estate Investor Websites Exist?
In general, most people classify websites for real estate investing by the business model they are associated with. There are 6 common types of real estate investing websites:
- “We Buy Houses” Websites / House Buyer Websites
- Wholesale Real Estate Investor Websites
- Real Estate Investing Websites For Selling Houses
- Private Money Real Estate Investing Websites
- “We Buy Notes” Websites
- Websites for multi-family houses / apartments
1) “We Buy Houses” Websites / House Buyer Websites
A house buyer website is used to buy houses, usually from motivated sellers.
Most real estate investors buy houses. Needless to say, this means almost every real estate investor needs a “We Buy Houses” website.
As we have seen above, these websites must be equipped with
- SEO, social media and blogging features to attract motivated sellers
- Tools to engage these leads when they land on the website – such as speaking models, Ebooks, squeeze pages, etc. And to get these visitors to take a call to action especially on mobile devices
- Inbuilt automation features that follow up with these leads hands off by email to warm them up to do business with you
- They must deliver motivated sellers pre-screened and pre-negotiated to give you a quick view if it’s a deal or not
- Tools to manage the house buying process from getting the lead to closing the deal
This video summarizes how this delivers pre-negotiated and pre-screened deals:
2) Wholesale Real Estate Investor Websites
A website for wholesale real estate investing makes it easy for you to wholesale properties as investment deals to other real estate investors. These properties usually need repair. The investor buyer usually makes money after they repair the property.
To be effective, a wholesale real estate website should:
- Allow you to publish your properties easily
- Build a buyers list automatically
- Be equipped to email your properties to your buyers list
- Offer extra features to market your properties
a) You should be able to publish your properties easily
A good wholesale real estate website should allow you to publish your properties, upload pictures directly from a virtual back office.
This includes any type of description including videos.
On the front end, the properties must be shown complete with the pictures and videos.
The listings must also include Google maps including satellite and street views.
They should also include a walk score – an indication of the neighboring areas and their accessibility – information that makes comes in handy when you are wholesaling these houses.
b) Equipped to build a buyers list automatically
In order to sell houses fast, you must build a good list of buyers – a buyers list.
These people are usually other real estate investors in your area who buy houses and fix them for sale or rent.
When your wholesaling website offers opportunities to sign up potential wholesale real estate investor buyers, it automatically helps you build a buyers list.
They should also be able to select which areas they want to buy properties from.
This video explains how this works.
c) Email your properties to your buyers list
Once you’ve listed your properties on your website, it should be easy to send your properties to your buyers with a few clicks.
How else can you sell your houses fast?
Ideally, the website therefore needs to have a built-in email capacity so you don’t have to depend on third party services to send your deals.
d) It should offer extra features to market your properties
These include
- Ability to share your properties on social media
- Display your properties on other websites – such as a partner
- Allow limited access to edit properties by other investors
- Easily integrate third party email services like Mailchimp, Constant Contact etc. if you need to
This allows you to market your properties faster.
3) Real Estate Investing Websites For Selling Houses
When you need to sell houses or rent them, this is the website you need.
Just like the wholesale website, the real estate investing websites for selling houses should be equipped with similar features.
They should also allow you to list houses for sale on retail, for rent, and for lease options.
4) Private Money Real Estate Investing Websites
Private money websites make it easier for you to attract private money for your deals.
They are usually most often informational. Make sure you comply with FTC rules so you don’t break any laws.
5) “We Buy Notes” Websites
As the name suggests, these are websites used to buy notes.
Interactive real estate investor websites come with this business model built in if you need it.
6: Websites for multi-family houses / apartments
If you buy multi-family properties or apartments, this is the website for you.
Again, if you choose interactive real estate investing websites, this business model is included by default.
Should You Combine Business Models In One Website?
Should you run one combined website where you buy houses, sell houses, wholesale houses, get private money, buy notes, etc all in one website?
Or is it better to have a separate website for each business model?
The best website for real estate investing is the one that is focused to a singular goal.
When a motivated seller lands on your website, the last thing they need to see are the properties or wholesale deal you have on sale!
You stand a fair chance of losing great deals just because of combining business models this way.
I once lost a great deal worth thousands of dollar this way. I got the house under contract and promptly listed the house as a wholesale deal on my real estate investor website.
Then I located a wholesale cash buyer within a few days. We set a closing date and he wired the money to the title company ready for closing.
Unknown to me, my seller saw her house listed on my website at a much higher price that she was getting for her house!
As a result she refused to go to closing.
Ultimately that house ended up in foreclosure.
Just because I combined conflicting business models on my website, I lost that deal.
Should you combine business models this way?
You shouldn’t…
It’s certainly your call to make, but make sure the business models do not cause conflict that can affect your business.
Losing a single deal can cost you thousands of dollars. And when you need under $300 for a life-time ownership of a separate website, you should not take the risk of combining business models.
Best Real Estate Investor Website: Interactive Real Estate Investing Websites
We have covered a lot of ground in listing most of the qualities of a good real estate investing website. Interactive real estate investing websites are the only websites that have all the features and qualities we have discussed here plus a lot more.
In being transparent, we are the creators of interactive real estate investing websites.
As always, I encourage you to do your research.
Ultimately, the best website will
- Attract leads and help you close more deals
- Make your work easier
- Make you more money
Do you have a real estate investing website for your business? What are you looking for in a good website for your business?
If you have any comments, please leave them below.
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