Your Real Estate Website Template or Custom solution?

by: Michael Alves
Online marketing for Professional Realtors Building your Real Estate website with template or, custom solution.Online marketing for Realtors involves the application of many different online tools. As a professional Realtor, the decision as to which of these tools is best for you can be somewhat confusing. Here is a break down and brief explanation of some of the many options available to realtors in this modern age.First you need a website. Your Real Estate website introduces you to you customers and establishes you as a professional in your field. Your website should be attractive, informative and easy for your potential customers to navigate. There are an endless number of people and companies online that can build a website for you. However, I would suggest you have your site constructed by an individual or company that specializes in building Real Estate websites.Next you have to decide if a "template" website is right for you or, should you look for a "custom built" solution. There are several online companies that have excellent, Real Estate templates available. They have the look and feel of a professionally designed site and include all the bells and whistles. Included in many of these templates are MLS or IDX capabilities, dream home finders, featured listings, pages as well as mortgage calculators, dynamic mapping to available listings, contact us, and about us pages and much more.A custom designed website is also a very real option. There are web developers out there who concentrate on Real Estate sites. There is a greater amount of flexibility to a custom designed site. Custom designers utilize the most cutting edge technologies available, such as flash, slide shows, dissolving text, mouse rollovers, virtual tours, and more. A custom Real estate website is a thing of beauty and can give you a truly unique online presence.There are two other factors you should give a great deal of thought and consideration to when making your decision. There is the cost involved, but equally as important is how much control you want to have over your site after it is finished. Down the road you will inevitably want to make changes to your site. You need to consider how this will be done.There is an excellent template driven, Real Estate website company online that I would highly recommend. To begin with you can get a Free website to work on and customer support while you are learning is 100% Free. They have over sixty custom built templates available and you can change your template anytime you like, on the fly. There is no software to download, you simply go online, log in and work on your site. When you decide to publish your new website, you can have your completed website live and on the internet for less than twenty dollars per month. This solution allows you to have complete control over your website and at a cost per month that is less than the cost of taking the kids to McDonalds for lunch.A custom solution will most likely cost, anywhere between nineteen hundred and thirty five hundred dollars. The expense can be well worth it, as they are one of a kind, and unique to you and the professional image that you want to present. However, You will have to contact your webmaster when you want to make any changes. There is usually an expense involved. I have only been able to find one company that offers a completely custom solution, and gives you complete control of your website after it is completed, and has 100% Free customer support for as long as you own your site.