100% Honest Reviews
I’ve worked for, competed against, and founded the companies that design many of the best real estate websites on earth.
I also believe in radical transparency. Real estate website design companies excel differently. Agents and brokers have very different needs.
Based on your specific situation, I may strongly recommend that you choose a different service than my own real estate website design and lead generation company, InboundREM.
How To Choose the Best Real Estate Website Company
The perfect choice starts with aligning your goals with the right services and expertise. Of course, your budget is also top priority. But there are other considerations that are easy to overlook.
- Does a website provider have a history of sudden, unexpected price hikes?
- Is it difficult to switch companies?
- If you do switch, will you lose your entire investment?
- What do past customers have to say?
As you’re probably aware, negative reviews tend to be more revealing than positive ones.
This blog post shows you how to choose the best company to build a real estate website that best suits your needs and budget.
These reviews are up-to-date, brutally honest, radically transparent, and the culmination of 150+ hours of research. It’s the only guide to real estate website design companies you’ll ever need.
Types of Real Estate Websites
What Type of Real Estate Website Do You Need?
IMPORTANT: Great real estate websites focus on a primary objective. Knowing what your main goal is when buying a website will make choosing between real estate design companies much easier.
Real estate websites fall into three broad categories. ALL real estate websites have secondary features that enhance their core offering.
Primary Features
- Lead Generation – The websites might look the same, but the companies that supply these websites design their service offering around producing leads. It’s their core purpose.
- Search/IDX – The primary of these companies is to offer a unique search experience. They might claim/offer lead generation, but their core competency is the actual search experience.
- Brand/Custom Design – The primary objective is to look different/better than your competitors. While these companies might claim excellent lead generation, their real expertise is brand-creation.
Secondary Features
- CRM – Customer Record Management
- CMS – Content Management System
- Email Marketing – As an integrated service connected to the website
- Lead Management – Giving you a dashboard that you or your agents can log into and manage communication with leads.
- Landing Pages – The ability to create a special webpage that funnels leads
- SEO – Creating high-ranking content or giving you the tools to do it yourself
- Drip Marketing – Automated emails sent to prospects that have registered with your website
What Are Real Estate Lead Generation Websites?
Lead generation websites focus on attracting lots of the right kind of digital traffic. They use social media, email marketing, direct advertising, and high-ranking blog articles to turn prospective clients into actual clients.
Usually, real estate website design companies make these websites with trusted, effective templates. They can then give their prospective customers lead generation estimates based on facts and research as opposed to guesses.
Each time you make a real estate web developer change design in a significant way they no longer have a fact-based experience to estimate lead generation. Small changes can occasionally result in big differences in lead generation percentages.
IMPORTANT: Many real estate website building companies (except InboundREM) don’t allow you to own your actual website.
Usually, they also use direct advertising (Except InboundREM who uses SEO and direct advertising) to generate traffic via Google Adwords, Facebook Marketing, and occasionally automated Craigslist posting.
Prices range from $500-$5,000 for setup and monthly costs between $750-$5000.
Example companies specializing in lead generation include BoomTown, Real Geeks, and InboundREM.
What Are Real Estate IDX/Search Websites?
IDX means Information Data Exchange. Any MLS that exchanges information with a real estate technology company is engaged in an Information Data Exchange.
Any company I have put into this category is there because the main selling feature of their website packages is the search experience. The secondary services they offer often include lead generation, which makes understanding the difference between real estate website providers a little difficult.
IDX/Search vs Lead Generation Companies
One main way to define a true lead generation company is the way that they support the website. Both InboundREM and BoomTown provide end-to-end solutions where the only task the client has to do is manage leads.
Boomtown and IREM both require some learning, but this is a managed process with resources dedicated to stepping you through the process.
ALL other providers make the client LEARN how to get leads from their website. If you fail to follow these companies’ tutorials (if there are any), they will promptly tell you the reason you’re not getting leads is your incorrect use of the website.
IMO, a true lead generation company takes all that guesswork away from the client. The only service education should be educating real estate teams on how to access and work leads.
A quick way to identify how RICH a real estate IDX website search experience is supposed to be is the price. Prices range from $0-5000 for setup and monthly costs of $56-1000.
What Are Custom Real Estate Websites?
Custom designs are great when creating a unique brand is central to your real estate business goals. Luxury real estate agents are the #1 consumers of this kind of real estate website.
Custom design projects tend to be very difficult because they require a lot of detail. 80% of the time, you aren’t capable of giving the technical/design specifications for website-building companies to pull off these projects without a lot of redos.
ALL the companies listed in this category tend to customize PART of a website (like the home page). They leave the rest of the webpages pre-designed.
Fully-customized sites (designing every page to your specifications) START at $10,000.
Note: Very few teams or agents see an ROI unless the site (re)design is done alongside an expert SEO/UX specialist AND an aggressive SEO campaign.
Best Lead Generation Website Providers
🏆 Best For Lead Generation (Without Owning Your Site)
BoomTown
$750-$1500+ Setup and $1000-$1500 Monthly Licensing Fees. BoomTown is a highly-reviewed real estate website provider that’s a great option for teams of 10+ with large marketing budgets. They build best-in-class real estate lead generation websites that focus on short-term tactics like PPC. However, they have very expensive monthly licensing fees and fall short on SEO and content marketing.
Overall Rating
4.1
BoomTown Review: CRM, Leads, Websites
Website Prices
- Setup – $750-$1500.00
- Monthly Licensing Fee – $1000-$1500.00 (+$35 for every additional user after 25)
Online Advertising Costs (100% necessary to generate leads)
- 3-5 Agents: $1000 per month
- 5-10 Agents: $1500 per month
- 10-30 Agents: $2000 per month
- Additional 15% Ad Spend management fee
- Seller Lead Suite: $250 per month
Grier Allen founded BoomTown in 2006. Some websites in 2019 identify them as having 250+ employees.
Officers
- Grier Allen, CEO
- Rivers Pierce, Director of Inbound Marketing
- Don Sedora, Director of Product Development
The company has been fast-tracking since 2006. They’ve made the INC 500 four years running. They are the recommended lead generation company of Keller Williams and famously noted as a key ingredient to Ben Kinney’s meteoric success.
BoomTown has expanded into a renovated warehouse and has high ratings from the employees on Glassdoor. The outward product and the internal reviews make this company the one to watch in the real estate marketing space.
My only note here is this company is ripe for acquisition. They sought and received 20 million in a private bond release. This was the first time BoomTown sought or received funding which makes them unique in the tech space.
Since BoomTown does NOT publish its pricing, I rely on customer intelligence. In 2021, I heard through industry contacts that BoomTown has changed their pricing. They have lowered their monthly licensing fee for individual real estate agents.
The changes published elsewhere claimed that BoomTown had created a different product for smaller teams or individuals. That product REQUIRED a $250.00 per month PPC spend on top of the published rates available in this review/writeup.
I will update this article as required if I receive proof BoomTown has changed its packages. I’ve had to alter the details of BoomTown offer very little since 2017 when I first added them to this list of best real estate website design companies.
🏆 Best for Lead Generation (With Owning Your Site)
🏆 Best for Long-Term ROI
InboundREM
$2500+ Setup and $750+ Monthly SEO Campaigns ($0 Licensing Fees) . InboundREM provides excellent value for individual agents and small to medium-sized agencies and brokerages. If you already have 3-5+ years of experience, and you value long-term ROI, then seriously consider an InboundREM website. IREM’s deep SEO expertise can earn clients a 10:1 ROI after 18-months. Plus you own your website, which means monthly costs go to lead generation, not licensing fees. IREM has a 5-star rating across all review platforms.
Overall Rating
4.6
InboundREM Review: ROI Case Study
- Anyone who wants to OWN their website.
Only InboundREM and Agent Image allow agents to own the website they pay to build. Otherwise you’ll pay to build your site, then pay monthly licensing fees, and you’ll have to forfeit your content if you want to switch providers.
Because InboundREM lets clients own their sites, they own a valuable investment (the site itself) and monthly payments go to lead generation efforts, which in turn make the website itself more valuable.
The other two main lead generation website providers, BoomTown and Real Estate Webmasters, charge $300-$1500 per month to lease the very site you paid to build. Over 5 years, that will cost between $18,000 and $90,000. With IREM, those costs go directly into lead generation campaigns.
2. Single agents or small teams with moderate budgets ($750-$2000/month) who value long-term ROI
SEO-focused websites take more time to get leads rolling, but they pay off much better in the long-term. That said, we’ve also had clients with a 12:1 ROI after 18 months during COVID.
3. Agents and brokerages that want to leverage the unbelievable power of SEO lead generation
SEO leads are far more evergreen than PPC, Facebook ads, and other short-term tactics. A single blog post can generate leads for several years, while short-term strategies usually work on a week-to-week basis.
4. Luxury real estate agents that want to focus on digital lead generation
The new BRANDMASTER website platform is our standard powerhouse lead generation machine, coupled with drop-dead gorgeous aesthetics.
- Brand New or Inexperienced Agents
- Agents with Low Marketing Budgets
- Agents and Brokers Only Interested in Short-Term Marketing Strategies (like Facebook or Zillow)
- Agencies or Brokerages with Large Marketing Budgets
*All Pricing is inclusive except for IDX, which is $79.99 per month
Upfront Costs
- Setup – $2500 – $3500
- Custom Websites – $2500 – $10,000
SEO Marketing Campaigns
- Small City – $600 per month
- Medium City – $1000 per month
- Large Cities (single area) or luxury neighborhoods – $1500 per month
- Small Teams and Brokerages – $2000+ All inclusive. PPC management, CRM, Service and agent education are all part of the monthly.
Even a quick tour of our websites reveals a load of features that turn a real estate website into a powerful lead-generation machine.
Notice the stunning video banners, realtor introduction videos, extensive contact options, zip code maps, in-depth blog posts, testimonial bars/carousels, widespread agent headshots, Local-SEO-friendly URLs, and visually stunning IDX maps.
Features like these and many others allow us to generate exception long-term ROI for our clients. And our clients are over the moon about it, as you can see from the testimonial carousel below.
Robert Newman founded InboundREM in 2014. His role is Chief Marketing Officer. You can see more about Robert and his history within the real estate marketing space by watching this video.
Rafe Altschuler (his brother) leads project management. The company consists of a team of 20+ social media managers, content writers, developers and designers that work remotely.
Robert focuses on educating Real Estate professionals about online lead generation and provides deep analysis for existing real estate online marketing solutions.
InboundREM is the only company on this list that provides a real estate lead generation solution the real estate client owns.
Disclosure: I am the founder of InboundREM Inc.
In 2019, we finished development on our “Agent Hub” WordPress website platform. What does that mean for our clients?
- Exceptional listing and search design comparable to Trulia and Zillow
- Real Estate listings are read as original content to the website, even though they are fed in through IDX (Excellent for SEO)
- Reviews imported from Yelp, Zillow, Google, and Facebook
- Customized maps
- Websites are ready for PPC campaigns with comparable conversion rates to Real Geeks, BoomTown, Zurple, and most other major real estate marketing platforms
- Design upgrades
- Advanced services for brokers and small teams*
*The advanced service for small teams and brokers costs $5k for setup and $2k per month. It includes Pay-Per-Click marketing (PPC), Customer Relationship Management software (CRM), and website servicing.
In other words, we provide services comparable to BoomTown or Zillow, but at equal or less cost.
InboundREM has grown its distributed workforce to 10 dedicated resources and another 20+ part-time or overflow resources with the core team located in the US. We now have 40+ accounts in the U.S. and a couple outside of the country.
2022 saw InboundREM add to its reviews and we maintained a perfect 5-star rating across all platforms. You can see our latest video testimonial on our services page.
Schedule a Meeting
Let’s chat about how an SEO-focused website that YOU OWN, Google Business Profile Campaigns, or Custom Email Campaigns can generate high-quality leads and exceptional long-term ROI. If my services aren’t the best move for you, I’ll gladly point you in the right direction
Best Real Estate IDX Website Companies
🏆 Best for IDX Websites
Sierra Interactive
$250-$1000 Setup ($9000 for Premier Site) and $399-$499/Monthly. Sierra Interactive is an excellent company with high reviews, high-profile clients, and a strong track record. They produce both template and custom IDX websites that also work for content marketing. Because of the pricing plans, however, they aren’t the best option for everyone. Clients pay at least $4800/year to lease the site they paid to build.
Overall Rating
4.1
Sierra Interactive Review: CRM, Websites, Pros, Cons
- Pro Site Setup – $250-$100
- Premier Site Setup – $8995.00
- Product Coaching (Help setting up advanced features like email drip) – $199.00 per month
- Fee for 1-10 users – $399.95 per month
- Fee for 11-25 users – $499.95 per month
- ROI is especially important to you when investing in a new real estate website
- You have 3-15 years experience as a real estate agent/broker
- You have a medium to a high level of technical and SEO experience
- Agents with less than 3 years of experience
- Anyone who wants to own their website
- Anyone with a small digital marketing budget ($1000/month or less)
🏆 Best for Affordable IDX Websites
Real Geeks
$249+ Monthly and Free Setup. Like Placester and Easy Agent Pro, Real Geeks is an inexpensive, entry-level option for real estate websites. They have a superior IDX/Search function, perform better for direct advertising campaigns, and are great for small teams. They also boast highly positive reviews and client testimonials. $249/month is for licensing. You will have to pay an additional $1000-$2000+/month for managed Google Ads or Facebook Marketing campaigns.
