RealTown's BlogTalk

Barb Szabo asked Does anyone know a good and affordable real estate website designer?

We are using…

Win Singleton, CRB, e-PRO
Summit Web Design
(703) 536-7631
wins@summitweb.com
www.summitweb.com

an Internet Crusade Approved Vendor

"Custom web site design that gets results!"

He is very thorough. I interviewed a number of agents prior to signing with him who were all very happy. Occasionally there were minor communication issues because I speak Blonde and he speaks Tech. We've always worked through any difficulties. Win also has a Team of side kicks that handle the IDX and SEO aspects. He does give you visual examples of what he thinks will work. We didn't always agree on some of these but we were both flexible.

There are extra costs beyond the design fees. Extra photos, monthly web service, IDX service, BLOG Domain Names etc. Nothing excessive just didn't remember learning this up front. Not sure if it is because we didn't ask or it wasn't volunteered or he told us and we just over whelmed with the new experience and didn't make note. My suggestion here would be do not sign up for the IDX service until just before you are ready to launch your site.

There is a tremendous amount of research involved in making your site effective and obviously the faster you apply yourself the quicker you will have results. It has been a good learning experience for us in discovering even more about the markets we serve. We thought we had a strong knowledge base but have learned even more. We also serve two counties with multiple cities, so that may be why it was more involved for us. Overall I think our time investment was a couple of weekends and some evenings for about two months. He was always ready even when we were not. One of the things I did like about his style of sites is the clean look to it. Personally and maybe it is just me, but I am not attracted to really busy websites.

As for affordable, I think that depends if you build a custom site as we did or you use a template site like Advanced Access. If either produces the results you want then any price is worth it.

We are getting ready to launch a campaign to promote the new site www.GreatFloridaHomes.com and harvest email addresses from a contest. Still deciding on the prizes for the winners of the contest we'll have. Gas cards seem like a great idea and so do dinners at local establishments. We will also give respondents the opportunity to opt out of future emails.

Hope this information helps you in your planning. We feel a phone call to Win is worth your time. He's not just a web designer. He has experience as a real estate Broker, which made a lot of the planning easier, because he understands our side of the business. Joy

Mailto:Team@GreatFloridaHomes.com

Joy Carter, CRS, e-PRO, PMN
Coral Springs Chamber of Commerce Trustees Chair,
Member of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing
Jeff Booker, Relocation Specialist
Julie Mello, Client Care Specialist

Check Out Our BLOG: http://www.GreatFloridaHomesBlog.com