Hundreds of different answers. You'll need to know about plug-ins, security, back-ups, photography and image optimization, newsletters, page builders, google analytics and console, pages and page speed, social media integration, mobile first, indexing, themes, css, etc, etc. So, if you've never built a website, I'd hire someone to do it. You'll still need to learn how to maintain it. Wordpress is not too hard to learn, but there are constant changes and updates. Hosting is a seperate choice. You could probably find a student at a local community college that can do it for you, or you can just sign up for classes and learn but that is time consuming. NVCC has some good website building classes. There is an L&F agent out of Fairfax VA ( Win Singleton) that has been building websites for agents for several years. Expect to pay $3-$4000.00. http://summitweb.com/ , or shop around your local area and compare.

Francisco Peot - the best thing is to 'outsource'! You focus on selling homes. You can always find a great company to host your website.

At this point in my life, I would totally hire that out, Francisco!

Spend your time prospecting and doing what you do best, letting someone else do what they do best by developing a site for you!

It depends on your goals. If you know what you want on a designed website and can afford the costs and know a realiable source I'd say do it. If you don't, go with a templeted site and give it a whirl until you are ready to do the other.

Before you ever decide on a website, you must first decide on your goals. What is the goal of your website? 

There are times when having squeeze pages or quick landing pages is the medium to the goal of targeting specific traffic and driving that traffic. 

If your goal is to send your off line leads to search for homes on a website than just a simple real estate website company will work just fine. 

BUT if your goal is to niche and dominate with traffic, organic traffic, social traffic, etc., then you must choose your own hosting company and then build a website on wordpress. I would be happy to show you some examples. If this is your goal then you need to decide on the blog style site or fully custom site both will need IDX on them, which is another monthly fee. However, again , this is determined by your niche. 

I build one site for a realtor who only does new contstruction with builders and developers, She does not need IDX because she is driving off line traffic ( builders) to her site to show them what she does for them. 

Always start with your end goal in mind. 

 Hi, Francisco

    The click here link goes nowhere.  Please try again, thank you!

Take some time to decide what you need your website to do.  Is it an advertising page for your listings?  Do you need landing pages to get leads?  Do you need an IDX?  Do you need it to attract buyers?  Do you need a blog?  Do you need flashy video?  (just a few questions off the top of my head)  Katerina Gasset is heavily involved in website design and SEO.  She would be a good resource for you.

Me, I'm a techie and thrive on doing things myself, so I built my own site then I built my own server and moved my site there.

there are many SEO experts and web designers.... talk to Katerina Gasset and get info from her on what she offers and the fee.... and the hosting company to use.... 

The design is the least important feature of a website. The most important features are user friendliness, search engine friendliness and an easy to use idx. Very few pretty sites meet these standards. 

You have many great answers here.

Francisco Peot  I recently had a new website custom built by Home Junction and absolutely love it. Check it out www.TreasureCoastMLS.com .. I am attempting to build a more organic lead generation site that will hopefully dominate local seo rankings. this type of site will cost you 6k to 12k depending on how much build out you have such as communities, cities, ect plus some SEO monthly costs. I am spending about $500 month with an SEO specialist. 

I also have a lead generation site through Kunversion ... www.MyStLucieRealEstate.com  ... I am very happy with this Kv site. It has a built in CRM, home valuation, auto texting, lead capture and more! this site will cost you about $750 up front and about $500 per month. 

If you want to go on the more affordable end of sites with the best bang for your buck, I recommend iHouse Elite .. their sites perform very well in organic SEO, they look great and the price is great! About $200 to get started and around $150 per month. 

Whatever the company you choose, make sure to look at the portfolio and use different devices to access their sites. Are they fast and easy to use?

Features in order of importance:

- Speed. Not just the home page, but the pages that list properties also.

- Easy to use and clear calls-to-action.

- SEO friendliness.

- Integration with a CRM and other marketing tools.

- Looks good in both desktop and mobile. Does not have to be a work of art, but should look like it was designed in this century.

- Did I mention speed?

I'm going to get flack for this, but stay away from Wordpress.

Sites are often slow and bloated, plus they get hacked a lot.

 If you choose Wordpress, host it in a host specialising in Wordpress, and one that will do the security patches for you. Trust me, there will be plenty of patches.

I would recommend RealGeeks - I'm not affiliated with them.

I am not a fan of paying for a website - third party.  We talked about this. 

Get a WordPress site.  Call Tammy Emineth for pricing and timeframe to build your WordPress site.  They will also host the site and do types of maintenance for a fee. You own the site. Someone builds it for you. And you get to drive it.  The ONLY way to go in my opinion, you asked.

good luck.

Francisco,

I agree with Praful Thakkar .  A service that hosts may or may not fit your needs.  Our opinion is that a website should represent your brand and strategy.  Look at Apple's site, they do exactly that!  A

Take a look at the websites of the top producers in your market to help determine what you really want.

Here to see the advice being offered!

The first question is always how much do you expect to spend, what's the budget in time and money. It is never once and done, set it up and right out of the box you are warp factor five. You have to add the seeds to water, weed and feed to make your site not just like all the rest. Listings are king and if you website is a ball and chain for time suck, you are going to hurt that front end of the operation to visit the rear end of sit down closings. Pass the keys that way, slide the check this way please. Make video part of your website if you can Francisco Peot !

I choose a developer who did some other web sites in our area. They're called Delicious Design. I am happy with them. You can check out our website. www.kauaidreams.com  

Francisco, I highly recommend that you have your own website and your own domain. Your website is an asset of your business. Over time, you should garner search engine rankings, bookmarks, and links from other sites. If you don't own and control the domain name, that could go to the next agent that wants to pay for it. In terms of the content, many companies that build cookie cutter sites use the same content for all of their sites which Google doesn't like.

If you don't have the budget for your own site (a good starter site - built on WordPress - with all fo the features should start at around $3,500).

There are plenty of companies out there that build websites and I happen to own one as well. Check out Infinion Marketing to see some of the sites our team has built. We've actually won awards for our web design work.

I use Market Leader and iHouseWeb for my websites. The SEO works well. But there's a lot of work involved with adding communities and writing blogs. You get what you put into it.

There are many different suggestions.  I chose a template through Real Geeks and add pages myself when time allows to increase SEO.

Francisco Peot the most important thing for you to do is to purchase your domaine name yourself and lock it up for at least five years.  Then find a company that provides great services and offers real estate advantages.  PM me if you would like a referral.

Yes to both.  But, only if you are willing to do some work to make the site work for you.

Your time is valuable, hire someone to set it up, then maintain it yourself.

Praful Thakkar nailed this one!

iHouse worked fine for me when I started out.

The question that needs an answer is "What do you want your website to do?"

Your choices are:

Validate you as a professional

Dispense free real estate  information

Local news and events website

Home search tool

Convert site visitors to leads.

The next question is 'What are you willing to commit for the care and feeding of this website?"

Actually that question is the most important and actually dictates what the website function should be. Most real estate agent websites are starved to death.

Do not spend energy on the choosing a provider until you know what you want to accomplish and how. It is HIGHLY a template provider is all you need for the most likely purpose you choose. Things WILL change as you refine your goals.

PS: It is very likely you have the validation websites you need from your broker, franchise, Facebook and even your YouTube channel. Take this seriously, knowing you must commit $$ and resources to feed your choice, I suggest giving SERIOUS consideration to an app and not a website. In three years you will thank me.

Your question inspired this AR blog that you may find useful to monitor.

I agree to buy it, pay for it. I've designed & done 2 & it almost put me in the nut house. In the end, had to be saved by a programmer anyway.

Looks like cash out with little ROI.

What Debbie Reynolds said. There is no easy answer and it's very personal to your business and objectives.

I let the company that wil host set me up that way I can get fist hand help when needed