How to Choose the Best Web Developer for Your Real Estate Business

Expert real estate web development can give extra growth possibilities for a real estate enterprise. Property businesses that want to employ tech in their services need to make sure that their websites are faultless, and that everything is integrated well and functions properly. There are now a lot of channels and platforms where your business can have a presence; and although it is tough to get people’s attention, it is made a lot easier by creating great websites with interactive components that customers through fun and exciting digital journeys.

Why Real-Estate Firms Invest in Web Development

The digital revolution has caused a technological shift in the real estate market, and choosing to stay out of this trend ultimately means cutting yourself out from a big share of the market. Today, consumers prefer to engage with companies that own websites because it gives credibility to the company's name, and realistically, if you do not have a website, you do not have a business. As a real estate business, your objective is to entice your clients and hold their attention long enough for them to feel comfortable doing business with you, so investing in expert web development to create impressive web experiences is important to grow your company.

• Lead Generation

Having a good website helps to engage customers and bring leads to your website. The overall goal is to generate enough traffic to deliver a significant number of leads and make sure that your clients feel like they have just gone on an enticing digital journey. High-quality web development and the addition of interactive data points plays an important role in achieving this goal, retaining loyal customers and marketing all the possible services that a property business has to offer.

On the other hand, a bad website with average features will have a negative effect on customer acquisition. But that’s not all. Nowadays, having a great website is not enough - it has to have good responsive design (have a mobile version) as roughly 85% of our client’s total qualified leads come from mobile search, which is why we make sure to create all tools that are compatible with mobile devices. Because a real estate website will implement multiple features such as 360 tours, machine learning elements and augmented realistic imaging, it is crucial to make sure that the development of those features is created well and takes your customers on an exciting digital journey.

• Expertise

Real estate agents and developers are only trusted when they are good at managing their reputation, which is why a website is a great platform that you will always have total control of. Sometimes, clients can become dissatisfied, so you should always keep track of the reviews that go online. Showing your expertise while simultaneously sharing custom content on your website can establish and maintain your company’s reputation.

The other spectrum of expertise lies in the hands of the web developers. In-house developers can be knowledgeable in most processes, but not all of them, which is why an experienced developer in a given niche can present the best results. Doing a solid web development job for real estate is hard, there is a lot to cover, and there are a lot of challenges along the way.

• Tackle Complex Processes

Here at VERO, our ideology is to create interactive data points that are fun and educational for the user, ones that evoke emotion and give a clear understanding of the surroundings through web design and development. This is a very complex process that requires a lot more than just technical knowledge. So, the only way to make sure that both the emotion-evoking and technical aspects are covered is to research and invest in the best and most experienced agencies that can deliver high quality web experiences.

Some real estate companies want to present their customers with realistic imaging, virtual tools and CRM integration, as well as customer data collection. For these processes to be accurate, an investment in an experienced website development company or individual will have a large impact on the success and user experience on your website.

It sometimes happens that after the website is built, some aspects of the initial functions are lost because they can only operate within the template, this means that further integration and optimization is required to bring back the original functionality of the website. All these factors influence the services that a real estate website can offer, and if one of them is not operating efficiently, it can decrease customer retention.

Top 5 Struggles When Choosing Web Developers

 

#1 Coordination Between Teams

If your web designer and web developer are not on the same team, it can create coordination difficulties and lead to the designer's ideas being lost during the programming stage. This can be overcome by finding agencies that create designs and implement them in the same vicinity, and excellent cross-communication between all departments.Our clients say that it is easier when rendering and web development belong to one team and have great cross-communication, as it becomes easier to use and implement all complex interactive tools.

 

#2 Expectations vs. Reality

It doesn’t matter what you expect, but you must accept what reality offers you at the end. There will always be a big gap between the initial ideas regarding website architecture versus the final outcome, the development process entails a lot of editing, brain-stroming and recreating of already existing materials to make a worthy final product. Some virtual tour features may have to be optimized differently to what was initially planned, so the chosen web development agency needs to know how to adapt to your needs quickly, and be agile enough to cooperate with you on new additions to your real estate website.

 

#3 Appropriate Skill Set

Even the best web developer may not be well-versed in some real estate technology features. Making sure that the chosen developer works with maximum efficiency and accuracy is crucial for creating good real estate interactivity tools, apartment finders, virtual tours and animation.

 

#4 Time Management

Time management is imperative for your real estate business as there will be numerous tasks taking place at the same time. Juggling your internal company tasks along with external development is tough, and any miscommunication can set you back days and even weeks. To avoid missing deadlines, creating a structured content plan with attainable deliverables to keep you on track will help you and your colleague flow smoothly through the development stage.

 

#5 Neglecting UX/UI

When integrating hundreds of complex features into your real estate website, the importance of UX gets dissolved in the overwhelming focus on making high-quality virtual experiences rather than attending to a crucial aspect for customer satisfaction - a good-looking website. This is normal when balancing dozens of tasks, as long as the final product does not have a singular focus on fancy technical features and a poor user experience. Keep the simple things in mind when trying to move mountains, as the implementation of both user experience and unrivaled digital journeys is what will make your real estate website a success.

Features of an Ideal Real Estate Website

The complexities of your real estate website depend on the goals that you have set for it. Although the website requirements will vary for every business, there are a few staple features that should be considered when building your website.

• Responsive Design

Being one of the most important features for a real estate website, responsive design will have a large impact on how many people will see and use your website. As we’ve mentioned above, 85% of all leads come from mobile devices, so if your website is not responsive, then you will lose a significant portion of traffic, leads, and sales. It is imperative that all the interactive tools are compatible with mobile phones, which is why we create all designs to suit phones before anything else.

• Search & Filtering Features

Users must have the option to search for and experience properties of their liking, and filter search results by certain criteria. There are a few mandatory options such as price, location, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, proximity to the center, nearby public transport etc. The more detailed the filtering features will be, the better experience will be presented to your customers.

• Relevant Technology Stack

It is important to decide which programming languages will be the most appropriate for the services that you are trying to provide on your website along with frameworks and technologies that will improve your site’s user experience. If your website will implement complex designs and interactive features such as touch screens, VR, AR, and websites that can be integrated with CRM, then there will be more complex languages involved. Some of the languages involved in the interactive web development features are C++, Vue.js, Python, PHP as well as Unreal Engine 4 for Virtual Reality features.

• Effective and Simple Design

The website that you will develop should not look old, outdated and lack in user experience. UX/UI is one of the most important features of a real estate website. A simple website means that the user's attention is focused on one aspect - aim for minimalistic and usable design which makes the website easy to navigate, and takes the user on an exciting digital journey.

• Efficient Algorithms for Data Input & Output

The implementation of smart algorithms is important to make sure that all data is processed quickly and efficiently, so that information on existing customers and visitors is passed to estate agents and property developers; the beauty of having a real estate website is that more data can be processed, analyzed and presented to the interested parties to improve their services and improve customer retention.

How to Choose the Best Web Developer

Although the real estate business becomes increasingly popular, not all of the new real estate companies are able to function well and present quality estates and websites to their customers. There are a few things to be considered when choosing a good web developer, and the following 4 aspects will help you decide which web development company will be ideal for your real estate needs.

#1 History & Experience

It is a good idea to review past works and the style which the web developer uses for his projects. Your developer should have a similar vision to yours, and be very familiar with the services that you are providing, as well as the automation services. Have a look at the company policies, and the company’s possibilities, and if they are able to offer you the service that you are expecting. Go over their testimonials, reviews and projects to get the best idea of the web dev company’s experience.
(Look through their portfolio, visit their website, study case studies, study the reviews, learn about their guarantees).

 

#2 Professionalism

The best web development companies have the best communication with clients. They are transparent, adaptable and pedantic about the work they do and will be able to cater to any of your needs, giving expert advice along the way. The levels of accuracy need to be very high to make the best website possible for your real estate business, down to the minute details such as loading time, graphics and quality 3D model imaging. Look over the company’s case studies to see how they went about the work in previous projects, which will give you a solid understanding of how well they can work for you.

 

#3 Quality Guarantee

Reliable web developers will always have a company guarantee, the amount you pay should be justified to the agreed requirements and functions. The company should also display strong confidence in their solution to you by providing said guarantees. All contracts, NDA’s and agreements should be completed and signed before you begin your collaboration with the web development company, and they should always be transparent with their timelines and milestones.

 

#4 Relationship Building

Hiring a web developer with solid experience in your niche is as crucial as building a strong and long term relationship with the developers that you will work with. Having a bad relationship with your developers at an early stage may hinder future progress, and stunt the development of your website when it is not necessary. Understanding and making an effort to get to know your potential developer on a personal level will be a good investment of time in the long run, creating a comfortable environment for both you and your developer will ensure that all deadlines are met timely, and the deliverables being at a high standard.

 

#5 Transparency

Transparency is essential for successful information flow, clear awareness of each stage of development will result in less daily questions. It is a practical and cooperative way to get work done in a timely manner. There will also be no surprises, as you are aware of what you are paying for, and at which stage your project is at each point throughout the timeline. Agile and predictable delivery times bring about a collective mindset and risk mitigation. When constantly communicating with your developers, all landmines can be resolved or avoided entirely.

Choosing a good web development company for your real estate business is difficult, but if you follow the general rules you will be able to establish appropriate boundaries and reassure yourself on what companies are worth finding out more about. VERO has worked alongside real-estate developers to provide impressive architectural designs and interactive data points for their real-estate websites, helping its partners stay ahead of their competition. The specialists at VERO will be pleased to help you with finding the right solutions for your real estate needs and offer expert technical advice in order to provide you with trailblazing results.