Running a real estate business in 2023 takes work. With fierce competition and fluctuations in market rates, realtors and real estate agencies always need help to reach their potential customers.
Of course, conventional marketing tactics such as using flyers and banners can still generate leads, but they won’t help you unlock the expected growth. In 2023, all real estate businesses must create a digital presence for their brand through a dedicated website. Whether you operate as a sole realtor or run a dedicated real estate agency, a custom real estate website will put your business in the digital landscape, resulting in better lead generation and conversions.
But, any real estate agency planning to launch a website must know the development cost beforehand. Having a rough estimation of how much you would have to spend will make it easier to plan for the journey ahead.
So, in this guide, we’ll share a complete cost breakdown of launching a real estate website in 2023, along with the necessary features you’ll need to engage your potential customers.
Different Types of Real Estate Websites
Before we get into the details of cost breakdown, let’s first get familiar with different types of real estate websites. As of 2023, the Internet is stacked with a variety of real estate portals that are designed to cater to different markets.
For instance, agencies dealing in commercial and residential properties usually build real estate portals with IDX integration to list the available properties. This way customers can go through different options, configure their price range, and use different filters to find properties that suit their requirements.
Here are some additional real estate business models companies follow to run their operations.
1. Real Estate Marketplaces
Real estate marketplaces are digital platforms that bring buyers and sellers together to make the entire transaction much smoother.
These marketplaces bridge the gap between a seller and potential buyers, allowing the former to list their properties to gain better exposure. The buyers can go through multiple available options, compare prices, and get in touch with the sellers through a built-in messaging platform.
2. Real Estate Aggregators
Aggregator platforms are designed to help different types of real estate agents, sellers, and realtors list their properties/services and connect with buyers more conveniently.
With aggregator platforms, customers can choose between rental properties, commercial buildings, residential houses, and even rental workspaces.
Since they provide users with access to diverse property options, customers can make the right sales decisions without any hassle.
3. Real Estate Investment Platforms
For centuries, real estate has been considered to be one of the most reliable and ROI-driven investment options.
To make real estate investments less hectic for users, many property dealers want to launch their online platforms where customers can choose between different investment options, and make the right decisions.
Evaluating the Development Cost of a Real Estate Website
Like any other digital platform, the cost to develop a real estate website depends on multiple factors.
These factors include the features, IDX integration, preferred business model, and the development technologies you use to construct the website from the ground up. Let’s evaluate these factors in detail to understand how much it would cost to launch a real estate website in 2023.
1. Development Partner
The first step towards building a real estate website is finding a reliable development partner. Without a real estate website development company, you may fail to build a successful and user-engaging website.
Now, different development agencies follow their own pricing models to charge clients. If you want to launch a full-scale real estate website, it would be better to hire dedicated development firms with expertise in designing real estate websites. In general, such development companies charge on an hourly basis.
If you are running on a tight budget, we recommend looking for offshore real estate web development companies.
As compared to native development companies, offshore developers have comparatively lower charges and still provide the same quality services. Consequently, you’ll be able to launch your real estate website without burning a hole in your wallet. q
2. Third-Party API Integrations
With a real estate website, the primary objective of realtors is to provide a hassle-free user experience to the customers. To achieve this goal, it’s crucial to integrate third-party APIs using which you can integrate other online systems to incorporate the desired functionality.
There are hundreds of third-party API service providers that let businesses integrate their APIs in exchange for particular monthly charges and subscription fees. Based on the third-party APIs you integrate, the cost to develop your real estate website will vary accordingly.
IDX integration and setup is a prerequisite for real estate web development. With IDX integration, you can set up custom property listings and let property owners list their websites while ensuring customers can also explore different property options easily.
3. Hosting and Ongoing Maintenance
While launching a real estate website, it’s essential to consider other ongoing charges including third-party hosting and website maintenance.
As you may already know, there are different hosting providers you can choose from to host your website on the Internet. In general, the development team you’ve hired to build your website will guide you in making the right decision.
The general thumb rule says that you should choose a hosting server that could not only maintain the current bandwidth but also cater to the business scalability in the long run.
Considering all these factors, it can easily cost anywhere between $10,000 to $40,000. You can share your project requirements with the developers at NetSpark Solutions. Based on your business objectives, we’ll design a custom quotation accordingly.
Conclusion
With increasing property rates, real estate has become one of the lucrative and equally competitive business verticals. Realtors always struggle to gain exposure from their potential customers and always look for ways to get ahead of the competition. One such effective way is launching a bespoke real estate website. It’ll help you make property dealing more convenient and give customers easy access to your property listings. Get started with real estate website development by joining hands with NetSpark Solutions.
