Estate agent website: how to attract home sellers

Who visits an estate agent's website?

Three kinds of visitor come to your site. Each has a different question. A good website gives each of them the right way in, fast.

• Sellers: want to know what their home is worth, what you charge and whether you know the area.
• Buyers: look at a home they saw elsewhere and want to book a viewing.
• Buying clients: look for an agent to help them buy, often in a tight market.

The seller brings in most of the turnover. So put that audience at the centre of your homepage. A clear button like 'What is my home worth?' works better than a general welcome text.

What should an estate agent website include?

• A homepage that says which towns and neighbourhoods you work in.
• A page for each service: selling, buying, valuations and possibly lettings.
• Your current listings, with good photos, a floor plan and key features.
• An overview of homes you've sold, as proof of local experience.
• A clear explanation of your fees or how you calculate your commission.
• The team with faces, because people choose a person.
• Reviews from previous sellers and buyers.
• A form for a valuation and a phone number that's easy to reach.

Many agents hide their fees. That's understandable, but sellers compare. At the very least, explain how your pricing works and what is and isn't included. That saves you conversations with people who aren't a good fit anyway.

Connecting your property listings to your estate agent website

You don't want to enter your listings twice. Most agents use estate agency software to manage their properties. That software can often push listings to your own website automatically, through an integration. An integration (API) is a fixed connection that lets two systems exchange data. Read more about how that works in our article on building an API integration.

With an integration like that, check a few things:

• Are new homes, price changes and the status 'sold subject to contract' updated automatically?
• Do the photos load quickly, even on a phone with a poor connection?
• Does each home have its own page with a clean URL, so Google can find it?
• Can a visitor request a viewing directly from the property page?

A property page on your own site has a big advantage. The visitor only sees your listings and your contact details there, not those of competitors. Show other homes from your agency at the bottom of each listing too.

More requests for a free valuation

For most agents, the valuation is the most important request. It's the first contact with a future seller. So make it as easy as possible for that visitor.

• Put the valuation button at the top of every page.
• Only ask for what you really need in the form: address, name and phone number or email.
• Explain what happens next: who will call, when, and how long does a visit take?
• Confirm the request straight away with a short email.
• Reply the same day. Sellers often ask several agencies at once.

An online valuation tool that shows a figure automatically sounds attractive. But an estimate that's too rough can also disappoint. That's why many agencies choose a short request and a personal visit. It also fits the agent's role as an adviser better.

Getting found locally on Google as an estate agent

People search for 'estate agent' plus their town. So you want to be found in the places where you actually work. You do that with a few standard steps:

• A complete, up-to-date Google Business Profile with photos and opening hours.
• Reviews from sellers, ideally mentioning the neighbourhood or town.
• A page per area with real local knowledge: neighbourhoods, types of home, what buyers look for there.
• Homes sold per town as proof that you know the market.

Be careful with town pages that only differ in the place name. Google sees copies like that as doorway pages and rates them low. Read how to do it properly in pages per city and in our article on local SEO.

Common mistakes on estate agent websites

• A homepage full of homes, but no message at all for sellers.
• Listings that don't update automatically, so sold homes still show as available.
• Slow pages because of large, unresized photos.
• No explanation of fees or how you work.
• A team without photos, or with stock photos.
• A form with ten required fields for a simple valuation.

Speed matters even more for estate agents, because property pages have lots of photos. Among other things, Google checks whether the largest image is visible within 2.5 seconds. So have photos resized automatically and only load them when the visitor scrolls to them. That way a property page with thirty photos still stays fast, even on a phone on the train.

How Violexa approaches an estate agent website

At Violexa we build a custom website from €1,799 excl. VAT (€2,177 incl. VAT) per project. That includes design, build, a design that works on every screen, basic SEO, Google Analytics, a CMS and training. With that CMS you update copy, team members and sold homes yourself.

Do you need an integration with your estate agency software, or extra features such as a client area? Then you get a fixed price upfront, in writing. We work from Amsterdam for agencies across the Netherlands. You'll find previous work in our work.

Curious what your agency needs? Request a free quickscan. In 30 minutes, online or on site, we look at your situation together. Afterwards you get short written advice with a price indication, with no obligation.

Frequently asked questions