- January 2, 2024
- Reading time about 6 minutes
If you work in the real estate industry, you must be quite aware of IDX (Internet Data Exchange), which is an essential piece of tech that enables real estate professionals like yourself to showcase MLS listings on your website. IDX helps brokers and agents showcase their active property data making it searchable for motivated home buyers online. Over 50% of home buyers find their dream homes online, so having a good real estate website for brokers or agents is a must.
Using the right IDX real estate website, you can engage buyers with an awesome home search while getting their contact info and tracking all their property search data. In this blog, we will learn the criteria to consider while selecting platforms for building a website, top platform examples & benefits of having your website.
Things to Consider While Selecting the Best Real Estate Platforms
Before we start, we must know that not all IDX real estate websites are winners. However, picking the best real estate IDX platforms can help in building the right websites with a killer search experience while capturing leads & offering market insights.
To help you select the best real estate platforms to build a desirable website, you can consider below factors-
· Seamless Auction Process
Choose the real estate platform that ensures the smoothest property auctions from anywhere and anyplace for brokers and agents with the best online bidding technology and make transactions seamless
· Home Search Experience
Creating tailored real estate websites integrated with IDX and CRM enables agents and brokers to scale their businesses effortlessly with exceptional search offering filters, precision, maps, and data accuracy.
· Smart Lead Generation
Ensure to offer smart IDX search on your website to capture buyer and seller leads through alerts, searches, forms, etc. unlocking more business opportunities.
· Premium Design and Branding
Work with the real estate platform that offers a wide range of web design templates to help agents & brokers like you build dedicated IDX sites with control over design, branding, colors, and listing display.
· Secure Transactions
For a secure & hassle-free auction process with uncompromised privacy, you must choose a platform that keeps focus on data security & customer confidence with advanced data security systems.
· Listing Management
As a real estate agent, you must be able to easily claim and manage IDX property listings right from your dashboard and stay in control.
· IDX Rules & Compliance
Always keep in mind that while building your real estate IDX site, you must properly attribute listings and comply with MLS rules to avoid getting fined!
· Actionable Insights
You must ensure that you track and use robust analytics on property listing views, searches, traffic sources, etc. to help you unlock market insights & better opportunities.
· Customer Support
Choose the IDX provider that offers exceptional customer support, onboarding guidance, and detailed training to ensure you are aware of tech and marketing best practices for building the best property websites.
Best Platforms For Building Real Estate Agent Website
1. BidHom
Known as a one-stop real estate auction platform for brokers and agents, BidHom is a number 1 choice if you are planning to build a reliable real estate agent website to attract and manage tons of genuine leads.
Pros
– Build IDX real estate websites & smart lead generation
– Online Auction process simplified for all property types
– Flexible pricing for Brokers & Agents
– Enterprise Plan for complete White label solutions
Cons
– Basic Plan offers limited functionalities
– Brand Recognition may take some time
2. IDX Broker
IDX Broker specializes in building real estate websites with IDX integration for individual agents or teams.
Pros
– Customizable Designs
– Robust Support
– Work for Enterprise Brokers
Cons
– Expensive for higher tiers
– Lower Brand Recognition
3. Redfin
Redfin online tools and agent services are known for helping agents grow with around 44 million visitors monthly.
Pros
– Broader online reach
– Advanced features
– Flexible plans
Cons
– Balancing Refin vs Your Brand
– Suitable for new agents
4. Zillow
Zillow is quite a popular real estate website with over 7 billion home page views in a year with lots of buyers. Though Zillow can bring huge exposure with high traffic, building a dedicated real estate website will help you stand out from the crowd.
Pros
– Huge Buyer Audience
– More Coverage
– Strong Brand Recognition
Cons
– Difficult to stand out from the competition
– Lesser Control over leads
– It can be pricey for some.
5. Realtor.com
Another popular real estate listing website is Realtor.com, which is operated by NAR & known for delivering great reach with more than 100 million monthly visitors.
Pros
– Excellent reach & visibility
– Built-in lead generation
– Customizable profiles
Cons
– Very competitive marketplace
– Less control over branding
Benefits of Having Your Real Estate Website
Listed below are some of the top benefits of building your real estate website-
· Custom Branding with unique design, colors, images, and text reflecting your unique brand.
· Full Ownership over leads as all leads are yours not shared with competing agents.
· Gain Property Listing Insights where analytics are applied on searches, views, trends, etc.
· Better Listing Control to manage how listings are displayed, and featured.
· Generate Website Traffic as all visitors invest in your brand by coming to your site rather than a big portal.
Final Takeaways
Ready to gain a competitive edge in the market & tap into more prospects and leads? BidHom is known for building a wide range of IDX websites for realtors for simplified online auction processes for brokers and agents. We offer the best-in-class solutions to boost your online presence with IDX/MLS integration helping clients promote properties digitally, track leads, and conduct auctions, all on a single portal.
Whether you need appealing custom designs, advanced lead generation, seamless integration capabilities, and actionable insights, BidHom can help you customize your real estate website as per your needs with our Enterprise plan & custom pricing. Book a demo today & start a free real estate website with BidHom!