Single Property Real Estate Websites

by Vinny LaBarbera

Effective real estate marketing revolves around two main objectives, (1) to acquire new listings and (2) to sell existing listings. To achieve these objectives it is important to properly display your inventory and prove to prospective sellers that your marketing efforts are second to none. One of the best tools to help you meet these two objectives at the same time is to utilize one of the most common forms of online marketing for real estate – the single property real estate website.

What is a Single Property Website?

Although the definition exists in its name, a single property real estate website can often be confused with a traditional real estate website that you or your end users may be more accustomed to. That said, we thought it would be helpful to clearly define the most common characteristics of a single property website. Here are some of the top ones that you need to make sure that your single property currently has or will have (should you consider getting one after reading this post):

  • Features a single home / property / parcel of land
  • Sits on a unique domain name (usually the property address)
  • Photo gallery of property images
  • Virtual tour of the property being featured
  • Map / directions
  • Listing agent / broker information
  • Lead generation form(s)

Common Question: Can a single property website be used as a real estate stealth site?

Our answer is NO. The main reason for this is because a single property website usually represents a seller’s property and needs to have all of the necessary information available for prospective buyers. Adding unnecessary steps or questions to the process can often cause visitors to get confused and/or distracted. Save your stealth sites for your other lead generation efforts.

How to Use Single Property Websites Effectively

Before you go throwing up a website for every property in your inventory it is important that you understand how to effectively use a single property website. The last thing you want is an unmanageable list of web pages that represent every property in your inventory and that contain little to no search visibility or conversion value. These single property websites need to help you impress your seller and sell the home you’re featuring so make sure you use them optimally. Make sure you can check off the items below for your single property site.

Must-Have Features

  • Aesthetically pleasing, conversion oriented design
  • High quality property photos – images with zoom in / zoom out features are recommended
  • High quality virtual tour(s) – video virtual tours are recommended
  • Online map with location of property – Bing or Google Maps are recommended
  • Well written copy and information about the property
  • Open house alerts / calendar
  • Unique .com domain – the property address or short description is recommended

Online Marketing Tips

  • Syndicate your property to relevant real estate portals and websites (i.e. Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, etc)
  • Post your virtual tours on video networks (i.e. YouTube, Vimeo, WellcomeMat, etc)
  • Tweet about your property’s status updates and open houses
  • Post images, videos and interesting facts about your property on social networks and blogs (i.e. Facebook, Blogger, WordPress, Twitter, etc)
  • Optimize your single property site for natural / organic rankings with fundamental SEO
  • Promote your property with sponsored ads (i.e. Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, etc)

Single Property Website Companies

The efficacy of sites dedicated to one property has created a strong demand for providers to offer solutions that meet our ‘Must-Have’ criteria above. Fortunately, there is an ample supply of reputable companies that offer quality products to meet these growing demands from sellers and real estate agents alike. To make your life easier we thought we would break down some of the top providers and give you our choice(s) of which product(s) to use.

We have determined the following providers to offer the ‘best’ single property websites. If we are missing someone you think belongs on this list then please let us know and we will be happy to review and consider them for inclusion.

_________________________________________________

Website: http://www.agencylogic.com

Sample Site

Cost: $50 per site (no monthly fees)

Notable Features: Syndication, HTML flyer for Craigslist, Unique .com domain

Missing Features: Customization capabilities, Open House alerts, Unlimited photos

Design Grade: B-

Functionality Grade: B+

Marketing Grade: A-

Overall Grade: B+

_________________________________________________

Website: http://www.openhouseadvertising.com

Sample Site

Cost: $79.95 per site (no monthly fees)

Notable Features: Syndication, HTML flyer for Craigslist, Unique .com domain, Photo Gallery with full size images, Virtual tour link on Realtor.com, Hi-Res printable brochure

Missing Features: Multiple lead generation forms

Design Grade: A

Functionality Grade: A+

Marketing Grade: A+

Overall Grade: A

_________________________________________________

Website: http://www.listingdomains.com

Sample Site

Cost: $59.95 per site (no monthly fees)

Notable Features: Syndication, HTML flyer for Craigslist, Unique .com domain, Property Analytics, Non-branding link for MLS

Missing Features: Customization capabilities, Photo gallery with full size images, Embed code for properties

Design Grade: C+

Functionality Grade: B+

Marketing Grade: B+

Overall Grade: B

_________________________________________________

And our choice for Best All-Around Single Property Website is….Property Websites from Open House Advertising!

We love the features, functionality and affordability of the 2 other providers, but when it comes down to the best overall design, feature set and marketability the guys and gals over at Open House Advertising have put together a fantastic product to help Realtors market their listings properly.

Set Your Listings Up for Success

With a top single property website, like that offered by Open House Advertising, you will be able to educate potential buyers quicker by directing them to a location 100% dedicated to a listing that meets their criteria. In addition, sellers will be utterly impressed with your real estate marketing tools and strategies to assure them that their listing(s) will get sold quickly and for a price they are happy with.

Whether you decide to use one of the products featured above or you have your own effective single property website, just make sure that you are maximizing the exposure of your efforts and sending visitors to a website that truly captures and entices them. Real Estate Websites can truly be lead generation machines when used correctly. If you ever need help or advice with your real estate marketing, then please feel free to leave us a comment or continue reading our Real Estate Marketing Tips and Advice.

Tagged as: property websites, real estate websites, single property websites

  • johnhaleman

    Thanks for all that, although I have not heard of them before, I agree with your choice, I use single prop sites and my sellers care the most about the presentation of it. Worth a try!

  • vinnylabarbera

    Let us know how your single property sites work out for you. We are always curious to know which strategies and tools work the best for our readers. Feel free to send us a link to your property site too once you get it published. We would love to check it out.

    Thanks!

  • Ferd Berfill

    I use Open House Advertising to showcase my listings and I find that Sellers are happy with the presentation. I will continue to use OHA's services in the future.

  • George Alexiou

    Nice post Vinny – You know your stuff.

    In the big scheme of things seems like a lot of exposure for not a lot of $$$ ~ I spend more than $79 on a small newspaper ad for 1 day…I could include a website & get much more traffic & pay for less print : )

    Seems like an easy way to make my sellers happy. I've thought about trying to create sites on my own…but I think my time is worth more than $3 an hour & I'd be scared to see the finished product…

    I will be using property websites on my next listings.

  • vinnylabarbera

    Always great to hear realtors come to the realization that they, for the most part, are not website designers / developers. We would love to be proven wrong, but we are yet to see an amazing website built by a Realtor themselves.

    Glad to hear that you're maximizing your time by putting your specialities and knowledge to work.

    Thanks for reading and contributing to the conversation.

  • exit170

    Hi, thanks for this article. I am working on a singleproperty site as well after we launched a custom singleproperty site ( http://houseforsale.inhope.bc.ca/ ) and some Realtors asked us to make a similar site. I did a lot of research and found out that most of these created singleproperty sites are actually a one page template without any SEO whatsoever.

    In my opinion, there are a couple of 'problems' when it comes to singleproperty sites. One of the most important 'problem' is that you want people to find the new created singleproperty website. A single page website without any SEO will probably not show up fast in Google (or any other search engine) and if they do they will not be on the first page. So my focus was to create a real, multipage website and using as many SEO techniques as possible. And all this without making it hard to create one for the Realtor.

    I believe that http://singleproperty.ca/ does that. By filling out just one form; a complete 5 page website is created; including valid XHTML/CSS, a sitemap, proper H1,H2 and H3 tags, page titles and page meta tags. This basic site can be published with an unique domain name and is hosted on an IP address that only is being used for singleproperty sites (no bulk hosting; but high quality business hosting). With some more time and effort the site can be expanded with as many pages and photos as needed. If the property has a special kitchen; then create a new page to describe the special features of this kitchen. This will make the site have real content; good for your readers and for Google.

    Also I am talking to several designers and have them make unique and exclusive designs, just for singleproperty.ca. No cheap, free templates that you can download anywhere, but high quality original designs.

    Right now the site is in the last phase. We can still use a couple of beta testers, so if you are interested, just e-mail us. On the (temporary) site is an e-mail address that you can use.

    Thanks again and as soon as the site is running I hope you would review our service as well.

    Thanks!
    Matthijs Schonewille
    Twitter: http://twitter.com/singleproperty

  • http://www.mauirealestatesearch.com MauiRealtors

    Vinny, great post. I would love to see data that conclusively proves the effectiveness of single-property sites one way or the other (effective or non-effective). It’s definitely a plus when making a listing presentation for high-end properties, although I don’t know just how much traffic these sites would get. Do you have to do SEO for each site as well?

  • vinnylabarbera

    Your product sounds very intriguing Matthijs. We would be very interested to see how it turns out. Please keep us in the loop.

    And if you need beta testers please let us know as we would love to help you build a great single property website product that is extremely SEO friendly.

    Good luck!

  • vinnylabarbera

    In our opinion these sites are supplemental to a great real estate website. They shouldn't be looked at as replacements for one.

    That said, these single property sites definitely need to be optimized just like any website should be. In addition to SEO, these types of sites should marketed socially and with sponsored advertising for even more exposure. We have actually seen these to be quite effective when they are tied with well setup and managed PPC campaigns.

  • http://www.exit170.ca/ Matthijs / EXIT170

    Thanks! will do that!

    And I would appreciate your feedback as a beta tester. Thanks for that. As soon as I am ready I will send you the beta account info. Tnx!

  • http://www.wethmangroup.com Katie Wethman

    Any feedback/reviews on vflyer?

  • http://www.23CarriageHouseCir.com Margaret

    Really? Why would I pay $80 for a single property website, when I can pay $50 for more features, and more linking capabilities? Agency Logic's site's are far more functional and yes they are customizable. I've never gone beyond the 100 photo limit, and I can put photo captions, music, virtual tours, and as many links as I can fathom. Syndication is automatic, I have access to stats and analytics and my seller has password access to the site stats, as well.

    And did I mention all the links? I can point site visitors back to my listings (without cutting and pasting like OHA wants you to do), virtual tours, my home search site, my blog, floor plans, etc. There is even a page that can be accessed by parties to the transaction via password, where transaction documents can be shared (HOA docs, appraisals, home inspection addendums, etc).

    Oh, and sign riders with the property web address…

    I'm not impressed with the cinematic virtual tour of OHA. My 7 year old can create a still photo virtual tour. That's not a virtual tour…. I'd rather link to YouTube and improve my organic SEO results, anyway.

    In the 3 years I've been using Powersites, I have not had a listing last more than 14 days on the market (even in this economy). Save money. Get a Powersite…

    Now if I could just get Agency Logic to pay me for these comments…. but I wouldn't ramble on like this if it wasn't true (in my humble opinion).

    Thanks!

  • lynneestrada

    Great Information! You have saved us a lot of time providing (and ranking) providers. This seems like a great marketing tool for the realtor, at the listing appointment, as well as for the property. Keep up the good work!

  • vinnylabarbera

    Thanks Margaret.

    Your comment is well-deserving of being posted. I personally hope AgencyLogic sees it and decides to give you a few months free or something as it is well deserving.

    You are obviously very happy with your product and there is no arguing that. We personally like the simple, cleaner design and functionality of Single Property Websites. And, like we said in the post, all of these providers have a fantastic product.

    Good luck with single property sites. Sounds like you have them down to a science. If you feel like sharing any tips with our readers on how to use them then please leave a comment.

    Thanks for reading and contributing!

  • vinnylabarbera

    Thanks for mentioning vFlyer Katie.

    They were actually #4 on my list. I was going to add them to the post but 3 always looks / sounds better than 4. I do like their product, but we personally found that the designs, functionality, pricing and marketability of the other providers were still a little more of what we were looking for.

    vFlyer is still a fantastic product, but not in our top 3. :)

    I still think there is room for a ton of improvement in this market for an even better single property website product. It will be interesting to see who steps up to capture the market with something that blows everyone else out of the water.

  • http://OpenHouseAdvertising.com Owen Biddle

    Wow Vinny,

    It's great to see OpenHouseAdvertising come out on top, especially among such great company. We've worked very hard to provide our agents with beautiful and effective property websites.

    If I were to recommend this product to a friend, i would suggest they try this; create a free preview using your favorite provider and show it to the seller, if it pleases them, then it's no brainier. Or…. create a free preview and use it in a listing presentation. Use one of your old or current listings if you have to… if you win the listing then it's worth it. Definitely!

    Obvi there's more value in property websites than using it as just presentation tool, but from our feedback there's no disputing that property websites please the seller.

    There are a many great providers out there, I think you did a great job of giving your readers a place to start their search. Very informative.

    Owen
    OpenHouseAdvertising

  • vinnylabarbera

    We think it is well deserved Owen. There are definitely a lot of great options out there but you guys have done a fantastic job of packaging all of the pertinent features into a nice, clean design that is simple to use.

    I think we're all excited to see where you guys take your product next.

    Keep up the great work. And thanks for contributing to the conversation and reading our blog.

  • http://OpenHouseAdvertising.com Owen Biddle

    No problem, we'll be following you guys as well. Keep it up

  • Richard

    Did you include epropertysites in any of your testing? Was curious what you thought of them. They are admittedly more basic, maybe not as a fancy looking as some others. Their pricing was attractive to me, along with some of the interesting features they offer. So I have been trying them out (including paying a bit extra for a completely custom website address). Was just curious to hear if you had any thoughts about this site though!

  • vinnylabarbera

    We definitely took a look at EPropertySites, but unfortunately they did not make our top 3.

    We tried to select the products that had the best balance of price, features, design and marketability and the 3 we selected seemed to fill these categories the best.

    EPropertySites has a great product, but even their demos did not sell us. Having music blaring upon visiting a website one of our personal pet peeves so the impression was not very good right off the bat. That said, we would not knock them or discourage anyone from trying them – this is just our personal opinion.

    It sounds like you're happy with the product you got with them and that is all that matters. Keep us updated on how effective it turns out to be for you as we are always interested in case studies.

    Thanks for reading and participating in the conversation Richard. We look forward to hearing from you again.

  • Michael

    Just an FYI, some MLSs are now offering a basic service in this vein for free. Check out StreetURLS.com. This is a service built by the Contra Costa MLS to service the San Francisco East Bay. Within an hour of listing input an email is generated to the listing agent showcasing their new single property website URL by both MLS#.streeturls.com and address.city.state.streeturls.com format. The agent can showcase either a cooliris enabled flash gallery view, or a standard html thumbnail view. All for free, courtesy of the MLS.

  • mesereae

    any recommendations for a website company for a new condo development. Looking for same features as one of the single property sites mentioned here, but with some more capabilities such as adding additional tabs to upload floor plans, features, community info, etc… Looking to avoid going to a custom web designer and wonder if something out there that offers templates I can design myself.

  • vinnylabarbera

    We have plenty of fantastic companies that we would recommend. Are you still looking for someone?

    If so, please email us at info@realestatemarketingblog.org and we will be happy to send you some companies we stand behind.

  • Michael

    Hi Michael, thanks for the props! StreetURLS has really caught on with our members. One of the things that we are really excited about is the indexability of the site, given that we rewrite the MLS# to the property address on the fly. Google has been indexing the site more heavily each day, and will eventually (hopefully) allow StreetURLS to be the fastest, easiest way to find any property in the east bay.

  • http://www.listingdomains.com Amanda Cornelius

    Hi Vinny,

    Thanks for this article. I feel like I am late to the conversation but wanted to Thank you for including us (ListingDomains.com) in your review. I would like to include that we do offer the items that you mentioned were missing … full screen photos etc. I think you might have just missed that when looking at our sites. Another think that we include that the others don’t is a custom sign rider that really helps to drive traffic to the Property sites. We just released some new designs so I encourage you to take another look — http://555anyst.com/ . I always strive for an A+ Thanks Again.

    Amanda Cornelius
    Properites Online, LLC

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the update Amanda. And, more importantly, thanks for correcting us.

    You definitely have a good, useful service and I don’t think that there are too many people that will disagree with that.

  • Pete

    Vinny, great post! Have you ever found any WordPress themes that work as single property website themes? I have found WP themes that would work for an entire office or a broker’s site, but each have the Search feature within the design layout and I would like to do something like what you’re discussing here but within the WordPress environment since I have my own server space. Thanks!

  • Anonymous

    Pete, to my knowledge, there is not an established WordPress theme specifically for promoting a single property.

    That being said, it is pretty simple to customize some of the full featured real estate themes (ie. Studio Press) to make the site specific to one property.

    The most simple WordPress solution that I can recommend would be to use the Thesis theme and customize it how you want.

    This is all making me think that I need to create one. Let me know if you would be interested in putting one together.

  • http://www.home2market.com Justin Adams

    Hi Vinny – nice post! My company, home2market, provides virtual tours for Real Estate agents throughout the US. I’ve been getting more requests in the last few months for single property websites, so I’m considering incorporating that into our service offering. What I’d like to do is give agents the option to have the virtual tour iself as a domain name. Does anybody have any feedback about doing this? Here is an example of one of our tours:
    http://www.home2market.com/20723
    Thanks so much for the input!

  • http://www.home2market.com Justin Adams

    Hi Vinny – nice post! My company, home2market, provides virtual tours for Real Estate agents throughout the US. I’ve been getting more requests in the last few months for single property websites, so I’m considering incorporating that into our service offering. What I’d like to do is give agents the option to have the virtual tour iself as a domain name. Does anybody have any feedback about doing this? Here is an example of one of our tours:
    http://www.home2market.com/20723
    Thanks so much for the input!

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for reading and contributing some feedback Justin. Your product looks very clean and simple – a nice option for single property websites / virtual tours. As far as your question goes, if I am understanding correctly, you are going to get much more buy-in if you allow a custom domain for each virtual tour / single property as it will be better for branding and SEO. Using the virtual tour domain (eg. http://www.home2market.com/xyz) definitely helps you guys for SEO, but I think you will be able to sell much more value if you provide custom domains. Either way, good luck with everything!

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