5 Secrets to Building a Successful Luxury Real Estate Website

5 Secrets to Building a Successful Luxury Real Estate Website

In today’s world, your website matters, and that is no less true for a luxury real estate agent specializing in luxury living. A prospect, looking for their dream house, is most likely going to look online at what is available before calling up a realtor to show them houses. The first time they click on your website is your time to impress and connect with them. The first impression is so important that it will either blow them away or make them run away. Today, we are sharing our 5 Secrets to Building a Successful Luxury Real Estate Website that is sure to excite and intrigue new clients.

How do you build a successful luxury real estate website that is sure to impress? Below we have five secrets for you that will have potential clients picking up the phone and calling right away! They will be eager for you to show them a gorgeous property they can’t wait to make an offer on.

1. Take & Display Stunning Photos

When it comes to clients looking at properties online, the photos are going to make or break you. A stunning, gorgeous photo, taken at just the right angle, is going to lead the client to click on that property because they want to see more. Once you have them hooked, and looking at the listing, the photos are still just as important. You definitely don’t want them to get bored and start looking somewhere else.

Take multiple photos of the exterior of the house and the grounds. Take photos of each room from different angles. Hiring a professional is key and explore options of drone photography and videos. The photos should be warm and inviting, not stiff and standoffish. You want to draw the interest of the client into your photos. This will be the first step to them falling in love with the home and looking at all the other details within your listing.

2. Make Your Website Easy To Use

No one wants to spend a ton of time trying to figure out how to use a website. They want to be able to click on a listing and have all of the information at their fingertips. You should have the capability of a prospect to set up an account so that they can save their favorite properties to check on later. Not only allow them to set up favorites but let them choose multiple categories for the favorites to be in. These categories could include multiple cities, bedrooms, square footage or even amenities like a pool, game room and/or media room. Don’t make it confusing and complicated, but simple and easy. This will ensure that your client will come back to your website on their house hunting adventures instead of to your competitors.

3. Define Your Customer & Cater To Them

Branding for luxury real estate agents is important because you want to make sure you are pulling in the right caliber of clientele. If you are a realtor focusing on luxury real estate, you are looking at prospects who are in a higher income bracket. Your target audience, where they live and where they hang out, is going to be where you want to open your luxury real estate offices.

This doesn’t mean to only focus on older successful professionals. Being able to connect to affluent millennials, married or single, is a key strategy to focus on. Affluent millennials need to be approached differently than if you were targeting established older millionaires.

Are your buyers local or coming from out of town? Are they a first-time buyer, or have they purchased a home before? Is this going to be their only home or a second (or third) home that they use for quick getaways?

If your target audience is local then they probably already know about the area. If they aren’t, you might want to include photos of the area, nightlife, and activities in your listings. First time home buyers may be a little scared of the process, and if so you might need to have more links in your listing. Your goal is to encourage them to reach out and ask questions.

A seasoned homebuyer is more likely to know what they are looking for and how to find the information that is most important to them. Some clients will be looking for a home to use as a weekend retreat or a vacation home. If you focus on the amenities that make the property different than the rest, you will help a buyer hone in on what they are really looking for.  This makes it easier for them to decide what they need to make their time away from “home” a relaxing success.

4. Your Mobile Website Might Be More Important Than The Desktop Version

We have all experienced going to a website and not being able to get the same information we can get from your desktop. Either it isn’t user-friendly, the information isn’t as readily available, or it is simply a jumbled mess.

When it comes to luxury real estate websites, clients will spend a lot of time looking at properties on their phones. Perhaps even more than they do online. You will want your mobile website to be easy to maneuver and get around. You want your clients to be able to easily access their favorites and get details such as the address.

When it comes to the actual home visits your client will be using their phones to get the locations, look at photos on the way, and discuss the details before and after the viewings. If your mobile website doesn’t load properly and isn’t easy to use, it is highly likely that it could turn the client off. This is how you can lose them to a competitor with a better setup. In addition to the mobile website, consider creating an app for your clients that will also help them access all the information with ease.

5. Be Choosy With Luxury Real Estate Properties

You do not have to take every client that comes to you with a home to sell. Pick and choose from the sellers whose homes fit your brand and the clients that you are catering to. Just because someone is a friend, or has a pretty house, doesn’t mean that you have to list it. You want to show properties on your website that will lift you up, not bring you down. If you can’t highlight a property in such a way that will make visitors to your website excited, then it might just not be the property for you. Don’t be afraid to say no. Sometimes being picky is the best policy.

Next  Steps…

So how do you feel now about your chances of creating a spectacular, luxury real estate website? Are you ready to take the bull by the horns and get started? Sign up below for additional resources. Better yet contact the professionals (us!) for help in making your website a beautiful and luxurious success.