Tag Archive - Website

3 Tips to Structuring a Successful Rental Website

By Sarah Gabot on November 8, 2011 in Marketing with Comments Off

Structure rental website

Landing on a disorganized rental website feels like walking into a cluttered house. Prospective renters viewing a disorganized website may become overwhelmed, turned off and eventually leave.

You want prospective renters to feel immediately at ease navigating through your website. Rental hunters are likely on your website to find information on available rental units. If you make it easy for them to find the rental property they’re looking for, it’ll be easier for you to close a rental deal. 

Avoid the website clutter and get organized. Use these three tips to organize and structure a better real estate website for your rentals. 

Tip #1: Stop and plan. 

Before you start creating pages, posting listings and writing unit descriptions, take a step back for a second to plan your website’s structure. Planning the structure of your rental website will help create a natural flow to your pages, which will help prospective renters navigate your site.

Post-its, drawing on paper or Excel spreadsheets are great ways to start planning your website. The top of your flowchart is your homepage, and from there, you can branch out your ideas of your subpages. Planning this ahead will save you the pain of undoing hard work when you start actual website building. 

Tip #2: Create smart subpages.

Don’t just place all your listings on one page. Strategically divide your rental properties by common characteristics and create separate pages for each. For example, divide your units by neighborhood or by broker. Put yourself in the shoes of a renter – how will they search your listings? When rental properties are organized, it makes it easier and faster for prospective tenants to find a unit they’re looking for. 

Tip #3: Uniformity is important. 

Plan your website’s look and feel before choosing colors and adding rental listings. Websites that have pages that look different and inconsistent come off as sloppy and unprofessional. Make sure your website portrays a professional rental real estate business that renters can take seriously.

Webpages of the same type should have the same layout. For example, the East Village listing page layout will be identical to the SoHo listing page. If each page has an introduction about the neighborhood, each neighborhood should have one. 

Your website needs to stay consistent with your brokerage’s logo, color scheme and feel. For instance, Redwood Real Estate would probably not have a purple background, unless those were the company colors. Brand your website by putting your logo on every page and keep consistent theme by using your brokerage’s colors.   

 

3 Advantages to Building a Real Estate Website for Rentals

By Sarah Gabot on November 7, 2011 in Agent Tips with Comments Off

Advantages to rental real estate website

On the fence about building a rental real estate website for yourself or brokerage? Take plunge and build it. With so many prospective renters out there scouring the internet for rental units, you need to make sure you and your properties are found first, in front of your competitors. A rental real estate website will help assert yourself as a successful, professional business to tenants.

Don’t worry about making flashy websites; Sticking to a basic rental website can help rack in more prospective renters. Know the benefits a website can bring to your rental real estate business.

Advantage #1: Control your online business info. 

If prospective renters Google your name or your business’s name, what are the first few results? If you don’t have a website, it will most likely be a Facebook page, a business listing or a business review. These sites show some information about your rental business, but doesn’t show them what available properties you have. Worst of all, it’s less likely to getting you a closed lease.

Building your own website will help point researching tenants to the most accurate information on your rental business; a site written by you. If you have your available properties listed on your website, you’re making it easier for them to start searching for rentals. Not only will they be looking through available units, they’ll be YOUR units.

Advantage #2: They’ll be looking at your units only.

Most, if not all, of your property listings are posted on Craigslist. If creating a great subject line wasn’t hard enough, getting rental hunters to click to apply for your unit is even harder. The problem is once a prospective tenant starts searching Craigslist for a new rental property, most Craigslist listings are a dead end. Meaning, once a renter opens a listing, there’s nowhere else to click unless you plan to e-mail. 

With a rental website, you can add your link to all of your postings, redirecting them to your website. Once they’re on your website, all of your rental properties will be at their fingertips in one place.

Advantage #3: You’ll be respected, professionally. 

Let’s face it – all professional businesses have a website. If you want your rental real estate business to be taken seriously by renters, a website is a must. If prospective tenants can’t easily find your business online, they may question your integrity. That’s an unnecessary hurdle for your rental business.

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