There is no better time to ask how I efficiently create a real estate website using WordPress.
See, all industries are growing and developing to make their activities as smooth as possible. When creating a real estate website, you have to think about making the experience for you and your users as smooth as possible on your website. You may start by looking at competitors who you think have their stuff together. You may begin to achieve what you want.
I’m surely preaching to the choir when I say that real estate is a profitable industry. It applies to real estate websites too. They also let you share your expertise with people who need it. The best part is that you get all these perks without going after web coding classes or hired expertise.
All you need is a small investment, and this piece is right here to know how to create a real estate website with WordPress. You will have your site up and running in a matter of hours. Let’s get started with this comprehensive step-by-step guide on creating a real estate website with WordPress.
Step 1: Select a Domain Name
The first thing you have to do is choose the domain name for your site. A domain name ideally describes your brand concisely. Making it easy to recall is a clever move because people can remember and revisit your site. For instance, if your company name is Joan Real Estate Solutions, you can take Joan Real Estate’s domain name.
Your next task is choosing the extension you want it to end. You can go with the most popular extensions in .com or .org if you don’t want to go with a country-specific alternative like .au for Australia or .us for the United States. Going with an extension for a particular country is only advisable for those who only want site users and visitors from that country.
When you’ve chosen a domain name with an extension, the next step is to register it. You can go with domain registrars like Namecheap, Domain, or GoDaddy (among others). Alternatively, you can register your domain name with your hosting provider. If this is your preferred route, take a look at how you handle hosts in step 2.
Step 2: Select a Web Host and a Hosting Plan
It is one of the most delicate parts of the procedure because the wrong choice could be a regrettable and eventual loss. When going for the best host, you should consider the one that offers the most hosting plan possibilities, excellent uptime, and around-the-clock support.
You could include SiteGround, HostGator, Bluehost, Hostinger, DreamHost, and A2 Hosting among the best hosts. Ensure that you figure out what your host of choice offers that the rest don’t.
When choosing a hosting plan with your host, you can opt for an optimized plan for WordPress. At the same time, you can make a plan that helps you register your domain name in the process.
It gives you a preinstalled WordPress account optimized for great security and performance. Such plans will also typically have automatic site backup services. Therefore, should anything happen to your website so that it loses some data, you can restore it easily.
Step 3: Select WordPress as Your Website’s Content Management System (CMS)
If you didn’t choose a hosting plan that comes with a preinstalled WordPress account, you would have to choose the CMS in this step. But you have to ask yourself, “Why WordPress?”
WordPress is responsible for over one-third of all websites on the globe. Its popularity is due to different reasons: its ease of use. You can install it and get it to function in less than 5 minutes! It also avails different themes and plugins that give your site functions and features that would have otherwise required you to have Web coding expertise.
The next steps are choosing a WordPress theme and customizing it so that everything works in perfect harmony.
Step 4: Select a Real Estate WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme does all the heavy lifting for you. Since you want a real estate WordPress website, you can choose a theme with features, pages, and functions suited to that niche. Choosing the right theme goes a long way in giving you the best website possible. Our recommendation for a real estate WordPress theme is Homlisti. We’ll use the theme in our examples and screenshots. You can watch the video on best real estate WordPress theme.
(Homlisti Feature Overview)
When you have a premium theme such as Homlisti, you must upload its files before activating the theme. You can use the theme uploader as shown in our demo here or FTP Clients, as our demo here illustrates.
Homlisti comes with a host of prepackaged plugins that you need to install and activate. These plugins include premium selections worth a lot more than the theme itself. The plugins you get (and must install) include Classified Listing Pro, Classified Listing Free, Homlisti Core, Elementor Website Builder, RT Framework, and RT Demo Importer. The ones the theme offers but whose installation is optional include WP Fluent Forms, MailChimp for WordPress, Smash Balloon Instagram Feed, Classified Listing Store, Review Schema Pro, and Review Schema Free.
Step 5: Installation of Homlisti theme and prepackaged plugins
Purchase the theme from Theme forest and download all the files and documentation. Now head over to WordPress Dashboard to upload the homlisti.zip file.
Click Appearance -> Theme -> Add New -> Upload Theme -> Install Now -> Activate
After installing the theme, you need to activate the theme with the Envato purchase code. After activation, you get all the pre-built premium plugins. These are all recommended plugins by Homlisti. Without installing these plugins, the theme’s major features won’t work.
Install all the required plugins from the notifications and select all plugins and install them. Now activate all the plugins and enable all the power of the Homlisti theme.
Step 6: Importing Demo Contents and Customizing the Theme
You can go with either of two ways to import the demo content – automatic or alternative.
- Automatic (Recommended) is a method that will scrape all the data that preexists on a website, so only use this method if your site is completely new. Also, this method is perfect for you if you want your site to resemble the demo website completely before you start customizing it. It is how you should approach this.
- Ensure that Homlisti (the parent theme) is activated on your website. If not, start with that.
- From the admin menu, go to Tools 🡪 Demo Content Install. Alternatively, go to Plugins 🡪 RT Demo Importer 🡪 Install Demo Contents.
- On the current page, click on the button that reads Install to install the demo.
Importing demo content will take some time. When the import process is complete, update your permalink. You do this by navigating to Settings 🡪 Permalink and clicking on the Save Settings button.
If you encounter any issues in the demo installation process, check out the Homlisti troubleshooting information.
- Manual Import demands that you follow the following steps:
- Use the One Click Demo Import plugin to activate it. You can do so by searching it from your admin dashboard or clicking its link here.
- Now on your admin menu, go to Appearance 🡪 Import Demo Data.
- On the current page, click n the Import button to install the demo of your choice. Again, the demo contents will take some time to finish importing.
Like you would in the automatic import method, update your permalink when you’re done importing the demo data. Tap Settings 🡪 Permalink and press the Save Settings button.
You can then customize the pages and sections with Homlisti using the Elementor page builder plugin. You don’t need to have prior customization experience or much guidance.
Step 7: Properties Setup
Each niche has features that are particular to it. In the real estate niche, property display is almost guaranteed to happen. Homlisti employs the functions of the Classified Listing Pro to help you set up the properties you want to showcase on your site. It also comes with the Classified Listing Store plugin for member–agent/agency – functionalities. If you need to learn more about using the plugin, you can check out its documentation on its website.
Other settings that will be important to your website include Yelp Settings, Panorama (360° Virtual Tour) Settings, Floor Plan Settings, WalkScore, Agents Setup, Home and Blog Pages, Menu Customization, Site Title, and Favicon Customization, Global Color Customization, Logo Customization, Typography Customization, General Settings, Elementor Widgets, Contact Form Setup, Inbuilt CSS Classes, Translating Theme, and Theme Updates.
All these settings are easy to configure when you go to the demo page. It has explanations and illustrations on how to handle the entire theme.
Step 8: Monetize Your Website
Apart from the services you sell, you can include banner ads on Homlisti’s predesigned locations on your site. It gives you extra revenue generation avenues. Still, you shouldn’t add too many of them since they make your site seem less professional.
Winding Up
Thus far, you and I have created a website that is ready to start pushing you further toward your goals. You have saved money that you would have spent on coding experts and premium plugins. We hope you feel confident in doing it yourself. Go ahead, realize your world-class website and conquer the real estate industry as planned.
