Published: 27/10/2025 By Elliott Rowland
1) Property. Property. Property
One thing sets an estate agent website apart from other business websites, the ability to search and view properties online.Ensuring your website provider can properly import your property listing data into your website is a must. We’ve had many customers come to us because their local web developer simply couldn’t integrate with their property CRM, or couldn’t troubleshoot and fix basic syncing issues on an ongoing basis.
In addition, with some property CRMs such as Reapit charging to access a customer’s property data, an inefficient developer could leave you with a costly bill if they don’t get it right, so knowing your supplier’s credentials is important.
Look for an estate agent specialist who understands the complexities of CRM integration and is abreast of the specific regulations that govern the property industry. Do you research to understand their experience and how many customers they have with the same CRM platform as your agency and whether they do it themselves, or need a third party product to actually deliver their solution.
Whilst cost is important in any project, choosing a “cheaper” generic solution to begin with could end up costing your business a lot more in the long run.
2) It’s all about valuations
We hear from estate agent’s whose goal is to get more applicants registering through the website rather than the property portals. However, having this as your main target is forgetting what the primary goal of your website should be.The main focus of your website should be to deliver vital vendor and landlord enquiries. These are the lifeblood of your business. Applicants are important too, but they shouldn’t be the primary focus of your efforts. An increase in property stock is the key to unlock growth for your estate agency and provide a dependable revenue stream.
If a potential supplier isn’t talking about valuations and how the website will deliver them, they might not understand the user experience required to deliver a high performing estate agent website.
3) What other estate agents use them and who do they really work for?
A strong portfolio of estate agency websites and great online testimonials give you a great indication of a supplier’s credentials. This should be your first port of call in identifying a potential supplier’s experience.However, once you’ve established a good supplier, identify the profile of the estate agents they work with. The property market is a broad church, with a wealth of different agencies offering residential, commercial and international as well as sales and lettings, agricultural and auctions.
It’s important you recognise similar businesses to your own in their portfolio to ensure they can truly deliver a meaningful website for your specific business.
In addition, checking the other agencies in their portfolio can give you a clue as to the support and service you could expect to receive moving forward.
If you’re an independent agency battling large corporate agencies on your High Street, can you be sure you’d receive the help & support you need to beat your rivals online? When push comes to shove, would you be prioritised over the larger corporate rivals down the road if you had the same supplier?
Choosing a supplier who understands your specific needs beyond merely estate agency is vital in establishing a long term and meaningful business relationship.
4) An over emphasis on responsive website design
To be clear, responsive website design is absolutely vital. It ensures your website displays correctly on any device. However, I would worry about any web designer advertising responsive website design as if it’s a unique USP; it’s the bare minimum I would expect from any competent web developer in 2025.It’s like a car dealer advertising they sell four wheeled cars. If such an obvious element is advertised as a selling point for a practice that’s been prevalent since 2010, what real USP are they offering?
5) Check the technology powering the website
A great looking website is what every agent wants, but choosing the right supplier shouldn’t hinge on the aesthetic alone. It’s important to consider what’s powering the website to ensure high speed and performance.Does the web developer use a third party platform such as Wordpress? There’s nothing wrong with this per se, but it means your website provider doesn’t actually own the technology powering your website, they’re just building on top of another product.
If this is the case, you should understand the full terms of Wordpress and ensure you have complete visibility of any other third-party plugins that need to be installed as part of your overall website. Ensure you understand the cost implications of each plugin and fully understand who is responsible for support, maintenance and billing. It’s likely this could be more complicated than you first imagined, as it’s not necessarily just one supplier you’re dealing with.
There’s nothing more frustrating then not getting the help & support you need, or one third party supplier changing their terms or billing structure and the package you thought you were on changes entirely.
We’d recommend finding a supplier who uses their own proprietary technology thus ensuring they have complete control of your website solution. This not only ensures you have one point of contact, but the website is more efficient as it doesn’t rely on third party integrations and an ecosystem of separate technologies. A supplier in charge of the full solution can ensure it delivers exactly what you need and continue to develop it at will.