It’s appropriate that this first blog post be about my journey in creating this website. It’s been a long one but I finally got somewhere. It may not be the final destination but it’s a good start. Having a background in Unix systems administration, coding and scripting to name a few, not to mention the fact that I’ve spent decades on the web, you would think creating my own website would be simple. Not really.
How I found WordPress
I first heard about WordPress at a technology conference for real estate in Austin. The instructor pretty much said it was the way to go so I did some research. When I learned thatWordPress was an open source content management system written in PHP, it further piqued my interested because those are two terms I was already quite familiar with. I installed WordPress on my web host and then I learned about the framework wars. Thesis was one, Genesis was another. I decided to try Thesis. Then I read Genesis was “better” so I decided to buy it and use it for my real estate website.
The development journey
After more than a year (actually more but a year sounds less embarrassing) of flipping between hiring someone to build my site for me and doing it myself, I still didn’t have a website. I finally reached a point where I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands and get a website no matter what it took. I had two major challenges: not having a design or an idea of what I wanted my site to look like, and having a technology background. A background in technology should be an advantage and normally I would agree. However, in my case, it wasn’t quite so because of the overwhelming desire to build it myself instead of outsourcing it. It’s been hard to separate myself from the DIY approach, especially when it comes to technology or development.
In retrospect, I think I’m happier building it myself despite the fact that it took time away from real estate. After looking at a lot of real estate websites, reading articles, spending more time thinking than I anticipated, I decided to create a different kind of website. I went for a clean, image rich (I like photography), minimal site without the multiple columns, widgets, clutter and information overload I see on some real estate websites. I wanted to make an emotional, personal connection with people because I really do feel real estate is very personal. It’s a big part of people’s lives and involves major changes and challenges. My goal is to help people with the challenges and provide solutions to their real estate problems and that’s what I want to convey through this website.
Property search
Should a real estate website have listings or property search capability? I didn’t think this was even up for debate till I read an article on Inman where they interviewed brokers about this topic. There were some interesting responses and it made me think. Do people visit real estate broker or agent websites to search for listings? Does the fact that they can search for listings on a website mean they will work with that agent or one of the agents in that brokerage? After giving this some thought, I’ve decided not to have a property search bar on my site for the time being. This may change in the near future as I complete all the items on my initial to-do list as far as the site goes.
I would love to hear your thoughts, though. Should a real estate agent or broker’s website have listings or property search capability?
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