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You may have heard about Wordpress from other real estate professionals and publications that have given favorable reviews of this technology. The main benefit of using Wordpress to create and manage your real estate website is that you don't have to be a programmer or tech guru to perform the most basic tasks.

Now, don't get me wrong... there still are a few technical steps if you decide to build your DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Real Estate Website from scratch but if you can follow instructions and have some patience you will surely succeed. You can also utilize the Real Estate Celebrity Wordpress Video Tutorials as a reference guide for the more technical steps. Keep in mind that the Tutorials are more like an encyclopedia for all the steps from A - Z but you will not necessarily have to do each step because the Auto-Installers take care of most of the work for you. I just want to throw that out there so you are not intimidated after seeing 100+ videos of topics you have never seen in your life and get discouraged. The videos help as you progress to get to higher levels of learning.

Utilizing Wordpress Posts vs. Pages For Real Estate Websites

When you are working with a Wordpress real estate website you will mostly be adding Posts and Pages to your website after the initial setup. Here is the main difference:

• Pages - Used for content that doesn't change so much such as About Me, Contact Me, Communities, etc. Adding pages is where you build up your different sections for specific cities, communities, developments, foreclosures, short sales and would be a great place to use the IDX Broker Custom Showcases widgets to display thumbnails of current properties listed in the MLS.

How Do I Create The Graphic Design For My Wordpress Real Estate Site?

Wordpress websites for Real Estate Agents keep the information and the design as two distinct separated parts of the technology. What this means is that you can quickly add/change/update the graphic design look & feel of the website by adding a "Wordpress Theme" from within the Admin Console. This is important to note since it allows you to change the design each year to keep a fresh look without losing all that text copy and hard work that you put into your website. In the past, many real estate websites were completely custom and hand programmed so that when you want to test out variations of the look/feel it was a big deal requiring significant time/money just to realize you don't like the new design.

With Wordpress the design can be interchanged quickly and efficiently by just following the instructions that come with each theme. There are Free Wordpress Themes and there are Premium Wordpress Themes for real estate websites and let me explain the difference.

Free Wordpress Themes vs. Premium Wordpress Themes For Real Estate Agents

When you find a Free Wordpress theme usually it comes with a catch. The catch is that you can not remove the URL links on the footer of the website that lead back to the developer's design website. Oftentimes, there will be more than 1 link in the footer which could be problematic depending on what site is being linked to. For Real Estate Agents your professional image is important and so be sure to double-check what links are going to remain on the footer of any Free Wordpress them you may be considering for your real estate website. Before you try to delete those footer links let me warn you that oftentimes the designer of the Free Theme puts a little encryption code in the footer that will render the theme useless if you try to delete the links. I just want to save you from wasting time trying to circumvent the system only to find out that the programmer anticipated your next move ahead of time. Free Wordpress Themes can be helpful at times but not in all cases.

How To Pick A Wordpress Theme For Real Estate Websites

If you decide to purchase a Premium Wordpress Theme to use for your real estate website keep in mind that you do not have to buy a theme that was designed specifically for real estate. If that sounds confusing let me explain.

Many of the Wordpress Themes that are marketed to Real Estate Agents contain demo sites that have a variety of real estate functionality built into the website. However, those Wordpress Themes were built for someone who plans on manually entering the MLS listings into the website pretty much how "pocket listings" work in other website technology. So, the first thing that happens when you buy most Real Estate Wordpress Themes is that you have to disable all those cutesy functions that attracted you to the theme in the first place.

For your purposes, you are going to get the real estate search functionality from whatever IDX/MLS Solution Provider that you sign up for to handle your MLS Search tasks on the website. I recommend using IDX Broker for most real estate professionals and you will find the most comprehensive features of any IDX Solution that I have personally reviewed.

So, this means that if you see a Wordpress Theme that you like the look/feel and overall layout - just pick that one. Don't worry if it was built for real estate or not because you will simply get all the MLS functionality the minute you connect your Wordpress real estate website to your IDX Broker account using the IDX Broker Wordpress Plugin.

You Don't Have To Use A Real Estate Specific Wordpress Theme - So Choose The One You Want!

The main consideration you need to be aware of when choosing a Wordpress Theme is the general physical layout and use of space because that is much more difficult to change. For example, you should decide if you like a 2-column layout vs. 3-column layout and look at how the subsequent pages are constructed because the homepage layout is usually broken up into many different sections.

Logos, colors, images and fonts are very simple to change once you install the Wordpress Theme so just pick the structural layout that you like the best and take it from there. There has not been one Wordpress Theme that I was unable to convert into a real estate website but there are some themes that are more easy than others.

Just be sure your theme has instructions and explanations about the features and how to utilize all of them and you will be well on your way to success. The best Wordpress Premium Theme design companies have the setup info posted visibly on the website before you buy which is a good sign you are in the right place.