Monday Q&A: How Much Does It Cost To Build a Real Estate Site With WordPress?
25. Jan, 2010 
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Today’s Q&A launches our first post series: Site Building 101. The five part series (including this article) runs through the basics of building a site using WordPress including choosing a domain name and web hosting, designing your website, selecting a great real estate search vendor and creating an email drip campaign.
Question:
“How much does it cost to build a real estate website with WordPress?”
Answer:
When building a website for real estate you have two types of cost: fixed and variable.
Your fixed costs are:
- Domain Name (i.e. yoursite.com)
- Website Hosting (Serves your website to people who visit your domain name)
- Email Drip Campaign Marketing Service
- Real Estate Search Vendor
Your variable costs are:
- Website Design and Maintenance (varies by skill level)
- Website Marketing and SEO
Eventually your website hosting and email marketing service might become variable costs after you reach a certain growth point and need to move up to more expensive plans. For a brand new site or one that doesn’t get 30,000+ visitors per month the upcoming hosting plans will be perfect.
So, how much does it all cost?
Domain Name – $10.69 or $1.99 with hosting at GoDaddy.com
Website Hosting – $5.59/month at GoDaddy.com to $8.95/month at Dreamhost (we use Dreamhost for ORE101).
Website Design - Premium WordPress Theme – $60 to $100
Email Marketing Company – $19/month at Aweber
Real Estate Search Vendor – $25/month to $60/month+
Total Cost For First Year - $670 – $1,166
For first time website creators that might seem like a bit much. The bulk of your cost is going to come from having a real estate search (aka IDX) on your website but that’s also going to be your biggest lead generator so it’s absolutely necessary.
Also, when compared to a custom website, which typically run $5,000 – $10,000, a WordPress site is an inexpensive lead generating machine. If a custom website is something you’re considering for the future I recommend building a WordPress site for now and then, once you are well established online, invest in a top tier website.
Over the course of the next two weeks we’ll dig deeper into each of the costs associated with building a successful real estate website.
Check out our entire Site Building 101 series using the guide below:
Site Building 101 Series:
1. You’re here!
2. Choosing a Domain Name and Web Hosting
4. Selecting a Real Estate Search Vendor
5. How to Build an Email Drip Campaign
Photo Credit: Jakob Montrasio
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