Introduction – Steve Gale Realty

Website design and programming for a North Carolina Real Estate Agency specializing in mountain and lakeside homes. This website features advanced search and property plugins that utilize MLS APIs and IDX to keep property listings up-to-date.

Steve Gale Realty Project and Process

Steve Gale Realty reached out to Egor Media for a web redesign focussed on ease-of-use and updated technology to include a better mobile experience. After reviewing their project we realized there was an opportunity to utilize the MLS work they were already doing and integrate it into a responsive website.

Review – Moving parts of Real Estate websites for agents

The photography and property listing information all go through the MLS system that also connects to listings on third party websites like Zillow. The agent works with their MLS system to make those updates and the agent website connects to that MLS listing to populate their property listing content. The connection has to be established through the MLS listing company, which can take a few weeks depending on how busy the office is, so we had to plan ahead for the release date. Once that data populated, we then had to update the API to show relevant property information and organize the listings into categories.

Design – Real Estate for mountain lakeside homes

There are a lot of real estate companies out there with large budgets and large teams of real estate agents. For this reason, it was important to set Steve Gale Realty apart. Since they didn’t have a logo or color scheme already developed, we utilized colors that weren’t already being used by larger agencies and focussed on key aspects of their property focus – mountain lakeside homes and “small town, big charm”.

Programming – Connecting all the property listings

The API that feeds the MLS information into the website shows all properties for that area listing, even properties that an agent doesn’t represent. It was important to display the properties that Steve Gale Realty represented first to focus on their business. Also, most people looking to buy a home in this area are searching for mountain, lakeside and small town getaways so we focussed on words and categories that enhanced that search.

Finally, mobility is important, with over 35% of Steve’s website users looking up properties on their mobile devices. Mobile features include mobile optimized layouts similar to Zillow, clear navigation, and easy access to learn more and contact about the property.

After

Conclusion

There are a lot of considerations to review when designing and programming a real estate website. Egor Media balanced the large amount of property listing information with a modern design and mobile-centric approach to produce Steve Gale Realty’s home sales website.