My Business Website

James · 25 Sep 2013 at 13:01

Hi there,

I won't bore you with all the details but I set up my own business from home 2 1/2 years ago as an online estate agent with a local presence focussing on great service and value for money. (Not something you generally associate with estate agents!)

Anyway fast forward a successful few years, I'm now looking for an office to run things from as well as take more people on to grow the business.

I'd like to relaunch my website but I don't want to spend thousands of pounds on it!
I've looked at various wordpress themes and currently use one already www.jameskendall.co.uk

I had a web designer knock one up in Wordpress before to incorporate the iframes from the software we use but I've never been 100% happy with it.

The question is, how much should it cost for someone to make me a website to this sort of standard - http://www.atkinsons-residential.com/

This agency is out of area it's just I like the general look and design of the site.

Hyburnate · 25 Sep 2013 at 13:07

Is there not a dedicated CMS out there for this sort of stuff? Wordpress would work but I can see it not being the best suited.

Wordpress themes differ from £100's - £1000's, because really what you need is a designer to create a website design and then a coder/team to implement it into Wordpress. I would personally set yourself a budget and then talk to local companies into creating one with all your specific needs and work with them on it.

James · 25 Sep 2013 at 13:09

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply, I dont think so.
There's a few 'real estate' themes available and I've spoken to the developers who said the iframes aren't compatible with the themes which is annoying!

GravyMonster · 25 Sep 2013 at 13:23

I agree that Wordpress is not ideally suited to a job like this* so you'll be looking at something bespoke unless there's an off the shelf system somewhere. I'm not sure why you'd want to using frames/iframes as they are a terribly outdated tool, and will most likely hurt your SEO due to key content being missing from the indexed page.

From a costs POV, you're looking at a website which holds itemised information on properties you're selling, all filterable, with geolocation and google maps integration, a nice JS gallery to show the images of the properties, plus an importer and/or integration with the software you mention you use. As well as a secure admin site to maintain all this.

Personally, I'd charge you in the region of £10k for a bespoke system, although you may well find cheaper.

* before anyone starts I'm sure it's been done in the past and the client was happy etc. etc. but IMO it's like forcing a square peg in to a round hole

inogen · 25 Sep 2013 at 13:35

Yeah, 10k sounds about right - bit cheapish but about right... if you know what you're doing with it. I recently worked on an estate agency site, copying one from another they had. Was quoted at about half of that and the design agency made a relatively substantial loss in the end.

There are no off the shelf systems I know of.

Hyburnate · 25 Sep 2013 at 13:57

I did see one on a quick google but in my opinion it was not suited to it as from what I could tell you pay around 4k per year yet they have a set selection of themes to choose from.
Honestly I wouldn't go for a bespoke system as it will be out of your budget so you're probably best going for something like Wordpress, albeit it's not dedicated to your site, it will do the job.

You're best going to a company local to you and get your ideas into their terms and they'll be able to work out a price.

dfarrall · 25 Sep 2013 at 14:52

Your only a small company, do you really need such bespoke site?

Personally i think the one you have at the moment is that bad, could use some improvements but does the job nice and quick. Once you start to have huge amounts of properties it might be a different story.

visibleman · 25 Sep 2013 at 16:00

You certainly could use a CMS like Wordpress/Drupal do this but granted it'd require a bit of 'hackery' with various plugins to get the required functionality.

However it might be worth speaking to www.resourcetechniques.co.uk who is the design/web company behind www.atkinsons-residential.com and see what they charge/offer.

James · 25 Sep 2013 at 16:53

I've just sent them an email!
I can't spend anywhere near 10K!

It might have to stay as it is for now!

Hyburnate · 25 Sep 2013 at 17:01

@OP What is your budget, because you're probably looking around 2k (I'm a little out of touch on pricing) for a design and Wordpress integration.
http://wp.properta.byaviators.com/
It can be done with wordpress though.

RoyMi6 · 27 Sep 2013 at 14:04

Will PM you.

I freelance doing this kind of thing in WordPress. More than achievable with the right knowledge!

jubei · 3 Oct 2013 at 18:14

I just took a quick look at both sites, so although i have not had a massive play let me just say that i prefer your current one lol.

Neither site is responsive, but yours is much cleaner and clearer to a novice user, easier to navigate and see the info cleanly.

Really not a fan of that second site you linked. Its just my opinion you are the business man so take it with a grain of salt. But from a user standpoint, i would not make the move to that kind of design.

If you insist on a new site, make it a responsive design but nice and clear like yours. That way people can easily use the site on their tablets/phones as well as a pc.

kola · 4 Oct 2013 at 11:18

James said:
http://www.atkinsons-residential.com/

does any one else get a clothing vibe from that website

Th3M8dH8tt3r · 4 Oct 2013 at 11:34

WordPress can very much do this. I build websites in WordPress simply because, I don't have to spend hours on building a CMS and charging a client thousands for the privilege.

If you actually know how to use WordPress as a CMS, you'll realise it's extremely powerful.

To build something like this, I'd charge between £1,500 and £4,000. The site would be bespoke to you, WordPress would be used just as the CMS.

unwashed potato! · 7 Oct 2013 at 14:33

kola said:
does any one else get a clothing vibe from that website

i only just realised that it wasn't a clothing site :eek:

Craig R · 7 Oct 2013 at 17:30

Don't see any reason why this couldn't be done on Wordpress for a couple of grand tops.

Randomface74 · 7 Oct 2013 at 17:36

your website is better, improvements could be:
- change the content on your homepage
- revamp the header/logo

shady · 11 Oct 2013 at 17:54

I've done over 100 WordPress websites, including property agents. If you already have WordPress, you're halfway there. Add a custom theme, custom functions, link it in to Google Maps. Shouldn't cost more than £2500.