While conducting research for a tentative project I found a fair amount of information on plug-ins and existing premium themes for WordPress.
What is WordPress? WordPress is an easy to use content management system (CMS) that makes it perfect for many different types of websites. Plus, it can save you money on maintenance as it’s easy to log in and make the changes yourself.
Please note that some of the following plug-ins may have very specific requirements (MySQL, PHP and what hosting companies the plug-in doesn’t work).
Plug-ins
The following plug-ins are specific to real estate and there are other plug-ins that will enhance a real estate website (property photos, search engine optimization, etc.).
- Great Real Estate
- Real Estate
- FireStorm Real Estate Plugin
- RealPress There are two versions of the plug-in. Pro and Standard aka free
- Realty
- WPRealty
A general search on WordPress.org for real estate, IDX, RETS, or MLS returns even more plug-ins (some of the results are not relevant to real estate).
The following plug-ins pull in listings from MLS or IDX and your MLS will need to be supported by the plug-in.
- dsIDXpress
- Simple Real Estate Pack (this one will pull in MLS listings from FlexMLS)
- ListingWare
- IDXBroker (you need to an IDX Broker subscriber)
WordPress Themes for Real Estate
Any existing WordPress theme, or you can have a custom theme created based on dictated corporate design, can be used for real estate, and quite frankly the design should reflect your business identity.
The following are premium themes aka not free, but considering the cost it is certainly less expensive than a custom theme. However, please remember that any of the themes can be customized to reflect your preferences.
- StudioPress – Several great looking themes and while some are not real estate themes they can certainly be adapted.
- Gorilla Themes
- SmoothPress
- iThemes
- ThemeForest
- WebDesignLedger If you are a premium member there are at least 2 themes specifically designed for real estate. If you do not care to become a member then head over to ThemeShift.
If you’re interested in learning how I can set your real estate website using WordPress then please contact me to get started.
I’m doing some research for our broker, we are a small real estate office in a small MLS, approx 1500 listings and we are looking for a new website. We’ve decided on WordPress, would like to host it on GoDaddy and we have an IDX provider we want to use. Cost of course is a factor, we would like to find someone who can design the site, get us started with the necessary plugins, provide some training then turn it over to us to maintain. Perhaps occasional help with installing a new feature as needed. We would appreciate your thoughts, recommendations and anything you can provide on pricing, time to build and what you offer.
Thanks in advance.
Jim Sweet
Hi Jim,
You should have received information from me via email. I look forward to hearing back from you when it’s the right time.