Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Fully Functional Real Estate Web Site

Posted March 7th, 2009 by Max Chirkov
in

Being in a real estate industry myself, I noticed that a lot of agents are using WordPress for their real estate blogs and, some, even for web sites. Even though I'm a huge fan of Drupal, which I don't think will change in the near future, WordPress is one of the most popular and user friendly blogging platforms today. Since I developed at least half of a dozen themes for WordPress, I thought I would try to create something for the real estate community. Who knows, may be you guys will find it useful.

Simple Realty - WordPress Theme for Real Estate

Simple Realty Theme is a basic 3-column, fixed width theme with 13 widget-ready areas that allows you to turn a simple blog into a fully functional real estate web site. Simple Realty is a subtheme of the Thematic Framework, with an original custom design and a few additional options in the back end. I created a list of available plugins that will add needed functionality to your new real estate web site. And btw, it's been tested on WordPress 2.6 and the brand new 2.7.

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Simple Realty Theme Options

  • 13 widget-ready areas (lots of flexibility room).
  • Custom header image.
  • Agent header block - agent's photo, contact name and telephone number - this block can be customized via back-end or completely turned off per your desire.
  • Top and sidebar navigation management widget.
  • Text widget for blog - new option to show custom text widgets only on blog's main page, single posts and archives (blog related content that shouldn't appear on static pages).
  • "No sidebar" template to IFrame a third party IDX solution.
  • Custom CSS files for the Great Real Estate plugin to present your property listings, and for the cforms plugin to generate leads.

Compatibility

Simple Realty Theme works in WordPress 2.6 and higher. Also successfully tested in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox 3, Safari 4, Opera 9 and Google Chrome.

Pricing and Availability

The price is $52 per color variation. The important news - I don't have a single and multiple user licenses. My thinking is that if you bought a product it is up to you where and how you use it - you can use purchased themes on as many [your own] web sites as you need. But, distributing copies to other parties is not permitted, just like music or movies.

WordPress Plugins to Expand Functionality of your Site

This is a list of plugins that I used to cover the most important needs of a small real estate business web site. It includes property listings presentation, lead generation forms and onpage search engine optimization. Note: the following third party plugins are not included into the Simple Realty Theme nor in any way associated with it. You can freely download them from the WordPress.org or via the links I provided.

  • Great Real Estate by Roger Theriault (includes Great Real Estate Featured Listing Widget) - this a nice plugin that allows you to add and manage your property listings. This plugin depends on other third party plugins and therefore supports Photo Gallery, Google Maps, Videos, Panoramic Photos and PDF document attachments. Also it allows you to syndicate your listing to major real estate portals like Zillow, Trulia and Google Base.
  • NextGEN Gallery by NextGEN DEV-Team (required by the Great Real Estate plugin) - allows to create photo galleries, and, in our case, works with the Great Real Estate plugin as a photo loading mechanism.
  • All in One SEO Pack by Michael Torbert - this is one of the most popular WordPress plugins today. If you're not familiar with it - it basically takes care of all your SEO needs as far as managing and optimizing your meta titiles, meta descriptions, keywords and whole bunch of other things.
  • cforms by Oliver Seidel - this is a really awesome plugin, and, I should admit, even an excellent web framework like Drupal doesn't have a module as cool as cforms. Don't get me wrong - Drupal is the best ;), but cforms is the real gold for business web sites based on WordPress. Cforms allows you to create very complex (and simple) forms in a very easy-to-use AJAX interface. You name it - it has it all - from hidden and required fields to lead management, file uploads, captcha verification, password fields, and automatic replies. This is one of those plugins you've got to have!
  • Simple Sidebar Navigation - for some reason Wordpress navigational menus weren't really well developed, so I wrote this simple plugin to avoid the headache. Simple Sidebar Navigation allows you to create and manage top and side navigation with a click of a mouse. It also supports multiple custom navigation in different sections of your site: i.e. you main content can have one navigation and your blog section can have a completely separate menu.
  • Daiko's Text Widget by Rune Fjellheim [REVISED by me] - this is a simple text widget with an ability to use PHP code in it. It's based on the default Wordpress text widget (which is included into WP by default), plus added a few useful features like PHP support and conditional appearance of the widgets in your content. I revised it and added new condition to show widgets on a bundle of pages relevant to blog. This includes: blog main page, single posts and archives.
April 8th, 2009
Adam W. Warner
This is a really great theme, and your list of plugins for agents is very useful, thanks!
April 8th, 2009
Toby Barnett - Marysville, WA
Photo of Toby Barnett.
Nice themes Max, they are smooth and very clean and what some real estate bloggers need :) Do you recommend a static homepage for a real estate blogsite or just let all the fresh content appear on the homepage. I personally use a static homepage but have seen it both ways.
April 10th, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.
Thanks Toby! As for the static home page, it depends on how you want to present your site - as a blog or as a site? In my demo majority of my navigation is leading to static pages, and blog has it's own navigation with categories and recent posts and comments. If you want to have some new content on the home page - you could have a static page with a widget that would show 1 or 2 recent excerpts from the blog, or something along those lines. I, particularly, prefer to have a site with a blog and not a blog with a few static pages.
May 2nd, 2009
Giacomo
Good post, very creative themes :) Thanks to the poster
May 17th, 2009
Raphael L Andrew
Hi Max, I like the design and functionality of your theme. Before I make a purchasing decision I would like to ask three questions. - Would use of the great real estate plugin allow visitors to upload their own listing and photos. If this is not possible can you please inform of a plugin that would provide that functionality. - Also, to help in monitizing the site, I would like to include a real estate directory in the site. Can you recommend a plugin that would allow me to do that. - Thirdly, would phpMyRealty.com - Real Estate Listings Directory script be compatible with use of your site. This is the sort of functionality that I would like in my site. I look forward to your response. Many thanks, Raphael.
May 25th, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.

Hi Raphael,

To answer your questions:
1. The Great Real Estate plugin is not a classified type of plugin - it was designed for agents to enter their own property listings in it. It's a free plugin, so you can download it and play with it to see if fits your needs. You might want to play with user accounts and permissions to see if registered users could add listings on their own.
2. I'm not familiar with directory plugins for WordPress, but I'm sure you can find a few here http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/directory
3. Looks like phpMyRealty is a full web solution - I don't really understand what kind of compatibility you are talking about... I'm sure you can run WordPress and phpMyRealty on the same domain, but the whole implementation would be up to you. I can't really advise anything about phpMyRealty since I never used it.

May 21st, 2009
JMo
This is awesome, I was going to do some experimentation with Wordpress and plugins for real estate websites and write an article on it. My sister just got her license in California and she wanted me to help her get something set up cheap I think I'll have to run this by her. The themes are good and the plugin list has introduced some new WP plugins. The Simple Sidebar Navigation plugin you built is fantastic. Great job.
May 25th, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.
Thank you JMo! Simple Realty was designed as a simple and very affordable solution that provides all necessary functionality for a small business real estate website. It allows to create new, or "backup" sites for agents w/o spending too much time or money. Agents can create multiple sites to cover different areas where they sell real estate, so to speak, - diversify their web presence and avoid putting all the "eggs" into the same basket :)
June 13th, 2009
Will
I really like the layout you have for a real estate site. I have a few questions: 1) I just set up my Wordpress site. Is transferring it to this theme/layout difficult? 2) Can I change the banner image (cityscape) to another image? 3) The MLS search on the demo points to Trulia. Can I use a different search platform (link from my company site)? 4) Do you have a control panel for editing content, buttons, etc. for the site? Thanks!
June 22nd, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.
Hi Will, if you're familiar with WordPress in general - this Theme is not different from any others. I don't really see what it would be difficult to transfer to this theme... you will need to set up most of your widgets because this theme has 13 sidebars (or widget ready areas). You can change the header image to your own - the one I had is just an example. The MLS Search page that points to Trulia is just an example of an iFrame template. You can use it for your own needs to frame your own MLS search or whatever you need. There is a top navigation management tool built-in, but I would recommend using Simple Sidebar Navigation pluging (which I wrote as well) - this will help to manage your top and side navigation in a very simple way. Hope I answered your questions :)
June 20th, 2009
MN Houses
Hi Max, I'm just looking around for WP themes for my "expansion sites". I think your theme is really clean and very affordable since I can use it for any number of my sites. I like the three-column footer. I am seeing them on newer sites. So far, your theme is looks like a winner to me. Cheers, -Nicole
June 22nd, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.
Thank you Nicole!
July 28th, 2009
Minnesota Realtor
I tell you what.. I tried to do this and realized I needed to be darn near an expert with CSS. The plugins work very well but are hard to customize. I have also tried the free real estate component with Joomla 1.5, that works very well and is powerful, it can do about anything you'd like. Max, great real estate isn't a plugin how come it's in the plugin directory?
July 28th, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.

Hi there.

Pardon me, but I'm having a hard time following your comment. What exactly do you need to do with the CSS? Did you download a Simple Realty Theme and needed to customize something, or were you trying to customize a specific plugin?

Great Real Estate is a plugin created by Roger Theriault, and can be downloaded directly from the wordpress.org - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/great-real-estate/

If you purchased one of the themes and need some help, you can post in the forums (purchase email confirmation has a direct link to the customers' forum) or just email me directly.

August 2nd, 2009
Kenneth Jansen
Hi Max, This theme looks pretty intriguing. Nice work. Do you offer a set up package of X hours for $Y? I am interested more in a package where someone does the set up for me. Thank you. Ken Jansen REALTOR Overland Park
August 3rd, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.
Yes, I can do the whole setup, including installing plugins and adjusting settings that I'm using in the demo for a flat fee of $120.
August 27th, 2009
Oscar Brown
Good Going Max! all the best to entered in World Press blog world along such a great realistic themes, it is great to know informative and affordable ideas........... Oscar Brown
August 30th, 2009
RenneG
Hi Max, Can you post links to some sites that are using your theme? Thanks!
September 1st, 2009
Post Author: Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.
To be honest, I don't know the sites that people buy those themes for. But here are a few sites that I just found: http://www.auburntigerhomes.com/, http://www.hughstonhomes.com/, http://homestyleteam.com/, http://globalmarketrealty.com/

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