Agentpress Launches Wordpress Themes for Real Estate
AgentPress is a brand new Wordpress theme released today, designed specifically for use by the real estate industry. The theme is a collaboration between Wordpress designers StudioPress and the real estate blog MyTechOpinion.com.
You can see a live demo here.
It’s a sharp looking design that really pushes Wordpress beyond its blogging basics. For just shy of a hundred bones (a pretty small investment really) you get a great looking web site with a lot of baked in functionality.
But more than just a good looking site — with a choice of four color schemes — you get the benefit of Wordpress’ fantastic SEO optimization, an integrated blog and all the great plugins and hacks available to Wordpress site owners.
I particularly liked the way Agentpress gives you customizable listing templates for individual properties which incorporate some nice design elements like the Lightbox-esque popups and embedded Google Maps. Plus, because each listing is stored as a separate post in the Wordpress database, Agentpress gives you a modest property search tool right off the home page to index your individual listings/posts.
Marry these property pages with a vanity URL and you’ve got yourself a pretty snazzy single-property website.
After a bit of a lull, there’s been a slew of real estate-related activity on Wordpress recently, starting with the Local Market Explorer plugin released by Zillow (see New Local Market Explorer plugin for Wordpress).
Now, with premium theme options like Agentpress (the iReal Estate Theme is another premium theme available for purchase) and an embeddable IDX solutions like that from Diverse Solutions, you’ve got the makings of pretty kick-ass website – right off the shelf.
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Raize | Oct 26, 2009 | Reply
I’ve been using StudioPress a lot over the past year for my websites, and they are simply one of the best template providers out there. The themes are very user friendly to implement, and look awesome! This is definitely an endorsement of their services, as the Agent Theme I’ve been using for my real estate site looks and works better than most of the custom real estate web sites out there (that probably cost way too much).
Congrats to the StudioPress team!!
Jay Zenner | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
Wordpress itself keeps getting easier and easier to use too. When I started using it a couple of years ago as a non-techie, I had to learn a lot of things about using FTP programs for updates of the basic software and plug-ins and enough about html and css to do basic editing. The newest updates have made a lot of that knowledge obsolete and use of Wordpress as a real estate site much more accessible. The development of themes specific to situations including AgentPress are also encouraging developments.
Brian Gardner | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
Hey Joel – just wanted to say thank you so much for the article you posted here. Very well written, and pretty much sums up our goal with WordPress and the real estate market very well.
Raize – thanks to you as well for your endorsement, we’re happy to hear that you’re a satisfied StudioPress theme user, and look forward to entering the real estate market in a way that others haven’t.
NikNik | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
Joel- Thanks for providing your take on AgentPress. I think you hit the nail on the head…having individual detail pages for listings clearly rocks not only because of the single property website appeal, but also for social sharing.
I get asked all the time how to best display listings inside Facebook and personally (1) I don’t think the focus inside FB should be on listings, but about building/maintaining relationships, (2) if you are going to add listings to a Fan Page I prefer a more organic approach (i.e. using photo albums and status updates), so (3) posting your listings as status updates on your Fan Page using the URL for an sps (or AgentPress property template) would deliver the best info about a property as well as send people to your own business Website/blog.
Peter Toner | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
I agree with Nik Nik on not ramming your listings down your Facebooks friends throats! You don’t stand in a room full of people shouting about your success, so don’t do it on Social Media sites, period ..
As far as WordPress is concerned it’s rapidly becoming the defacto platform for a savy Realtors blogging and website presence, especially with an IDX embeded inside it.
Whilst the learning curve for WordPress is a hurdle, once breached it’s absolutely the best way to pass on your intimate knowledge of your market place.
Overland Park Homes for Sale | Oct 30, 2009 | Reply
This seems like a much better option for agents then the $500-$1000 a year most agents are paying for template that looks, feels, and functions like hot garbage.
This is why I like NikNik: “I don’t think the focus inside FB should be on listings, but about building/maintaining relationships”
Tara | Nov 19, 2009 | Reply
I am unable to click through the links in the post and even tried looking it up though just google search- no luck. Wonder why it would have been taken down?
Billie Hillier | Jan 21, 2010 | Reply
We have built 2 sites so far using this theme and our clients love them! It has a lot of great built in features so it takes the tought out of it for someone who doesn’t know how to customize the theme themselves.