The short answer: a real estate agent website needs a seller page with a home value request, a buyer page, neighborhood guides written with facts, your brokerage information displayed the way your state requires, and a way to stay in touch with past clients by email. Listing search (IDX) is a bonus that depends on your MLS and your broker, not the foundation.
The pages a real estate agent website needs
An agent site needs about eight core pages: home, sellers, buyers, neighborhood guides, about with license and brokerage details, reviews, listings if your MLS allows it, and contact. Each one should lead to a single next step.
| Page | What it must answer | Main button |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Who you are, the areas you serve, buyers or sellers or both, your brokerage | What is my home worth? / Talk to me |
| Sellers | How you price, prepare and market a home, and what the process looks like | Request a home value review |
| Buyers | How you work with buyers, steps from pre-approval to closing | Book a buyer consultation |
| Neighborhood guides | Facts about each area: housing, commute, parks, amenities, links to official data | See homes in this area / Ask about this area |
| About and license | Your experience, languages, license details and brokerage, as your state requires | Contact me |
| Reviews | What past buyers and sellers say, in their words | Work with me |
For the general checklist every business needs (domain, email, hosting, privacy page), see what you need for a business website. If you have not picked your domain yet, read domain names for real estate agents first, because the domain should be one you keep when you change brokerages.
The high-value actions on an agent website
The action worth the most on an agent site is a seller asking what their home is worth, followed by a buyer booking a consultation. Sellers bring listings, and listings bring buyers, so the home value request belongs on your home page and every neighborhood guide.
Keep the home value form short: address, timeline to sell ("just curious," "within six months," "ready now"), name, phone or email and preferred language. Do not promise an instant automated value unless you actually provide one; "I will send you a personal review within one business day" is honest and starts a real conversation.
For buyers, a consultation request with price range, areas of interest, timeline and whether they are pre-approved is enough. Our series step on user journeys and conversions shows how to track which pages produce these requests.
Your state's advertising rules apply to your website
In most states, your website counts as advertising, and license law usually requires the brokerage name to appear on it. The details vary a lot from state to state, so treat the Texas example below as an illustration, not a rule for everyone.
In Texas, the Texas Real Estate Commission's advertising rules say that when an ad includes a sales agent's or team's name, the broker's name must appear at least half the size of the largest contact information. Texas agents must also link to the Information About Brokerage Services form from the home page of their business website, with specific wording and a minimum font size. According to TREC's own FAQ, Texas does not require a license number on signs or advertising.
Other states set different requirements for how the brokerage name is shown, whether the license number appears and which disclosures go on websites. Before you launch:
- Read your state real estate commission's advertising rules.
- Ask your broker whether they need to review or approve your site.
- Put the required brokerage details in your site-wide footer so they appear on every page, not just the home page.
- Update them the day you change brokerages.
Social profiles and email signatures count as advertising in many states too. When you update your website footer, update those at the same time.
How IDX listing search works on an agent's own website
Whether you can show MLS listings on your own site depends on your MLS rules and your broker's permission. IDX (Internet Data Exchange) is the system that lets brokers display other brokers' listings online. Under the NAR model IDX policy, IDX display belongs to MLS participants, which are usually brokers. An MLS may allow agents to use IDX on their own websites, but it is not required to, and where it does, the agent's use stays subject to the broker's consent and control, state law and MLS rules. Each listing displayed must identify the listing brokerage, and sellers can choose to keep their listings off the internet.
In practice, you have three options:
An IDX feed on your site
Ask your broker and your MLS whether agents may use IDX, and which IDX vendors your MLS approves. Check which website platforms the vendor supports before you choose hosting.
Link to your brokerage's search
Many brokerages give agents a branded search page. Link to it from your site and keep your own pages focused on what makes you different.
Feature your own listings
Write a page for each listing you hold, with your own photos and description, following your state's and MLS's rules.
Listing search alone rarely makes a buyer choose you; big portals already do that. Your neighborhood knowledge and your process are what they cannot find elsewhere.
How to write neighborhood guides that follow fair housing rules
Neighborhood guides work when they describe places with facts, and they stay safe when they never describe who should or should not live there. The Fair Housing Act, as HUD explains, bars ads that indicate a preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin.
A practical rule: describe the place, not the people.
| Write about | Example | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | Mostly single-story homes built in the 1990s, many with pools | "Perfect for young families" or "ideal for retirees" |
| Getting around | About 20 minutes to downtown by freeway; two bus lines on Main Street | Describing who rides the bus or walks the streets |
| Amenities | Three parks, a public library branch and a weekend farmers market | Naming religious or ethnic character as a selling point |
| Schools and safety | Links to the school district and official crime data, so readers can check | Your own labels like "good area" or "bad area" |
On schools and crime, HUD's April 2026 letter to fair housing enforcers says agents do not violate the Fair Housing Act just by sharing neighborhood crime or school information equally with every client; unlawful steering involves treating people differently based on a protected characteristic. State law, your MLS and your brokerage may still set stricter expectations, so linking to official sources and letting readers judge for themselves remains the careful approach. When in doubt, ask your broker or an attorney.
Each guide should end with a home value request and a "see homes in this area" link. Over time, guides are the pages most likely to bring search and AI assistant traffic, because they answer questions portals answer poorly. Our step on content strategy explains how to pick which areas to cover first.
Email marketing keeps past clients coming back
Email marketing is how agents stay in front of past clients, the people most likely to send referrals and to hire you again. A short monthly or quarterly email with local market notes, a new neighborhood guide or a seasonal home tip keeps your name in their inbox without being pushy.
- Only email people who agreed to hear from you, such as past clients and site visitors who signed up.
- Under the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide, commercial emails need honest subject lines, a valid postal address and a working way to opt out, and opt-outs must be honored within 10 business days.
- Send from your own domain, so the list and the relationship move with you if you change brokerages.
Your Google Business Profile and reviews
A Google Business Profile helps local sellers find you and is where most reviews will collect. Check Google's eligibility rules and your brokerage's policy before creating one. Our Google Business Profile guide covers categories, service areas and asking for reviews. On your site, show a few reviews next to the matching service: seller reviews on the seller page, buyer reviews on the buyer page.
What a real estate agent website costs: three paths
An agent website can start with a domain and email or be built for you with guides and forms. Prices below are current storefront prices and do not include any IDX vendor fees; for the full breakdown, read what a small business website costs.
| Path | What you pay | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself | WordPress Basic at $12.99 a month or Website Builder Business Plus at $14.99 a month, plus a .com at $24.99 a year and email from $4.99 a month per inbox | Agents who like writing and will keep guides up to date |
| Have Force Domains build it | A written quote with a fixed price before we start; you pay for your domain, hosting and email separately and own all of them | Agents who want a fast site with seller and buyer funnels, guides and tracking, that moves with them |
| Start with domain + email | A .com at $24.99 a year plus email from $4.99 a month per inbox | Claiming your name and a lifetime email address now, with the site later |
When we build it, the website design service covers a phone-first design, copy organized for Google and AI assistants, contact form and tap-to-call, English, Spanish or both, domain, email and hosting connected, email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and Google Search Console and analytics set up, and you own the domain, files, hosting and email. Neighborhood guide writing, competitor research or IDX setup with your approved vendor can be included in your written quote.
Which storefront products fit a real estate agent
These storefront products match what agents usually need:
- WordPress Deluxe ($16.99 a month) for agents planning many neighborhood guides: daily backups, Cloudflare CDN and a staging copy to test changes, such as a new IDX plugin, before they go live.
- Email Marketing Up & Running ($14.99 a month, 2,500 contacts) adds an automated welcome email and blog-to-email, so each new guide can reach your list. Pro ($29.99, 5,000 contacts) adds automated campaigns.
- Website Builder Business Plus ($14.99 a month) adds Online Appointments for buyer and seller consultations.
- Professional Email from $4.99 a month per inbox, the address that stays yours for your whole career.
Compare all plans on the prices page.