When you are considering getting a web site on the Internet, you have many alternatives. Which one is best for you?

Web sites are far more than just places to advertise yourself or your properties. Done right, you can create a brilliant showcase of the total real estate solution you offer to your customers.

Other columns have dealt with what makes a web site effective, how to achieve high rankings in search engines, basic marketing and more.

But what about the creation and maintenance of the site itself? What fully turn-key solutions are available?

Many designers offer complete packages for the real estate agent who wants to make their mark on the Internet. Several places you can consider include:

Best Image is a complete real estate solution that, along with a real estate web site, offers personalized marketing, ranging from advertorials (negotiating columns on your behalf) to their Number One site which lists the top real estate agents for particular areas to their intensive marketing that drives customers to the sites they design. Most impressive.

PropertySitePro is another real estate web site service provider. They have produced highly individualized sites such Dirk Zeller's Real Estate Champions and The Real Estae Company of Key West, Inc.

Homes.com, the publishers of Homes & Land Magazine, has a new offering called Preferred Pages. What's rather cool about this service is they offer single-touch look and feel changes - in other words, the agent can change the look and feel of their web site while retaining the same informational content.

Expose Real Estate Web Application - this product gives you an interface to add/delete/ modify properties, generate flyers for you to fax to prospective customers, and more.

Realty.com is another service that is dedicated towards producing sites specifically geared towards real estate. They also provide seminars to give pointers about the Internet.

And don't forget about the great deal offered by Realtor.com which also provides webpages and hosting for around $250/year.

Many agents choose to have more than one Web site, one from Realtor.com and another from other sources as listed above.

Of course, the above certainly are not the only alternatives you have! However, you certainly should check them out and learn what's available should you ever want to find a turnkey solution.

Finally, whenever choosing either a complete Internet turnkey solution or web site design, remember to ask the following key questions. They will save you much pain.

1.) How will my customers find me? (Note, it's not how people will find me, you want a specifically targeted audience.)

2.) What about search engine visibility? (The potential designer should talk about components of marketing, including optimal page design, newsgroup visibility, keywords, etc.)

3.) Price? (Don't be hung up on choosing the cheapest solution. Remember, your web site will be around for months or years on end - you want to ensure you get the quality you need. Buying solely based upon price will come back to haunt you if you need a complete site redo later on.

4.) Customer satisfaction/guarantee. Reputable designers will tell you upfront what to expect, and guarantee their deliverables.

5.) Happy customer testimonials. Always! Be sure to check out other sites developed, and talk with the clients to see why they are happy. Happy clients are generally quite willing to sing the praises of their website designers.

See More: Technology Advice

Published: February 18, 1999

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Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Barbara Ling only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.

Barbara Ling, "The Internet Virtual Coach", is an Internet business and technology writer and trainer. She is the author of "The Real Estate Pro's Internet Edge." Contact Barbara at btl@virtual-coach.com.