A real estate agency website that wins listings

On This Page

1. What the site is for
2. What your state requires on the site
3. How listings get to your site
4. Appraisal forms and “instant valuation” widgets
5. Reviews, sold results and records
6. The property management page
7. Suburb pages, privacy, alerts and accessibility
8. What an appraisal request is worth
9. Website checklist
10. My view
11. Questions I get asked

Buyers find homes on the portals. realestate.com.au says it has more than twelve million visitors a month, and about half of them use no other property site. So an agency website isn't really for buyers. It's where a vendor or a landlord checks you out before they pick up the phone, and it has jobs the portals won't do for you: the appraisal request, your agents and their real sales, your suburb knowledge, and your property management offer. This guide is for the principal of an independent agency with one to three offices. It covers what each state requires on the site, how listings get there, who owns what, the risk in "instant valuation" widgets, and how to show reviews and sold results. I build real estate websites, and the rules come from each state's agents law, the Australian Consumer Law, the portals' own developer terms and Google.

What the site is for

The portal owns the buyer search, and increasingly the owner too: realestate.com.au says millions of owners follow their home's value on it, and it sells the resulting seller leads to agents. When sellers choose an agent, they look for local knowledge, recent comparable sales and reviews, and REA's own seller research found most expect a reply within 48 hours. An agency group's survey found local expertise was the top factor in choosing an agent.

So the site's jobs, in order:

1. The appraisal request. A short form, a separate marketing tick box, and a reply you actually send within two days.
2. Agent pages. Photo, correct title, suburbs worked, the sales each agent made, reviews with their count.
3. Sold results. Your own unconditional sales only.
4. Suburb pages. Only for suburbs you really work, each with its own sales and local knowledge.
5. Property management. The offer, the full fee schedule with a worked total, how to switch, and a rental appraisal form.
6. Current listings, fed from your CRM, following your state's price rules.

Listing pages are the same text the portals have, so they rarely outrank the portals. The pages that can rank are the ones the portals don't have: your suburb knowledge, sold results with commentary, agent pages and your management offer.

What your state requires on the site

NSW, the ACT and Tasmania say in their laws that a website is an advertisement, and Victoria's price rules cover "any Internet site". Treat the site as an advertisement everywhere.

One footer covers every state: the licensed business name, the street address and phone of each office, the word "Licensed", and "RLA [number]" if you sell in SA. No state requires trust account details or complaints information on the website. Don't publish your trust account details; instead put one line on the contact page: we never change bank details by email, so call us on this number before you pay.

How listings get to your site

Australia has no MLS or IDX feed; those are American systems. Your CRM sends each listing to the portals and to your own site. realestate.com.au only accepts listings from approved providers or CRMs, in its REAXML format. Domain's listings API is free for agencies and their providers. realestate.com.au also has a free export service that lets a provider you authorise read your active and sold listings back.

So the question isn't technical. It's whether your CRM will feed a website you choose, and what it charges. VaultRE (now MRI Vault CRM) has an open API that names agency websites as a use, through an approved integrator. Rex's website product accepts an REAXML feed from other CRMs. Of the CRM vendors, only PropertyMe publishes its website prices; the others quote on request.

Who owns what

The CRM contracts say your listing data is yours. But a CRM vendor's website product stays the vendor's: Rex's terms keep the intellectual property in its services, websites included. So with a CRM-vendor site you own your words, your data and the photos you hold rights to, while the design and code stay with the vendor, and changing CRM usually means rebuilding the website. Check your photographer's licence covers a sold archive on your site, too. My guide on who owns your website covers the domain, content and design layers.

Appraisal forms and "instant valuation" widgets

Automated estimate widgets are lead forms, and the companies behind the figures say so plainly. Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) says its estimated value "isn't a professional valuation" and comes with a confidence level from high to low; it can be too high or too low where data is thin. property.com.au calls its estimates "indicative guidelines" and recommends a local agent for a precise appraisal.

The appraisal itself is regulated: NSW wants evidence of the reasonableness of an estimated selling price, Victoria sets how the estimate is based on comparable sales, WA's code wants reasons and comparable sales, and Queensland requires a comparative market analysis whenever an agent gives a seller price information. A figure shown under your brand to a seller looks like your appraisal. So:

• Call the button "Get an appraisal" or "Estimate my home's value", never "Free valuation". In Queensland, the Valuers Registration Board says an agent's estimate "is not a property valuation".
• If you show an automated figure, name the provider, show its confidence level, say it's not a valuation or an appraisal, and follow up with a written appraisal and comparable sales.
• Keep estimate widgets off your own listing pages. In Queensland an estimate on an auction listing reads as a price guide, and elsewhere a figure below your own estimate is an underquoting risk. See the underquoting rules.

Reviews, sold results and records

• Reviews from realestate.com.au can be shown on your site through its ratings and reviews API, with its logo, a verified emblem on each review, a link back to the profile, and the number shown with the stars. The API can filter by star rating. Showing only five-star reviews beside an average is the kind of suppression the ACCC says misleads, so show the true average and total.
• Google reviews shown through Google's API must credit each author, link each review to Google Maps and say how reviews are ordered and filtered. Pasting them as text skips those rules. Google also won't show review stars in search for reviews of yourself on your own site.
• Sold results: your own unconditional sales only, each credited to the agent who made it. Victoria makes it an offence to falsely represent that you've sold a property.
• Records and statistics: a "street record" or "98% sold under the hammer" is a factual claim. Say what record, where, over what period, on what data, and keep the evidence.
• Sale prices: outside Victoria's 18-month rule, get the vendor's permission before publishing a price you learned as their agent, if it isn't already public.

Tap a card to see the verdict.

The property management page

The Australian Consumer Law's single price rule says that if you show parts of a price, you must also show the total as a single figure, at least as prominently, including GST. Whether landlord services count as household services under that rule isn't settled, but many landlords are individuals with one investment property, so assume it applies. A percentage fee isn't a dollar amount until the rent is known, so the safest page shows the full fee schedule (management, letting, lease renewal, inspections, statements) and a worked total for an example rent, GST included. A "from 5%" headline that few landlords actually get is a misleading price risk. The fee page isn't the agreement: the fees still go into the management agreement in your state's form. In Queensland, a landlord switching agencies gives 30 days' written notice, which is worth saying on a "switch to us" page.

Suburb pages, privacy, alerts and accessibility

• Suburb pages: Google's spam policy calls pages "targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" doorway abuse, and mass-produced AI pages "scaled content abuse". One page per suburb you really sell in, with your sales, your agents and local knowledge, is the opposite.
• Privacy: most agencies now need a privacy policy anyway. The anti-money laundering reforms bring real estate agencies under the Privacy Act once they're reporting entities, and every appraisal form collects personal information. If you're paid a referral fee for passing details to a broker, get consent on the form.
• Property alerts: a sign-up for alerts is consent to those alerts, not to appraisal marketing or a "sold in your street" newsletter unless the form says so.
• Accessibility: alt text on listing photos, a text alternative for floor plans, pause controls on carousels, a list alternative to map search, and an appraisal form with labels and no inaccessible CAPTCHA.

What an appraisal request is worth

Use your own figures. Commission, rent and fee fields start empty.

The point is the break-even: pay more than that figure for a lead and the average lead loses money before staff costs. It's also why answering appraisal requests fast matters more than almost anything else on the site.

Website checklist

Your ticks save in this browser.

My view

Stop building the agency site to compete with the portals for buyers; you won't win, and you don't need to. Build it for the vendor deciding which agent to call and the landlord deciding whether to switch. That means agents with real sales, suburb pages written by people who know the streets, an appraisal request answered the same day, an honest management fee page, and a footer that meets your state's rules. And before you sign up for a CRM's website, read who owns it.

Questions I get asked

What must a real estate agency website show?

Your licensed business name on every page, and depending on your state, your office address and phone, the word "licensed" (NT), or "RLA" and your registration number on sale listings (SA). Listing prices must follow your state's underquoting rules.

How do listings get onto an agency website?

Your CRM sends them, the same way it sends them to realestate.com.au and Domain. Australia has no MLS or IDX feed. Ask your CRM whether it will feed a website of your choice, and what it charges.

Can I put an instant valuation tool on my website?

You can use an automated estimate as a lead form, but don't call it a valuation, name the provider and its confidence level, follow up with a written appraisal, and keep it off your own listing pages. In Queensland, a seller given price information must also get a comparative market analysis.

Do I own my real estate website?

You own your listing data and content, but if the website comes from your CRM vendor, the design and code usually stay with the vendor. Changing CRM can mean rebuilding the site.

Can I show realestate.com.au reviews on my website?

Yes, through its ratings and reviews service, with its logo, a verified emblem on each review, a link back and the number of reviews shown with the stars. Don't filter out the lower ratings.