Property website

[George Smiley]

Guys,

Does anyone know which web developers/companies designed these websites:

http://www.barratthomes.co.uk

https://www.redrow.co.uk

http://www.berkeleygroup.co.uk

http://www.countryside-properties.com

http://www.foxtons.co.uk

Does anyone know how much it would cost to design something similar to above websites?

If not, in terms of estimate is it possible to know how much it would cost to develop a property development website with interface similar to the above?

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CMS Medical]

What features are you looking for exactly? I ask because the Foxtons site is slightly different to the others.

Are you looking for a sort of estate agent type website where visitors can search for properties which you or others have placed adverts for or is it specifically for properties from 1 business?

 

[liams7]

Hi george

I would imagine these sites had budgets of 20k+ at least if not more.

I dont know who made them but i would imagine with the size of company they would have used and agency rather than a one man band.

If you are looking to replicate these you wouldnt need to spend as much money but if you want the full service that these guys got then you will need a good amount of money.

Liam

 

[Schnell Solutions]

Hi George,

If it helps...think of these websites in two parts:

1. The website look-n-feel
2. Content Management System (CMS). The part of the website that allows them to add,edit,delete content/properties.

Guessing about the company turnover/size, chances are very high that they have a in-house IT team who haver outsourced the look-n-feel part to an 'expert' and have developed the CMS in-house.

If you want something similar:

1. Look-n-feel
   1. Option 1: Buy a template (very economical)
      • Buying a template would allow you to easily add,edit,delete the content with basic IT skills. Checkout websites like Theamforest and TemplateMonster....lots of choice! My recommendation here would be to go for WordPress templates.
      • Hosting costs will be low as many shared hosting companies support WordPress.
   2. Option 2: Engage a Website design company that specialises in the same
      • This option will require some investment....you can give them a brief about how you want the website to look, behave and target audience.
      • This would cost much more than Option 1 as it would be a bespoke look-n-feel.
      • Depending upon what you need...anywhere between £2k-£5k
2. CMS (only applies if you want a back office type application maintain a list your properties on-line.)
   1. If you are looking to publish anything like properties for Rent/Sale, then you need to think about how/where you will maintain this list. If its simple, you might be able to get away with WordPress and some plugins.
   2. Second option is to engage a bespoke software development company like us who can develop the CMS and/or integrate it with you website.

Hope this helps.

Jignesh

 

[OvcaX]

Main point of bespoke sites is that you can integrate this into your system to lower the workload of updating the sites.

Secondly we as developers & planers have certain knowledge of how web works and what customers search. We can than customise the site to "catch" as many potential customers as possible.

 

[ryedale]

Each one has different levels of functionality. Your best bet would be to put a full specification document together listing all the bits that you would need from those sites and then get some quotes.

There's plenty of us on here who would be happy to give you some estimates if the requirements were a little more in depth

 

[George Smiley]

Thank you guys.

I got few info today on the said websites. Apparently they've employed a team of IN-HOUSE web designers that's why its impossible to find out company has been outsourced to.

My situation is simple, I wont mind picking bits and bobs from each site and have ours. Nothing complicated, simple easy to navigate, user friendly, I also love the personal social media integration that foxton has (app etc).

In terms of budgeting, we're willing to stretch ourselves but we need to get state of the art website that will reflect the type of clientèle we're attracting mind you, property business is often visuals and nothing beats the moving CGI images of the properties on those websites. Absolutely amazing and its all about selling dreams.

Either-way, I'm willing to engage with any company that can deliver the job.

 

[fisicx]

As already said the look and feel of the site is fairly inexpensive, it's the back end that costs the money. If you want the funky cgi imagery I know a company that does this, they charge upwards of £1000 for each property.

So I'd budget at least £10k for the site.

 

[Schnell Solutions]

Hi George,

A lot of things should be considered while designing a website. To name a few points that need to be addressed:

• What is the purpose of the websites - Generate leads, Sales (ecommerce), Marketing, Brand awareness, etc.
• Target audience demographics
• Responsive design - mobile compatibility or a separate mobile version
• SEO friendly (without this its like having a Ferrari that no one knows about)
• Website speed and Ease of use - no like a slow website
• CMS / Back office application - if required.

The best way to go about this as suggested here is to prepare a simple word doc that has a few lines on all these points. This will help to ring-fence the project/website scope.

<removed>

 

[Craig Pettit]

Main point of bespoke sites is that you can integrate this into your system to lower the workload of updating the sites.

Secondly we as developers & planers have certain knowledge of how web works and what customers search. We can than customise the site to "catch" as many potential customers as possible.

I agree here, I think most importantly too and quite overlooked.
From our perspective, if you're going to build a house, you should put foundations down or you end up with a shed.

 

[Craig Pettit]

Hi,
Are you need to same functionality or something like these websites? And some of others important things need to know. For this type website cost is £700 -800.

That price is concerning, it is very low.

 

[AllUpHere]

That price is concerning, it is very low.

Not as concerning as the English used to express it.

 

[Craig Pettit]

Not as concerning as the English used to express it.

I don't think that's appropriate

why are you think price is too low?

Neither is your price, at the risk of overstepping the mark as a forum newcomer. Prices set like this are far too low, they highly devalue the industry and often mean the work is not completely professionally.

It is all too common to have a new client saying, our website is a mess, can you rebuild it, it was built for 500 quid, or whatever.
How are you valuing your time at that? Admin, meetings, research, creative, feedback, creative, development, feedback, development, beta testing, SEO, launch.

for 700 quid?

 

[fisicx]

why are you think price is too low?

Because building the theme alone will eat up far more than that. And then you have to set up the admin so the OP can upload the house data and arrange for this data to feed rightmove and other housing portals. After that you will need to build the SM feeds and all the other required features. It's going to take weeks of work and a lot to bespoke code. Unless you are working for tuppence and hour there is no way you could dleiver a project of this size for that sort of money.

 

[AllUpHere]

I don't think that's appropriate

So you can be shocked at the price, but I can't be shocked by the English? That hardly seems fair.

On a more serious note, a member who posts a price that clearly demonstrates that they don't understand the subject of the thread, and makes that post in very poor English, is going to struggle to be taken seriously.

Anyway, back to the subject in hand. The sites the OP linked to were (in part) built by in house teams, which should give a good indication of the likely cost of such a site. Those firms certainly wouldn't have gone to the expense of employing a full time team of dev's and designers to make a site worth a few thousand pounds.

 

[Craig Pettit]

Hi Craig,

I've quote for above post websites. If I have a new client and saying rebuild any site then First check the site and quote, how much price is need for the site?

With all due respect,
You know nothing about the client, nothing about what their objectives are or what their company actually does, all you have done, is seen a few examples of websites they like and thrown a figure at it, and that figure is extremely questionable.

I am more than happy to help out, but what I won't do is propose a client for you. I can't give you a figure as there is not enough information available.
And proposing a client involves meetings and research.

 

[stevon]

Hate when you get this sort of BS about web design and such like. It's an international market - we don't know where this person is from... Working for a few quid an hour is maybe a better alternative. Just because UK based web designers won't work for it, doesn't mean it isn't competitive. I'm not saying it is either, I've no idea - but I've had some really skilled graphic designers, web developers, SEO consultants etc. etc. who have delivered things at fractions of what I'd have expected to pay for it... Being a creative-type industry, people are always looking to build up their portfolios, test their skills etc. and it isn't always a primary source of income for people. Look at Fivrr, Odesk and all that. There are offices/agencies/design houses/whatever out there who do the whole business planning element, provide nice detailed mapping analysis, add value and all that jazz - but a lot of business owners, particularly small business owners, still want things like building a bespoke website done for a couple of hundred quid. Not saying it's right but it's probably achievable with enough scouting.

Craig just because you run your business so well, attending meetings, probably develop proper project plans and develop a true understanding of what you're getting involved with... Sometimes "something that does the same as this website but it looks like my website and has these features..." is enough for a talented individual to create something that'll keep the customer happy.

More than one way to skin a cat

 

[woodss]

The websites that the OP posted are under his radar precisely because they did not take shortcuts and had a website produced professionally.

If the OP wants the same, then the investment needs to be the same - certainly, if he values his business he might consider someone quoting £700 to build a bespoke website as not knowing what they're talking about.

You simply cannot provide a quote for a job who's requirements you know nothing about.

Does this website require a link to RightMove APIs? Maps? Contact forms? Radius based search? etc.

You can't simply rock up to the thread and put a price down - it needs to be discussed, planned and produced properly. Or it will fail.

 

[Rene Vatz]

In fact I can provide a qoute, I'm not only designer but UX and closely work with my developer and marketing person.

Things like API google, contact forms etc is not a rocket science and doesn't take months or weeks to do, only php and databased are time consuming.
But if we know how to build with similar usability websites like mentioned above I know how much does it cost, how much take do do develop and how much takes to do some changes.

As I said we specialise in wordpress and customisation.

 

[fisicx]

In fact I can provide a qoute, I'm not only designer but UX and closely work with my developer and marketing person.

So how can you quote when you don't know how much development is needed.

Things like API google, contact forms etc is not a rocket science and doesn't take months or weeks to do, only php and databased are time consuming.

It's the exact opposite. Integrating the Rightmove/zoopla API into wordpress is a complete pain if you are just using a standard real estate theme/plugin. But is you are building a bespoke theme/plugin with all the features the OP wants it's weeks and weeks of work.

PS, tried to navigate round your site and gave up. Just couldn't work out how to to access your portfolio sites. and then I got this message:
This page was unable to display a Google Maps element. The provided Google API key is invalid or this site is not authorized to use it. Error Code: InvalidKeyOrUnauthorizedURLMapError

 

[Rene Vatz]

This is my personal website, if comes to portfolio I'm sending right to customers. I'm not there to show off. Anyway my website is not finish yet as I got other projects more important.

 

[fisicx]

Fair enough - but it still doesn't change the fact that a customised wordpress theme with a real estate plugin isn't what the OP wants. The rightmove API for example just doesn't work with wordpress - the DB feeds are totally different.

 

[DesignForge]

PS, tried to navigate round your site and gave up. Just couldn't work out how to to access your portfolio sites. and then I got this message:
This page was unable to display a Google Maps element.

Turns out Google API might be a rocket science

 

[RebellaPark]

Website cost depends on what kind of functions/design you want to have for your site.

It is hard to give a general price as different people have different standard. The best is
you to find talk to freelance developer or firm for quote.

Estimated cost: $5000 -$10000

 

[TheseWordsAreMyOwN]

Foxtons:
http://stevemorgan.me/portfolio/foxtons/

Redrow Homes:
http://www.tothestars.co.uk/works/redrow-homes/

Barratt Homes:
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/07...mplify-home-buying-process-new-website-design
http://www.digitaslbi.com/uk/

Berkley Group:
http://www.bradleydyer.com/project-berkeley-group-website-digital-1213.html

Countryside-properties:
http://www.labanbrowndesign.co.uk/work/countryside-properties.html#nil


Enjoy.