Anyone know a good web developer?

[RedlineBrett]

My partner and I are going to revamp our business - our current website is old and outdated and we have grown leaps and bounds since we put it up in `05.. The new site needs to reflect the ways we do business and the services we offer namely:

-Real estate investment options
-Buyer agency representation & mortgage financing
-Tenant placement and transition to home ownership.

I`m wondering if anyone knows a great website builder? Someone familiar with real estate would be great, but not neccessary. The goal is to provide marketing similar to MLS for rental properties and have tenats fill out applications right on the site.

On the agency/financing side I`d love to have a mortgage calculator and current rates posted on there.

I know exactly what I want and how I want the site to work... but I need someone to build it for me. It is going to be a site I update with new material and change frequently. Can`t cost me an arm and a leg either.

Anyone know a good person for this job?

Thanks guys!

BT

 

[kabuku]

Hi Brett,
Check out Nick at www.123web.ca He did a great job for us at a reasonable price.
We have had a great return and loads of compliments on the website he did for us.
Good luck, Brian Anderson
www.andersonwindowsanddoors.ca

 

[desaih]

Hi Brett,

I am a REIN member based out of Ontario. My company does web-development, you can look at some of the work we have done at http://www.hnd-solutions.com

My contact information is on the webpage. Give me a call if you would like to discuss anything further.

I am sure we can work something out reasonable for you.

Hoshil

 

[KimFranz]

Hi Brett,

If you need help with marketing your website, once it looks all fancy, contact Keith Kidwell to review your website and make it #1 on Google... www.netsurfmarketing.com He is also familiar with real estate investing and has a client in the US that has a website on real estate investing you could check out. Tell him I sent you

Kim

 

[RedlineBrett]

Hey guys thanks for all the great referrals! wow!

I have the bones of my new site on paper and powerpoint now so I will be contacting designers and then going from there.

Hopefully in a month or so I will have a spiffy new website to show off!

 

[rforgiel]

Brett,

You may also want to look at content managed web sites. These give you a user friendly back end to make managing your pages and forms quick and painless without needing to be an HTML programmer. This also keeps the same professional look and feel of each page no matter who in your office is entering the content.

The one I recommend is www.yourwebdepartment.com

This system was set for JDSU and Mercedes Benz Canada and the same package is available to large and small companies at a reasonable cost. I would be happy to set you up on this system.

Regards,
Ramon Forgiel
905 332-9377

 

[MonteDobson]

Hi Brett,

Check out Homestead Website Development

We have used them for website development and hosting and it is affordable, easy to use and very simple to create and edit new websites.

Regards,

 

[Todd_S]

Hi Brett,

Try www.elance.com You can post your job for free. You can find great companies around the world to do your job. Sometimes great quality and a lot cheaper. A lot of North American firms will take on jobs and outsource to India and Pakistan etc. They charge you for example $15,000 for an e-commerce site but only pay $5,000 by getting someone overseas to make it for them. Why not go straight to the source. One company I`m using for non-real estate related things is www.logoinventive.com They do logos and websites out of Pakistan. I found them on elance. But my recommendation is to search out on elance so you can find what`s right for you at a good price.

Good luck,

Todd Spetter

 

[Merriora]

QUOTE (KimFranz @ Mar 19 2008, 11:42 AM) If you need help with marketing your website, once it looks all fancy, contact Keith Kidwell to review your website and make it #1 on Google...

As a former web developer / programmer, I just wanted to provide my 2 cents…


1. "make it #1 on Google": Don`t buy into this unless they clearly explain what they mean.
#1 on Google is extremely hard for any well searched term as it’s such a competitive market. Many SEO (Search Engine Experts) will get you to the #1 spot for terms that are rarely searched. Search engines have fine tuned their engines to ensure only those deserving become #1 and it takes a lot of time and energy, while ensuring you have excellent content on your site which makes people want to link to you.

Eg: I currently have #1 to #3 spot for “Walnut Grove Rancher” on Google. However, this results in only a minor number of visitors each week. It definitely would not be worth spending lots of money on to get this #1 spot.

2. Developers in other Countries…

I hated this concept when I was a developer as it took good paying jobs away from developers in our own country. But the prices are hard to beat. The site ranked #1 above (www.LivingInWalnutGrove.com) was developed by a developer in Pakistan for a fraction of the price it would have cost here in Canada. But you have to be cautious and if you aren’t a developer yourself, you can run into lots of issues and may get a product that is hard to maintain or expand in the future. I used www.rentacoder.com
If you are new to developing sites, your best bet is to sit down with a professional and discuss exactly what you need.

3. Get a quote with specifications clearly outlines and costs associated. A good developer should be able to give you a good quote so that both parties know what to expect. If you start the project without having a clear idea of the final product, costs will skyrocket along with completion time.

4. Paid Advertising: Google ads are great, but can be expensive for real estate. Watch the budget and measure the ROI.

 

[RedlineBrett]

Thanks for your post Merriora - excellent stuff in there.

I have interviewed six different firms here in Calgary and have four bidding on my job. I have learned A LOT from these guys. Having an engineering degree paid off here as they tried to BS a lot of stuff by me. But I am confident I will get what I want for a reasonable price. I am doing 90% of the design myself and supplying all the content so really all I need done is to have my powerpoint slides put online and have an easy way for me to add/delete content.

I am an agent and having MLS interaction will be important to my site. Don`t need it right out of the gate but I will need to upgrade to it and I want someone here in Calgary to do the work for me as a result. If I`m not happy or if I need something done I want a place I can go down to and git `er done

The SEO bit is also new to me and seeing how these guys go about it was definitely a learning experience. I hate our current website and we have changed so much since we put that up that I need something new... but not going overboard with this type of this is always a struggle for me.

Thanks for your input

Cheers,

BT

QUOTE (Merriora @ Mar 31 2008, 11:24 AM) As a former web developer / programmer, I just wanted to provide my 2 cents…


1. "make it #1 on Google": Don`t buy into this unless they clearly explain what they mean.
#1 on Google is extremely hard for any well searched term as it`s such a competitive market. Many SEO (Search Engine Experts) will get you to the #1 spot for terms that are rarely searched. Search engines have fine tuned their engines to ensure only those deserving become #1 and it takes a lot of time and energy, while ensuring you have excellent content on your site which makes people want to link to you.

Eg: I currently have #1 to #3 spot for "Walnut Grove Rancher" on Google. However, this results in only a minor number of visitors each week. It definitely would not be worth spending lots of money on to get this #1 spot.

2. Developers in other Countries…

I hated this concept when I was a developer as it took good paying jobs away from developers in our own country. But the prices are hard to beat. The site ranked #1 above (www.LivingInWalnutGrove.com) was developed by a developer in Pakistan for a fraction of the price it would have cost here in Canada. But you have to be cautious and if you aren`t a developer yourself, you can run into lots of issues and may get a product that is hard to maintain or expand in the future. I used www.rentacoder.com
If you are new to developing sites, your best bet is to sit down with a professional and discuss exactly what you need.

3. Get a quote with specifications clearly outlines and costs associated. A good developer should be able to give you a good quote so that both parties know what to expect. If you start the project without having a clear idea of the final product, costs will skyrocket along with completion time.

4. Paid Advertising: Google ads are great, but can be expensive for real estate. Watch the budget and measure the ROI.

 

[RedlineBrett]

Todd - I want an office here in Calgary so that when the thing breaks I can storm down there and get it fixed. Also - I will be adding and updating new stuff including full MLS interaction with my company`s branding so I need a developer that has a license and access to the Calgary system. So I`ll more than likely be dealing with a firm here in town.

Thanks for the reccomendation though - perhaps there are some REIN members that don`t need all the stuff I do that could get a web presence for cheap this way.

Cheers!

BT

QUOTE (tspetter @ Mar 31 2008, 09:35 AM) Hi Brett,

Try www.elance.com You can post your job for free. You can find great companies around the world to do your job. Sometimes great quality and a lot cheaper. A lot of North American firms will take on jobs and outsource to India and Pakistan etc. They charge you for example $15,000 for an e-commerce site but only pay $5,000 by getting someone overseas to make it for them. Why not go straight to the source. One company I`m using for non-real estate related things is www.logoinventive.com They do logos and websites out of Pakistan. I found them on elance. But my recommendation is to search out on elance so you can find what`s right for you at a good price.

Good luck,

Todd Spetter

 

[Merriora]

QUOTE (RedlineBrett @ Mar 31 2008, 11:58 AM) Having an engineering degree paid off here as they tried to BS a lot of stuff by me. But I am confident I will get what I want for a reasonable price.

Just from the brief explanation of what you want to accomplish with your site, you should be able to get a good accurate quote. Often, clients will ask for features that have not been done prior or have only been done by a few people. As a result, many developers will add hours to compensate for the unknowns. For bigger and complex projects, you have to expect it to occur as a developer can get stuck on a small item for several days when they thought it would be done in 2 hours. Just part of technology and working with un-documented features that you try to use.

Good luck in selecting your developer. Make sure that the person doing the work is the person you hired. Often, development companies will have salespeople that then pass the work on to others. If the work is done by an in-experienced person who is learning, then the code will be a mess and a nightmare to up-keep and modify in the future if you decide to make changes.

 

[RedlineBrett]

Thank you again Merriora, much appreciated.

QUOTE (Merriora @ Mar 31 2008, 01:34 PM) Just from the brief explanation of what you want to accomplish with your site, you should be able to get a good accurate quote. Often, clients will ask for features that have not been done prior or have only been done by a few people. As a result, many developers will add hours to compensate for the unknowns. For bigger and complex projects, you have to expect it to occur as a developer can get stuck on a small item for several days when they thought it would be done in 2 hours. Just part of technology and working with un-documented features that you try to use.

Good luck in selecting your developer. Make sure that the person doing the work is the person you hired. Often, development companies will have salespeople that then pass the work on to others. If the work is done by an in-experienced person who is learning, then the code will be a mess and a nightmare to up-keep and modify in the future if you decide to make changes.