3 Ways To List Properties on WordPress Sites

It’s been a common question at my workshops and when I run into people at events like REIN meetings. People love the simplicity and flexibility of WordPress, but want to list their current properties on their site. There’s a couple ways to do it, and I’ll cover some of them here.

Categorized or Tagged Posts

This is the simplest way to get your listings published. It’s how Brent publishes his current listings right now while we decide on a new theme.

• Do a new post for each listing
• Categorize them as ‘listings’ or ‘property listings’
• Tag them with appropriate attributes like price ranges, number of bedrooms or bathrooms, square foot ranges or construction type

Pros:

• Simple and easy – if you don’t know how to write a post, just give up and hire someone to do all this.
• Guaranteed to work with your theme and current plugins.
• Won’t break when you upgrade WordPress.

Cons:

• Can’t bulk-upload listings
• No templated fields for area, bath/bedroom and other attributes
• You’ll have to add pictures manually (or semi-manually), although Flickr slideshows are fantastic.

Here’s what a simple listing looks like on Brent’s site.

Real Estate WordPress Plugins

There’s some great plugins out there that are simple and free. Each one requires a little bit of work to install and configure, but they’re pretty easy to use. One good example is WP-Property. These plugins give you more flexibility and style than regular posts, but will work within your existing theme.

Pros:

• Still simple and easy. In the current versions of WordPress you’ll be able to do one-click installation of most plug-ins and they’re easy to configure.
• Usually they’ll work with your theme and other plugins. From time to time, you’ll get a conflict. If you use lots of plugins it’s more likely. If it’s a formatting thing, diagnosing a CSS conflict can be difficult.
• Lots of flexibility, functionality and style. There’s some truly great plugins out there, like lightbox for displaying photos in full size.

Cons:

• Limited bulk-upload of listings
• Mapping or MLS functionality is usually US based, and things like Trulia don’t work here.
• Can lead to technical problems, and if you’re already running a real estate WordPress theme you may run into conflicts.

Most plugins have screencasts to show you how to get started or explain how things work. Here’s one for WP-Property.

WP-Property – Tutorial 1: Adding Buildings from Andy Potanin on Vimeo.

WordPress Real Estate Themes

There’s a million of them. Themes are the skins which go over the chassis of your website and make it look and behave how you want. Here’s some Pros/Cons and then I’ll go over a couple of my favorites.

Pros:

• The best looking, most flexible and often easiest to use option.
• Bulk upload or automated feeds possible.
• Excellent ability to use multiple conversion points.
• Almost infinitely configurable and many premium themes (the ones you pay for) offer some level of support.

Cons:

• Some cost to the better themes out there.
• Configuring a theme to do the real estate things you require, and adjusting the design to fit your brand can be complex, or can be restricted by the license you purchase.
• Most good themes are US-biased, meaning MLS listings and such don’t always work the way they’re advertised.

Some Real Estate WordPress Themes I Like

ElegantEstate by Elegant Themes

AgentPress by Studio Press

Estate by Woo Themes

There’s a lot of ways to skin this particular cat, and it’s always changing and improving. Leave a comment and let us know if there’s a particular solution that works well for you.