Real Estate Website Cost: How to Work Out What You'll Pay
What a real estate website costs depends on the route: a site builder, a developer, or a listings platform. A worksheet to price each one with your own quotes, and where the hidden costs are.
Loftfolio's founder
Builds Loftfolio. Writes about what small agencies and landlords actually deal with.
Table of Contents
It depends, so here's how to work it out
A real estate website can cost very little a month or a lot up front, depending on how it's built. Rather than quoting ranges we can't source, this gives you the line items for each route so you can fill them in from real quotes.
Route 1: A general website builder
Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com and similar. You build it yourself on a monthly or yearly plan.
Line items:
- Site plan: ____ a month
- Domain: ____ a year
- Anything you add for listings, forms and scheduling: ____ a month
- Your time to set up: ____ hours
- Your time each month to keep listings current: ____ hours
Suits: people comfortable building a site who want design freedom and their own domain.
Route 2: A developer or agency builds it
A custom or template site built for you.
Line items:
- Build fee: ____
- Hosting: ____ a month
- Maintenance or retainer: ____ a year
- Changes after launch: ____ each, or included?
- Portal feed or CRM integration, if any: ____
- Time to launch: ____ weeks
Ask two questions before signing: can you change listings and prices yourself, and who owns the site if you leave?
Suits: agencies with a budget for design and someone to manage the relationship.
Route 3: A listings platform
A platform built for property listings, such as Loftfolio.
Line items for Loftfolio:
- Starter: $39 a month, or $374 a year paid yearly. One person, up to 25 properties
- Pro: $99 a month, or $950 a year paid yearly. Three people, unlimited properties
- Agency: $249 a month, or $2,390 a year paid yearly. Ten people
- Setup fee: none
- Contract: none. Cancel from the billing page
- Time to launch: the same afternoon
Prices are in US dollars, excluding any sales tax or VAT. If it isn't for you in the first 30 days, email us and we refund your first payment.
Suits: small agencies and landlords who want the site and the applicant side together without maintaining anything.
Hidden costs to ask about
- Setup or onboarding fees
- Minimum terms and how much notice canceling needs
- Per-user or per-unit charges that grow as you do
- Fees charged to your applicants, which some tools use to keep their price low
- Add-ons for things you assumed were included
- Getting your data out if you leave
- Your own time, which is the cost most people leave out
Add up the time
Your hours are a real cost. Estimate the hours each route takes to set up and to keep current each month, then multiply by what an hour of your time is worth. Put that next to the subscription.
Our spend calculator adds up what you already pay for tools.
What Pro includes, for comparison
For $99 a month: a branded site with your logo and colors, unlimited properties with a page each, the application pipeline, messaging, document requests, self-booked viewings with reminders, a valuations board, views per listing, three people, the AI tools, the owner portal, viewing feedback and applicant matching, with the Loftfolio credit removed.
What it doesn't include at any price: a custom domain (not available yet), portal syndication, screening, rent collection or leases. The full list.
Choosing
| If you... | Consider |
|---|---|
| Need your own domain today | A site builder or a developer |
| Want listings fed to the portals from your site | A developer, or a plugin that does it |
| Want the site and applicants in one place, with nothing to maintain | A listings platform |
| Have a design budget and a clear brief | A developer |
| Are one person with a handful of properties | A site builder, or Loftfolio Starter |
Written by Loftfolio's founder
Builds Loftfolio. Writes about what small agencies and landlords actually deal with.
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