Best IDX Real Estate Websites for Realtors: Prices and What to Check
The IDX websites worth a demo for a realtor, grouped by what they replace, with the prices each vendor publishes and the four checks to run before you sign.
The best IDX website for a realtor depends on what it replaces. For home search on a WordPress site you’re keeping, demo Showcase IDX and IDX Broker. If a vendor should host the whole site, Placester publishes the lowest price, and for the site and your CRM together the two to demo are Real Geeks and Sierra Interactive.
Whichever you pick, the listings on it are the ones Zillow and the other portals show too, and Google ranks a portal’s copy. The one to buy is the one that lets you build a page for each area you sell in, on your own domain, and lets you leave with your leads and your addresses. If the terms are new, what is IDX in real estate and IDX vs MLS explain them first.
Keep your website and add IDX
| Product | Published price | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Showcase IDX | $94.95 or $124.95 a month, plus your MLS’s fees | Monthly, or a year ahead with two months free |
| IDX Broker | $60 or $99 a month, plus a one-time setup fee and your MLS’s fees | Month to month |
| iHomefinder | On request | On request |
Showcase IDX is a WordPress plugin, and its listing pages sit on your own site. IDX Broker adds search to the site you have, but its search and listing pages live on one subdomain: idxbroker.com’s until you point one of yours at it, such as search.yoursite.com. iHomefinder’s entry plan pairs IDX for your site with a CRM, and iHomefinder says its pages use no frame and no subdomain.
Replace the website
| Product | Published price | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Placester | $59, $79 or $129 a month, plus $25 a month for each MLS | No contract |
| IDX Broker Elite | $149 a month, plus the setup fee | Month to month |
| iHomefinder with a hosted site | The entry plan, plus $50 a month and $500 setup for the site | On request |
A hosted site runs on the vendor’s platform under your domain name. Ask each how the pages, their addresses and the domain come with you when you leave, because pages that can’t keep their addresses start over in Google.
Replace the website and the CRM
| Product | Published price | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Real Geeks | $399 a month or $3,990 a year, plus $500 setup | 12-month commitment |
| Sierra Interactive | From $299.95 a month paid yearly, or $359.95 monthly plus $500 setup | 12-month agreement either way |
| Lofty | On request | On request |
These pay off only if the team works its leads in the vendor’s CRM. Real Geeks’ price includes two CRM users; more cost $25 a month each on a small team, less on a bigger one.
Four checks before you sign
- Two live sites on your plan. Ask for two live customers’ sites on the plan and MLS you’re being quoted. On your phone, search, open a listing, copy its address, reload it and send it to a friend: the same home should open.
- A page for an area, on your domain. Ask to see a page such as “Homes for Sale in [Neighborhood]” built on that plan. It should sit on your domain, take your own writing above the listings, and show the homes in the page itself before anyone searches. That page is what ranks, and building it on an IDX site is what our IDX SEO does.
- The export. In the demo account, create a test lead, save a search and view a few homes as that lead, then ask for the export. Open it: names and emails only, or the notes, searches and activity too.
- The exit, in writing. Who controls the domain and its DNS, whether you can redirect the old addresses when you leave, how long the site stays up after notice, and the contract term.
Then add up the first year: the setup fee, plus twelve months of the plan, the MLS fees, the extra users and any add-on you need.
The platform decides what your site can rank for until the contract ends, so the quote is worth a read by a real estate SEO consultant before you sign.