An agent website that isn't another listings feed

Forest City Green

Buyers can already search listings anywhere, so an agent's own site has to offer what a feed can't: neighbourhood guides written from what you actually know, and your brokerage named exactly as registered with the Real Estate Council of Ontario. Listings are handled honestly: your own, or a full feed only after your brokerage signs up for one.

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Real estate website design starts with what a listings feed cannot give you

You may already have a page somewhere: a profile on your brokerage's site, or a template with a search box and the same listings any other agent can show. Neither gives a buyer or a seller a reason to call you rather than whoever listed the house. What does is the part only you know, which I write up from our call and you correct.

The pages that earn their place:

A home page that says who you are, your brokerage and the areas you work
A selling page that walks through how you price, prepare and market a home, in the order you actually do it
A buying page, including what you tell first-time buyers at the first meeting
One neighbourhood guide for each area you genuinely work in
An about page with your registered name, title and brokerage in real text, not inside an image

Neighbourhood guides for the areas you genuinely work

A neighbourhood earns its own page only when people there search for what you do and you have something specific to say about it. For an agent that is most areas you genuinely work, because knowing the area is what you sell. The test is whether a guide would still read true with the name swapped: Google's spam policies count as doorway abuse pages aimed at particular cities or regions that all funnel people to one page, and near-identical pages that read more like search results than a site you can browse, so guides for Byron, Old East Village and Komoka should share a layout and nothing else.

I write each guide from what you tell me on the call, and you correct it before it goes live. Schools are where guides go wrong. A guide links to each school board's own locator rather than promising that a street belongs to a particular school; the Thames Valley District School Board, for one, says it cannot guarantee its attendance areas are accurate.

What goes into one:

The housing: roughly when it was built, what the lots are like, what you check at a showing
The questions buyers ask you about that area, with your honest answers
Commutes, parks and errands, from having done them yourself
What surprises people on a first visit
A link to that area's listings on REALTOR.ca or on your brokerage's site

Want listings on your own site? Your brokerage decides first

If you want a listings search on your own site, your brokerage has to sign up first, and the feed comes with rules. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) set up a Data Distribution Facility (DDF®) that your brokerage opts in to before it can give you permission; if it does not opt in, none of its salespeople can use it. PropTx's IDX feed needs your brokerage to sign PropTx's IDX Data Agreement.

A DDF® site refreshes at least once every 24 hours and drops listings that are no longer current, shows a "Powered by REALTOR.ca" logo linked to each listing, names the listing brokerage beside it, and has a trademark statement on every page. You can pull the feed yourself. If someone else runs it for you, they need their own data access agreement with REALTOR.ca Canada Inc., which provides the DDF®.

Your options:

DDF® Member Website Feed: your own listings, or all of your brokerage's
DDF® National Shared Pool: other participants' listings, if you contribute yours
PropTx IDX: active listings shared between brokerages that have signed the agreement, pulled by the brokerage or member or by a third party they name; relevant here because the London St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® is one of the boards PropTx serves
Pages for your own listings, built from photos and descriptions you created or have written consent to use, which the DDF® rules do not prohibit (check your board's MLS® rules too)
A link from each listing to REALTOR.ca or your brokerage's site

The RECO rules every page is built to

The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) treats every agent or team site as a brokerage website. The brokerage and every agent featured on it are responsible for it, your brokerage's advertising policies apply, and RECO says a brokerage name that is not clearly and prominently shown is a common complaint about websites.

Have your brokerage review the site before launch. What follows is how I build, not legal advice, and where your brokerage's policy is stricter, its policy wins.

On every page:

Your brokerage's name exactly as registered with RECO, with "brokerage" or "real estate brokerage" beside it, clear and prominent
Your own name as registered, with no nickname or short form
A permitted title: salesperson, broker or real estate agent, REALTOR® only for CREA members in good standing, and broker of record where that is you
If an asterisk stands in for a title, the asterisk and its meaning on every page that names an agent
No Personal Real Estate Corporation name, because RECO does not allow PRECs to advertise

What the copy can claim, and whose consent it needs

I write the copy from our call, and RECO requires every statement in it to be accurate and verifiable. So the site will not call you a top agent or "#1 in Byron" unless you can prove it. A homes-sold figure goes in with how it was counted, an award names who gave it and when, a team award says it was the team's and how many people were on it, and a comparison with other agents needs verifiable facts behind it.

Consent is the other half. A buyer's name or photo needs their written consent. A "just sold" page needs written consent with a start date and an end date. Anyone it names or shows must consent themselves. For the property itself, the seller consents before closing and the buyer after. If the price or terms are shown, both must consent. Photos, logos or descriptions someone else created, the listing photographer's included, need the owner's written consent. Photos come down when a consent's end date passes, and RECO advises removing a client's information promptly if they ask.

That upkeep is what the Care plans are for. Care at $49 a month covers up to thirty minutes of edits, made within two business days. Care Plus at $99 a month covers up to an hour, a new service or area page each quarter, which suits a growing set of guides, and a Google Business Profile post each month. A plan makes take-downs quick. It does not make the site compliant on its own, and keeping track of consent dates stays with you.

What goes into an agent site, build by build

Part	What it covers
Starter, $499	One to three pages: home, about and contact, for an agent just starting out
Standard, $899	Four to six pages: home, about, buying, selling, one neighbourhood guide and contact
Pro, $1,399	Seven to ten pages: the Standard set plus more guides or pages for your own listings
Care Plus, $99 a month	A new service or area page each quarter, such as another guide, and a Google Business Profile post each month
Every page	Your brokerage's registered name, your registered name and a permitted title, in text
Before launch	Have your brokerage review it: RECO treats every agent site as a brokerage website
Listings	Pages for your own listings, each linked to REALTOR.ca or your brokerage's site

Questions people ask

What does an agent website cost?

A one-time $499 for one to three pages, $899 for four to six, or $1,399 for seven to ten, in Canadian dollars. Standard covers a home page, about, buying, selling, one neighbourhood guide and contact. Hosting is free on every plan, your domain costs $15 to $25 a year, and a Care plan from $49 a month is optional.

Can I show all MLS® listings on my own website?

Not all of them, and only through a feed your brokerage opts in to or signs up for first. CREA's DDF® National Shared Pool shows listings from other participating brokerages and agents if you contribute yours, and PropTx IDX shares active listings between brokerages that have signed its IDX Data Agreement. The DDF® feed carries refresh and display rules. Without a feed, your site can still carry pages for your own listings, linked to REALTOR.ca.

Can I call myself a REALTOR® on my website or in my team name?

On the site, yes, if you are a CREA member in good standing: RECO permits REALTOR®, REALTOR® salesperson and REALTOR® broker. It goes in capitals with the ®, with a trademark statement where there is room. A team or firm name is different. It needs CREA's permission through an application, and cannot abbreviate or hyphenate the mark or pair it only with a place name.

What happens to my website if I switch brokerages?

It moves with you. The domain is registered in your name and the site files are yours, so only the brokerage name, logo and statements change. RECO expects what you say online to be current and every ad to name your brokerage clearly, so make the change as soon as you move. On a Care plan it is made within two business days.

How is this different from my brokerage's template site?

It is built around what only you know, which I write up from our call and you correct. A template's layout is shared with every agent who uses it, so it gives nobody a reason to call you in particular. If you are on one now, the free audit checks its speed on a phone, its Core Web Vitals and who the domain is registered to.