It might seem overwhelming to get your investor website up and running, especially if you've never done it before. It's especially difficult because real estate is a really particular niche and has specific needs.

So, I've created this guide just for real estate professionals. It's good for investors, realtors, wholesalers, rehabbers, etc.

If you are trying to generate leads with your website and it's related to real estate, this is the guide for you.

Here are the 5 steps you need to master in order to close your first deal:

If you haven't already, go ahead and download the SEO Cheet Sheat. After you get your website up and running, you will need it in order to create your content

In fact, it's so important that many businesses choose their business name based on the domain name available.

The absolute cheapest and easiest way to register a domain is using NameCheap.

Simply navigate to their website (link above for your convenience) then start searching for some names.

If your idea is taken already (chances are it is) then start searching for some alternatives.

For example, if your idea CoolRealEstate.com is taken, try: SellCoolRealEstate.com or RealCoolRealEstate.com.

You want to pick something that gets the essence of your company and business across, but isn't impossible to remember.

For example, if you want to create a super niche wholesaling website you might create a domain that is similar to "webuyhousesinnewyork.com" or "sellyourhousefastboston.com." There will be no doubt what your website is about.

Niche sites are good because there is very little quality competition. Your city probably has a bunch of "sellFASTNOW" type websites, but most of them are fairly garbage sites with little quality information. They will be easy to outrank.

The drawback is that nobody will link to your site because it's too niche and too salesy. Since the best way to grow a site is to get links, this is a big drawback.

Instead, you might want to create something more broad that can be more athoritative. Maybe you will want to generate leads but also have great information for other homeowners, landlords, and investors. Then look for names that are more general.

For example: greatdallasrealestate.com or sandiegorealestatepros.com.

Mind you, I completely made up these names and have no idea if they exist or not.

You will want a WordPress based website, no questions asked.

Don't confuse WordPress.com (host) with what I'm trying to say. So, don't rush right off to wordpress.com and get service.

Instead, focus on buying some quality hosting solutions. For some reason nobody wants to pay for good hosting, sometimes including myself.

I host this website IdealREI.com on WPEngine. But, for my experiment site I decided to pick the absolute cheapest site hosting I could find - GoDaddy.

Besides that it is ridiculously slow compared to what I'm used to, It only took a week or two to get the first one of these emails:

Last thing you want is someone navigating to your website, it taking too long to load, then backing out and going to your competitor. Saving a few bucks on hosting isn't worth the thousands in lost revenue.

Right now, you can get 20% off your purchase with WP Engine. They are one of the most reliable hosts and extremely affordable as well.

Claim Your 20% Discount.

Who WP Engine is for:

Who WP Engine is not for:

If you fall into the second category more than the first category, then you should host with a company like OnCarrot (also called InvestorCarrot)

Certain industries, such as wholesalers, simply don't generate a ton of traffic to their website. So, those 1 or 2 people you might get in a whole week really need to feel enticed to contact you.

That's where Investor Carrot excels. They compile hundreds of thousands of visits across the country and can split test different layouts, leading them to have full optimized sites.

The only problem - your site will look a lot like all the other sites out there.

After the scan is over, click Continue:

On the next page you will need to double-check if the DNS records match the ones in your cPanel and click Continue.

NOTE: It is not recommended to modify DNS records at this stage as you will be able to do this after the setup is complete. 

Choose the desired service plan and click Continue:

NOTE: After signing up with CloudFlare in cPanel you will get a free plan. However, you can choose one of the paid CloudFlare plans if you wish to get more features. You can compare these plans here.

On the next page, you will be offered to change nameservers to the CloudFlare ones:

If your domain is registered with another domain registrar, you need to log into your account there and change the nameservers for the domain.

If your domain is registered with Namecheap, you need to follow the instructions below:

1. Log into your Namecheap account in a separate tab if you are not logged in yet. Once you are in, mouse over the Account option in the upper right corner of the page and choose Domain List or choose the Domain List menu in the left sidebar: 

2.Click on the Manage option in front of the domain name you wish to point to CloudFlare DNS:

3. On the Domain tab, please click the drop-down menu next to the Nameservers option and select Custom nameservers type:

4. Enter the nameservers specified in the CloudFlare account, then click Save changes:

NOTE: Once the nameservers have been set up, it may take up to 24 hours (in rare cases more) for local ISPs to update their DNS caches so that everyone can see your website. Since the caching time varies between ISPs, it takes time for DNS changes to be totally in effect.

Once the nameservers are set up, return to the CloudFlare tab and click Recheck Nameservers:

If the nameservers have been successfully updated, you will see Status: Active message. Now you may proceed with setting up DNS records in the DNS menu:

On the DNS Records page, you may add or delete the DNS records for your domain. In order to add any record, click Add Record (2) and choose the record type you need (1), the hostname (subdomains or domain itself) and value of the record. TTL will be set up automatically. Also, you may deactivate (3) or activate (4) the CloudFlare service for each record by clicking on the orange/grey cloud under the Status column:

NOTE: After the nameservers change all the DNS records for your domain in cPanel will be no longer active. That`s why make sure they have been set up in your CloudFlare account. The new DNS records should be created in the Cloudflare account as well. For instance, if you wish to switch to another mail service or update the IP address for your domain, the MX and A records should be updated correspondingly. 

Now you just need to add your WP Engine CName.

1. Login to your Cloudflare Account.

2. From the dropdown menu on the top left, select your domain.

3. Select the DNS settings tab.

4. Add your CNAME record with the domain values from wpengine. 

That's It!

Now you can skip the next section if you have already chosen WP Engine.

Sign into your Carrot Account page and click the green box to “add a custom domain.”

Scroll down and enter your domain name on Step 2, then hit Save Custom Domain to save changes.

That’s it! Give it a few for the changes to update, then return to here to add your domain to your Carrot site’s dashboard.

The most important thing you need to grow you site is excellent content. There are 4 things to remember: