Photo from SHOWCASE IDX

 

Originally Posted On: https://showcaseidx.com/elementor-review-why-some-of-the-best-real-estate-sites-use-it/

 

Elementor is a popular page builder plugin for WordPress that allows users to create custom, professional-looking websites without any coding experience.

This Elementor review delves into this website-building tool’s features, advantages, and potential disadvantages. Designed for both beginners and experts, it shines a light on the functionality and usability of Elementor. Are you ready to build your website? Let’s find out if it can help!

What is Elementor?

Today, having a professional and user-friendly website is essential for any real estate agent or realtor. A well-designed website helps you establish a solid online presence, attract potential clients, and showcase your properties in the best possible light.

With so many website builders and templates available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. This article will explore the benefits of using Elementor, a famous website builder, and provide tips on creating a stunning real estate website.

Elementor is a drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress that allows users to create professional-looking websites without any coding knowledge. With its user-friendly interface and robust design features, Elementor is a popular choice for web designers, developers, and businesses of all sizes.

By providing a flexible and intuitive platform for website creation, Elementor revolutionized the way WordPress users approach web design. For real estate agents, Elementor offers an easy way to create stunning and practical websites that attract customers. A well-designed Elementor website stands out in the crowded real estate agent world.

How Elementor Works

Elementor is a plugin for WordPress that lets you quickly create websites with little to no coding knowledge. 

Once Elementor is installed and activated on a WordPress site, users can access a range of pre-designed templates and customizable widgets to create different types of pages and posts. Elementor’s interface is intuitive and user-friendly, allowing users to drag and drop widgets onto the page, rearrange them, and customize their content and design options.

In addition to its basic design features, Elementor offers advanced options such as custom CSS, responsive design settings, and integrations with third-party tools and services. These features make it a powerful website builder that businesses of all sizes use to create unique and effective websites that stand out.

If you have some knowledge of WordPress and drag-and-drop interfaces, you can make a great real estate website with Elementor.

Elementor Website Builder

The Elementor Website Builder lets you build a website from scratch without experience or coding knowledge.

With Elementor, you use pre-designed templates and customizable widgets to create different pages and posts. Elementor’s interface is intuitive and user-friendly, allowing users to easily drag and drop widgets onto the page, rearrange them, and customize their content and design options.

Inside the builder, you’ll also find advanced tools to customize your site’s look, feel, and responsiveness. While complex, these tools give you impressive control over a site’s appearance.

If you don’t want to start with a blank slate, Elementor also includes pre-built website templates that you can install with one click making it easy to start a new real estate website. While some templates are free, Elementor does offer an extensive library of premium templates for a cost.

Elementor Theme Builder

Most websites are broken down into specific parts. Elementor lets you design website sections so they remain constant throughout every page. For example, you can use the theme builder to create a static header and footer for your real estate site where customers can find your menu, address, and contact information.

The Theme Builder provides a visual interface that allows users to design custom templates using Elementor’s drag-and-drop page builder. Users can choose from a selection of templates or create templates from scratch. This means you can use various design options and widgets to create a unique look and feel for your site.

The templates created with the Theme Builder can be easily applied to different parts of the site using Elementor’s Theme Builder settings. For example, users can apply a custom header template to all pages or a custom archive template to all category or tag pages.

One of the key benefits of the Elementor Pro Theme Builder is it allows developers to create consistent designs across their entire site. Using the Theme Builder to create custom templates for different parts of the site, developers can ensure that their site has a consistent look and feel, even if using different themes or plugins.

Elementor Templates

Elementor templates are pre-designed page or block layouts. Once imported onto a page, you customize and add content to the page in the Elementor editor. They are designed to help developers save time and effort when creating new pages or posts.

The pre-build templates make breaking a writer’s or designer’s block easy and quickly get back to building the website.

Template Library and Pre-Made Templates

Whether you need a new “about us” page section or an easy-to-use contact form, you’ll find them in the Elementor template library. Inside the library are a vast collection of pre-designed page and block templates for use in the Elementor editor. The library contains templates for different purposes, including business websites, eCommerce sites, real estate agents, blogs, portfolios, and more.

Customizable Templates

If you can’t find a template that matches your idea, you’re in luck. Elementor gives you control over most aspects of a template. Whether you dislike a widget’s color or location, you can freely adjust and customize the template.

Using a customizable template lets, you start with a pre-made website and edit it to match your needs. This saves you time compared to starting from scratch. Customizing the site gives it its look and can better represent your brand instead of using a stock template.

Pro Templates

While you can use free templates to create a real estate website, many premium and pro template options are available. You can purchase a wide range of templates specifically designed for real estate agencies for a small fee.

Professional pre-built templates are typically designed by professionals with years of experience in web design, so they often have a more polished and modern look than free templates.

Additionally, pro templates are often customizable and can save much time in the design process.

Pro templates may also have additional features or functionality that can enhance the user experience for website visitors. Finally, pro templates may are optimized for mobile version responsiveness and SEO, which can help improve the website’s performance and search engine rankings.

What is Elementor Pro?

While Elementor is free-to-use, they also offer a variety of Elementor Pro plans that improve the functionality of Elementor.

Elementor Pro provides access to a library of premium widgets, templates, and website kits. You can also access the Elementor Theme Builder, which lets you create your themes.

The Elementor Theme Builder is an excellent tool for designers and developers who deploy several sites. This tool lets you design any part of your website from scratch. You can customize and implement headers, footers, archive pages, and more with the Elementor Pro theme builder.

You also get access to several other tools with Elementor Pro.

• You can build custom WooCommerce stores with the WooCommerce Builder.
• The Popup Builder lets you create popups for lead generation.
• Elementor Pro includes an advanced form builder to create custom forms.
• Other premium widgets include price tables, social buttons, and countdown timers.

Tools like the popup builder and advanced forms can dramatically improve lead generation on a real estate website. Elementor Pro makes integrating these essential tools into your real estate website easy.

In addition to the new tools and libraries, Elementor Pro users can access 24/7 support through email and live chat.

Plans start at $59/year for one website. Developers, designers, and agencies can opt for bigger plans that let them deploy Elementor Pro on hundreds of websites.

What is Elementor Cloud?

Do you need an all-in-one solution for your real estate website? Elementor cloud is a premium version of Elementor WordPress. Elementor Cloud gives users even more tools than Elementor Pro.

Elementor Cloud is a platform that offers Elementor hosting, design, and management services for Elementor users. It lets users create and manage websites entirely from within the Elementor interface, with access to powerful design tools, premium page templates, and other advanced features.

With Elementor Cloud, you have access to powerful features that let you easily publish and update blog posts, collaborate with team members,

Additionally, Elementor Cloud offers advanced website analytics, SEO tools, and integrations with third-party services.

An Elementor Cloud Website is ideal for any real estate agent that wants an all-in-one Elementor WordPress solution. Elementor offers four plans for Elementor Cloud. The basic Elementor Cloud version starts at $9.99 per month.

Benefits of Using Elementor for Real Estate Websites

Elementor is an ideal platform for creating stunning and professional-looking real estate websites to help you stand out in a crowded market. With a wide range of design options, pre-made templates, and advanced customization tools, you can easily create a unique and memorable online presence that showcases your brand and your properties.

Design Benefits with Elementor

One of the key benefits of using Elementor for real estate websites is its easy-to-use interface. You don’t need to be a coding expert to create a website that looks and functions beautifully.

With a simple drag-and-drop interface, you can easily add images, blog posts, videos, forms, and other elements to your pages without custom coding. This means you can focus on the creative aspect of website design rather than the technical details.

Another advantage of using Elementor is its integration with WordPress and other tools. As a WordPress plugin, Elementor works seamlessly with other WordPress plugins and themes, allowing you to extend its functionality and customize your website further.

Additionally, Elementor integrates with many popular third-party tools and services, such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, and PropertyHive. These tools give you even more flexibility and control over your website’s functionality.

Website Responsiveness and SEO Performance

Another advantage of using Elementor for real estate websites is its mobile responsiveness, which ensures your website looks great and is easy to use on any device. Over 80% of web traffic comes through mobile devices. You need a good and responsive mobile version of your website to get this traffic to your website.

Finally, Elementor is designed with SEO performance in mind, making it easy to optimize your website for search engines and increase your online visibility. Elementor is an excellent choice for building a successful real estate website.

While standard SEO best practices work with a real estate website, there are several ways to improve your real estate SEO and become a real estate SEO expert.

Elementor Makes it Easy to Install Showcase IDX on Your Website.

Internet Data Exchange (IDX) is a real estate property search that allows real estate professionals to display comprehensive and up-to-date property listing data on their websites.

Real Estate agents use IDX to provide their clients a way to search for homes or properties that meet their specific criteria.

Showcase IDX is a premium IDX plugin that works seamlessly with Elementor. This plugin transforms your primary real estate site into a powerhouse that improves lead generation, marketing, and sales.

Showcase IDX gives users extensive information about properties while searching. This leads to increased engagement with the site. It does this through a variety of industry-leading tools.

• User-friendly property search
• Lead generation tools
• State-of-the-art mapping tools
• Real estate CRM tools and integrations.
• SEO tools
• User collaboration tools
• Responsive design made for smartphones and tablets

Improved Site Speed and Performance

Elementor can help improve website speed and performance. One of the critical features of Elementor is its drag-and-drop page builder, which allows users to quickly and easily create pages and layouts. This reduces the code needed for a webpage, which helps with performance. Elementor also generates static CSS files for each page.

This does not need to be regenerated every time a user visits them, allowing pages to render faster even when dealing with high user traffic. Moreover, the platform comes with advanced optimization tools.

One of them is intelligent image compression, DNS prefetching, and script & stylesheet optimizations that allow developers to tweak specifications like file size and the number of requests to reduce page load times. This ensures people have a seamless connection navigating around a website on any device.

All these features make it easier for businesses to engage visitors without sacrificing site performance.

Real Estate Websites Using Elementor

You can use Elementor to create unique websites that attract customers. Below, we’ve picked some of our favorite real estate websites that use Elementor.

UC Ranch Properties

UC Ranch Properties helps buyers buy premium ranches in the United States. The site features a smooth scrolling experience that provides ample information about their properties and business.

Along with Elementor, UC Ranch Properties uses JetElements, JetSmartFilters, JetMenu, and JetPopup to improve the experience on the website.

Upciti

Based in Budapest, Hungary, Upciti is a real estate company specializing in the 3D mapping of properties. Their site lets potential buyers and renters visit listings from their homes.

The multilingual site uses brightly contrasting colors and videos to impress website visitors. It also uses the Elemetor theme, Hello, for fast loading. The site also uses the JetBlog plugin to deliver a wide range of modules like bright tiles, text tickers, and video playlists on the website.

Xania

Xania is a real estate company based in Zurich. Their website uses a minimalist approach to deliver beautiful and striking content. The site uses a clever scrolling text effect to tell a story as you scroll through the homepage.

Xania also takes advantage of the Hello theme to improve speed and responsiveness. The site also uses Elementor Pro, United Elements for Elementor, and WP Rocket to deliver an informative and beautiful experience.

Mallorca Hem

Mallorca Hem is a real estate agency in Mallorca, Spain. The site features a range of properties, from countryside villas to downtown penthouses.

The site uses several Elementor tools, including floating menus, image boxes, and custom fields. Mallardca Hem uses several additional Elementor add-ons, including Dashboard Welcome for Elementor, Extras for Elementor, JetElements, Jet Engine, and Toolkit for Elementor.

How to Get Started with Elementor

Are you ready to start using Elementor to build your real estate website? Even if you have zero experience with WordPress, you can follow the steps below to install and start using Elementor to build your website quickly.

Installing Elementor and WordPress

To start with Elementor, you must install WordPress and the Elementor plugin. This can be done in just a few steps, as outlined below.

• Sign up for a web hosting service and register a domain name.
• Install WordPress on your web hosting service. Many hosting providers offer a one-click installation of WordPress.
• Once installed, log in to the WordPress dashboard.
• In the dashboard, navigate to “Plugins” in the left-hand menu.
• Click “Add New” and search for the “Elementor” plugin.
• Click “Install Now” and wait for the installation to complete.
• Once the installation is complete, click “Activate” to activate the Elementor plugin.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed WordPress and Elementor. Now you can start using Elementor to design and customize your website.

Choosing a Template or Starting From Scratch

Once you have installed Elementor, you can start with a premade template or create your design from scratch. This step is crucial, as it sets the foundation for your website design.

Choosing an Elementor Template

Templates are designed by professionals and can be customized to suit your needs. This can be particularly useful for those needing more design skills or time.

While this simplifies the design process, you lose some ability to customize the site. Also, if you choose a popular template, your site can look like every other real estate website on the internet. Don’t worry,  if you use a template, you can spend time customizing every design element of the site to make it unique.

If you’re ready to install a template, follow the instructions below.

• In the Elementor editor, click on the “Add Template” button.
• Browse through the template library and filter by category, keyword, or tag to find the suitable template for your needs.
• Once you have found a template you like, hover over it and click “Preview” to see how it looks.
• To import the template, click “Insert” or “Import.” The template will be added to your page; you can customize it to fit your needs.

Following these steps, you can easily choose a template that fits your needs and customize it to create a unique website for your real estate business.

Starting From Scratch

Don’t worry if you don’t like any of the pre-made templates. You can start your website from scratch and use the tools Elementor provides to create a unique website design. While starting from a blank page will take longer and require more skill, you’ll have complete control of the design process of the new site.

You can follow these steps to start with a blank site.

• In the Elementor editor, click the “Add New Section” button.
• Choose the type of section you want to create, such as a single column or two columns.
• Add widgets to the section by dragging and dropping them from the left-hand panel onto the section.
• Customize the widgets by adjusting the settings in the left-hand panel, such as font size, color, and alignment.
• Repeat the above steps to create additional sections and widgets until your design is complete.

What to Look for in an Elementor Real Estate Template

Not all real estate templates are created equally. You’ll have an easier time finding the right Elementor real estate template if you follow these guidelines.

• Look for a template that has a professional and modern design. It should be visually appealing and easy to navigate for potential clients.
• The template should be customizable to fit your specific needs. You should be able to change colors, fonts, and other design elements to match your brand.
• The template should have the necessary features for a real estate website, such as property listings, search functionality, and a contact form widget.
• The template should be responsive and work well on smartphones and tablets.
• If you plan to use an IDX plugin for property listings, ensure the template is compatible and optimized for this feature.

With the sheer number of professional templates available, you’ll have difficulty deciding which real estate template suits your site. We’ve spent time researching and testing countless templates. You’ll find our thoughts here, the best WordPress themes for real estate websites.

Integrating Elementor With Other Tools and Plugins

Elementor has many excellent features. But it can’t do everything. Luckily, it’s easy to integrate Elementor with other tools and WordPress plugins.

What are Elementor Add-Ons?

Elementor add-ons are third-party plugins that can be installed on top of the Elementor page builder to add new features, functionality, and design options to your website. These add-ons typically provide a range of new widgets, templates, and customization options that can enhance the overall capabilities of Elementor.

These add-ons can help you save time and effort by providing pre-designed templates and widgets and extending the design and customization capabilities of Elementor beyond its default feature set.

How to Use Add-Ons With Elementor

To use add-ons with Elementor, you must first install and activate the add-on plugin. Once the plugin is activated, the add-on widgets and features will become available in the Elementor editor.

To add an add-on widget to your page, simply drag and drop it from the Elementor widget panel onto your page. You can customize the widget settings to your liking using the Elementor interface.

Some add-ons may also have their settings and customization options, usually accessed through the WordPress dashboard under the “Settings” or “Add-Ons” section. Be sure to refer to the documentation or support resources provided by the add-on developer for more information on how to use their specific add-on with Elementor.

Best Add-ons

If you want to take your Elementor website to the next level, here are some of the best add-ons and plugins to consider.

• Ultimate Add-Ons for Elementor add cool features and widgets to Elementor.
• Starter Templates gives you access to professionally designed templates.
• Crocoblock (JetElements) is a suite of add-ons that improves your Elemntor pages.
• Envato Elements offers users a library of templates and page blocks.
• Master Addons features over 50 widgets designed to improve functionality.

Best Non-Elementor Plugins

Elementor is excellent at designing and creating websites, but most need essential features. The below WordPress plugins add privacy, security, SEO, and more to your real estate website. Consider installing these plugins to ensure your website is safe, reliable, and secure.

• Yoast SEO and All In One SEO both provide excellent SEO tools to improve your search rankings.
• Jetpack is a tool suite that improves engagement and keeps your site running smoothly.
• WP Rocket dramatically improves your website’s loading time.
• If you use several images, Smush compresses them and optimizes your pages. Note that SIDX already optimized your MLS photos, so this only applies to other images on your site.
• Askimet Spam Protection blocks incoming spam from your comments and contact forms.
• Site Kit by Google lets you connect to Google Analytics and review your site’s growth.

Key Takeaways

In summary, having a well-designed website is crucial for real estate agents and realtors to establish a professional online presence and attract potential clients. Elementor is a powerful tool that offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, pre-made templates and blocks, and advanced customization options for creating custom websites.

Whether starting from scratch or choosing a template, Elementor can help you create a professional-looking website that reflects your brand and meets your specific needs.

We encourage readers to consider using Elementor for their real estate websites and to explore the many resources available for further learning and support. With Elementor, you can take your real estate business to the next level and stand out.

FAQs

Do you still have questions about Elementor and how it can benefit your real estate business? We have answers. Below are some of the most common questions people ask before using Elementor for their websites.

Is Elementor good for beginners?

Yes, Elementor is an excellent tool for beginners because of its user-friendly interface and intuitive drag-and-drop functionality. It allows developers and designers to create professional-looking websites without requiring extensive technical knowledge or coding skills.

Is Elementor worth learning?

The first time one embarks on the journey of using Elementor may be intimidating with so many options and features. However, creating a professional and attractive website with this plug-in is possible by taking the time to familiarize oneself with all of its tools and add-ons.

Thus, users can fully capitalize upon the capabilities that Elementor provides to produce an excellent website.

Which is better, Wix or Elementor?

It depends on your specific needs and preferences. Wix is an all-in-one website builder that offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface and a range of templates and features. At the same time, Elementor is a WordPress plugin that provides advanced design and customization options for creating custom websites.

If you’re looking for a more advanced and customizable website, Elementor may be the better choice, but if you want a straightforward website builder, Wix might be a better fit.

Should I use Elementor or just WordPress?

If you want to create a custom website with advanced design and customization options, Elementor with WordPress can provide you with a powerful and flexible platform.

However, if you’re looking for a more straightforward website, using WordPress without Elementor is a better choice. Ultimately, it depends on your specific needs and preferences.

What are the pros and cons of Elementor?

Elementor gives users a wide range of tools and features that help them create a site in WordPress. But it’s not without flaws. Below are the pros and cons of using Elementor to build your following website.

Pros

• User-friendly drag-and-drop interface
• Powerful customization options
• Pre-made templates and blocks to speed up the design process
• Integration with other tools and plugins
• Regular updates and improvements

Cons

• It can be resource-intensive and slow down your website
• Some features are only available with the Pro version
• Customization options can be overwhelming for beginners
• Limited options for multi-language support