How to brief a real estate website designer

Start with the visitor

Name the audience and market. A solo agent looking for seller consultations has different priorities from a brokerage explaining its team or a rural specialist presenting properties. Say what a useful first visit should lead to: a call, a buyer enquiry, a seller discussion or another clear action.

List what is already working on your current site, if you have one. Keep those strengths in the brief instead of assuming every part needs replacing.

Give each page a purpose

For each launch page, write the question it answers, the information or proof it needs and the visitor’s next step. Keep launch essentials separate from optional quotes and later work.

• About: why this person or team is relevant to the visitor, using accurate experience and service details.
• Buyer or seller services: how you help and how someone starts a conversation.
• Property or area content: the approved information you can maintain.
• Contact: the right destination for each kind of enquiry.

If you want listing search, name the MLS or provider and the function you need. A feed, a gallery and a link to another search site are different purchases. Use the IDX requirements guide to clarify this.

Gather the content you can actually use

Collect the correct public name, original logos, brand colours and brokerage requirements. Add approved biographies, contact details, usable photography and any genuine testimonials or project examples. Record who confirms the facts and who has permission to use each asset.

State what you will supply and what you want written or edited. Missing photography is a task to resolve, not permission to copy another agent’s images. New logo design or a full brand system is separate from building a website around an existing identity.

Show the design direction with reasons

Choose two or three references and describe what helps: readable property details, clear navigation, photography treatment or an easy contact journey. Mention anything you dislike. A reference is direction, not permission to copy the other business’s words or assets.

You can use our real estate website projects to discuss different approaches. They show design work, not measured traffic or sales results.

Explain what happens to an enquiry

For each form or tool, identify the request, destination, responsible person, backup and how delivery will be checked. A seller request might go to a particular inbox; a property enquiry may need its property reference attached.

Keep the fields useful and proportionate. Decide separately whether there will be automated follow-up and who approves the messages and applicable communication requirements. GoHighLevel setup is a separate service. Keep passwords and private customer records out of the brief.

Include usability in the sign-off

A good brief covers how someone reads the pages and reaches you, not just how the design looks. Agree which pages and third-party tools will be reviewed, who records problems and who can fix them.

• Keyboard: follow a service or property page to its enquiry route, with visible focus and no trap inside a menu or dialog.
• Enlarged text: check important content and controls at 200% text size. A mobile screenshot is not the same test.
• Forms: check clear labels, required fields, instructions and agreed error/completion messages in a controlled test.
• Media: identify how essential information in photographs, floor plans and video is available to visitors who cannot see or hear it.
• Third-party tools: include essential IDX, booking or enquiry tools, with an owner for supplier-side problems.

Record the visitor task, page, method, expected result, observed result, responsible person and retest. Leave the result NOT TESTED until someone performs the check. These are starting checks, not a complete accessibility audit, WCAG claim or legal certification; agree any specialist assessment separately.

Sources checked October 10, 2026: W3C preliminary Easy Checks, accessible forms, keyboard access and text resizing.

Your short brief

• Business, brokerage, market and primary audience.
• Main visitor action, owner and backup.
• Current site and what should stay.
• Launch pages, each with a purpose and next step.
• Approved copy, logos and media; missing items and who supplies them.
• Design references and reasons.
• Listing or other tools, current providers and desired functions.
• Enquiry destinations and agreed checks.
• Optional work, budget, target date and decision-maker.

Before accepting a quote, resolve pages, functions, content responsibilities, third-party costs, review terms, launch checks and handover. Use the budget guide and, for an existing site, the replacement checklist. The website package explains our current scope; the final agreement is settled before starting.