Your real estate website.
Your handover checklist.

The short answer.

A website handover should prove access and usable deliverables, not just provide a login. Before buying, changing supplier or leaving a brokerage-provided website, record who controls the domain, content, hosting, accounts and licences—and what happens to each when the relationship ends.

There is no single “ownership” switch. You may control your domain and original copy while using licensed photography, a paid theme, a listing feed or a provider’s hosted system. Use this checklist to agree and verify the handover with the relevant supplier and brokerage, rather than assuming every component transfers together.

Start with four different questions.

• Rights: what does the agreement let you use, keep or transfer?
• Access: can an authorized person actually enter and manage the relevant account?
• Portability: can you obtain the files or data in a usable format, with the required licences?
• Continuity: who keeps the website, email and enquiries working while anything changes?

An administrator login answers only part of the access question. A zip file does not establish all usage rights. A payment receipt does not show that a backup can be restored.

Build your handover inventory.

Copy these items into a spreadsheet. Add these columns to every row: account or asset; current controller; agreed recipient; supplier contact; renewal date; required evidence; status; next action and due date. Keep passwords and transfer codes out of the sheet; use the provider’s secure access or transfer process.

For domain basics, ICANN explains the registrant’s relationship with the registrar. Ask your registrar about the actual account and transfer process; changing the website host is not automatically the same as transferring the domain registration.

Distinguish a content export from a working backup.

WordPress’s Tools Export screen produces a content export. That is useful, but it is not the same thing as a complete restorable website. The official WordPress backup guidance distinguishes the database from site files and explains why both matter.

For a WordPress handover, ask the technical provider to identify the backup set, how it is restored and which external services or licences are still required. Where appropriate, have the provider demonstrate a restore in a private test environment. Do not publish a duplicate production site or expose customer data just to prove the files open.

For a hosted platform, ask what the supported export actually contains: pages, media, contacts, notes, form history or something narrower. Check a sample with the receiving provider before planning a complete move. An available contact export does not prove that page designs or every activity record can move too.

If the website comes through your brokerage.

A brokerage-provided site can be useful. Before commissioning a replacement, establish what the brokerage supplies and what it permits you to retain or use separately.

• Is your domain independently registered or part of a brokerage-controlled address?
• Which biographies, photographs, testimonials and other materials may be reused, and who confirms permission?
• Who controls enquiry records and CRM access, and what export or continued use is authorized?
• What happens to the website address, email, listing feed and public contact details when your role or brokerage changes?
• Which brand, disclosure and listing requirements must the new site meet before launch?

Ask the brokerage and relevant providers for answers specific to your arrangement. This is an operational checklist, not a determination of contractual or data rights. If permissions are unresolved, settle those questions before moving the affected material.

Verify the handover before retiring the old service.

1. Agree the inventory. Mark each item as supplied, excluded, awaiting confirmation or requiring a new service. Assign one person to resolve each open item.
2. Test access securely. Use named accounts and appropriate roles. Confirm the business has a recovery route that does not depend entirely on a departing supplier.
3. Check the site and enquiry path. Review key pages on desktop and mobile, test permitted listing features and agree a labelled enquiry test with the provider.
4. Check continuity. Have the technical owner verify domain/DNS arrangements, email, important URLs and any required redirects. A move is not a guarantee that search visibility stays unchanged.
5. Accept and close out. Confirm deliverables and responsibilities, then end replaced services in the agreed order and remove access that is no longer required.

The inventory is complete when evidence is attached and open items have an owner—not when every row has an optimistic tick.

Questions to send with your next website enquiry.

“Please list the accounts and deliverables I will receive, what I can edit, the licences or services that do not transfer, the recurring costs, and the handover and cancellation process. Identify anything that needs approval from my brokerage, MLS or current provider.”

Use that request alongside the website cost worksheet. If you are still choosing an arrangement, compare self-managed WordPress, managed builds and bundled platforms.

HomePage.Studio builds editable WordPress websites. Your proposal sets out ownership, access, handover files, hosting choices and third-party licence conditions before work begins. Review our real estate website service and bring your current website and the inventory’s unresolved questions to the scope discussion.

Ready to replace the website?

Once access and handover are clear, use the replacement checklist to plan the sequence, assign launch decisions and agree recovery checks.