So, you’re interested in building your own WordPress site for your real estate business? Good for you!

Early in the process, you’ll find you need a website theme. WordPress has many free ones. Thousands in fact, for e-commerce sites, blogs, online magazines, tech startups, and real estate websites.

You’ll also find that very few of them are free. Designers have to make their money somehow, right? Do you really have to pay, or are there free real estate WordPress themes that will work for you?

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Paid or Free Themes?

Realistically, you are likely going to need a paid theme. These are generally quite affordable, ranging from $50-$100 for a one time fee.

There is no such thing as a free real estate website, anyway. You are going to need to spend money on the following anyway:

• Web hosting
• Domain
• IDX

Paid themes are going to have a lot more flexibility and features. Good ones will come with some amount of customer support, responsive design, and IDX friendly.

You can also find a designer – many of whom have quality WordPress themes in addition to designer services.

But, if you are just playing around or experimenting with a few different themes, feel free to download some free ones to tinker with your website!

Do It Yourself with Elementor

A cheap way to take a free theme and turn it into something special for yourself is a drag-and-drop page builder like Elementor.

Elementor is not a theme, but an editor. You can use it with many basic free themes like Hestia or Twenty Twenty-Four. You can use it with any of the themes below. And the basic version of Elementor is free, too!

This takes a lot more work to make these basic themes into operational real estate websites, but it is highly customizable. You essentially build your own theme. Your website will be unique by the time you’re done with it!

They have a Pro version that will likely be necessary if you like the editor and it’s working for your site. Other WordPress page builders to consider include Thrive Architect and Visual Composer.

Here is an example from their site about building a real estate website in the Elementor builder.

Where to Find Free Themes

The WordPress Theme Directory is the best place to find themes. As of this writing, there were 54 themes that popped up as I searched themes there.

Themeforest is one of the top online stores for WordPress themes, however they aren’t free. Still, I would recommend browsing it just to get a feel for whether a free theme here would work for you versus some of the paid versions. As of this writing there were 163 different real estate themes in Themeforest.

What to Look for in a WordPress Theme

The most important features of any theme in 2019 is that it is fully mobile responsive – e.g. it looks good on a mobile phone!

When looking at a free theme in the WordPress store, these are three things to help narrow down a decent theme:

Last Updated

Themes require updating with newer versions of WordPress. You would also like to see a theme that is updated from time to time with more modern design elements. Therefore, I recommend focusing on themes that have been updated at least in the past 6 months or so. If it’s been 2+ years, skip it.

Active Installs

A healthy number of installs shows a theme that other people trust. In real estate, seems to be a lot, so look for approximately at least that many.

Ratings

Not all WordPress themes have any ratings on WordPress, but you still want to pay attention to any that do. You can read reviews and what folks like or dislike about the theme.

Free WordPress Themes for Realtors

Real Estate Lite

This theme is a simple, classic look for websites that is a few years old now but still serviceable. It will work great for creating a crisp and professional online presence without too many frills. It includes page templates, featured properties, and page layout options.

The paid theme includes a prebuilt testimonial section, more color options, allows you to emplace a custom logo, and sort the front page selections.

Real Estater

Real Estater is a high quality option that lets you do a little more on the free theme, including using your custom logo, changing the background, and more.

The pro version is $49.00 and comes with a “scroll to top” button, allows you to make changes to sidebar layouts, footer text, and more.

Real Estate Right Now

How about a European company? Real Estate Right Now is a different full-width look that feels a bit scattered but could look good with some playing around. It includes widgets for Google maps, single property listings pages, theme options, and custom searches.

Affordable Real Estate WordPress Themes

These aren’t free, but have a lot more tools and usability out of the gate for a real estate professional. And you can still use a drag-and-drop web design tool like Elementor with these.

AgentPress

$99.95

AgentPress is the real estate agent WordPress theme from StudioPress, a respectable theme designer. The one-time $100 gets you the theme and the popular Genesis framework.

StudioPress has the StudioPress FM and Site Success podcasts dedicated to creating awesome WordPress websites and content. Definitely worth your time if you are embarking on the WordPress journey!

Agent Evolution

$99.99

Agent Evolution builds themes on their Equity framework for websites, and have 8 different themes and 5 templates for real estate listings. They were bought by IDX Broker and therefore have a close relationship with that IDX solution.

I personally use Agent Evolution with the free Elementor page builder to customize my real estate site homepage.

Houzez

$59

Houzez creates numerous different themes to choose from. They are available for purchase in the Themeforest Envato Market for WordPress websites.

They have a built-in address auto-complete function that is very desirable in a website for real estate agencies.

It is compatible with Diverse Solutions, IDX Broker, iHomeFinder.

IDX

One thing that is critical for a successful real estate website and is not free is an IDX feed. If you want your buyers to be able to search homes in your local MLS, you’ll need an IDX.

IDX Broker is one of the most common and well respected IDX providers. They have a Lite and Premium version at $40/mo and $60/mo respectively. Other providers include iHomeFinder, Diverse Solutions, or Showcase IDX.

Even if your theme is free, you’re going to have to fork out for an IDX.

My Recommendation

You don’t need a website to be successful in real estate.

If you do want a site, you will have to take it seriously. That means spending some dough. Free themes won’t take you far.

If you are still set on a free theme, using one with Elementor is a way to massage a property theme into shape for your needs. You can use it with any of the above themes. But it is only adding more work.

There is nothing keeping you from experimenting with these free themes, so go for it. Some have decent upgraded versions. Many, however, don’t appear to be maintained very well and fall by the wayside over time. You want a theme provider who is going to continue to improve your theme and in it with the long haul like you.

And if building and managing your own site is more than you are interested in, consider these website designers who work on WordPress.

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Conclusion

If you are on a bare bones budget, or perhaps creating a stealth site, test site, or some other project for which you just need minimum website viability, the free themes will get you there!

Otherwise, I recommend ponying up the $50-$100 to get a professional WordPress theme for real estate as a cost of doing business. You’ll need to spend that much on IDX as well to get your site rolling.

And lastly, if it seems like too much work, there are lots of folks who are happy to do it for you with beautiful custom versions, either designers or full website providers!

Updated April 20, 2024; Originally published October 27, 2018