Thread: What would you do with this site?

This is going to be a redesign job, probably I will do everything from scratch and trash the old site.
Can something like this be saved with a redesign?

Costa Rica Real Estate

Heck yes it can be a damn good site!
Redesigned or not, just needs marketing.

How is the site for costa rica properties for sale in google?

which one?

The design is cheesy yes, but you can always fix that. I think this is a good site. Just advertise it and get some traffic. Doesn't look like it's visited much.

I agree, I think the site has a lot of potential if you give it a cleaner look! Nice scrpt running the listings inside. Good luck with the redeisng! Looking to forward to seeing what you come up with :-)

I like the background and think you should save it. Blue sky and sea perfectly associate with the name of your site - Dream properties.

Ouch, no offense but .. yeah, it can be cleaned up and modernized.. I'd go for some sort of easy to maintain and use CMS so you can make changes if and when needed. The other thing I'd do is incorporate some fresh content into your main pages on a regular basis.. maybe news on upcoming events in CR, etc to keep visitor interest. You want to sell properties, give them something to read and look at.. a blog would even work!

it definately requires a clean design, this one is oldie style site, also a good property image should help more.

I would go for a complete redesign

I agree with GiorosK. A redesign would work best.
In light of the lack of critique, here are a few.
The quality of the background picture is poor. It also interferes with the lines of the main template, the whole thing is a blow-out white wash. The background picture also overlaps as it repeats itself.
Try using pictures in your templates and keep the background simple. Because of the type of business you have, it seems to me, a good picture gallery could give your customers a good idea of what you're doing. On the home page, you could follow up with a short 10 to 20 word summarization of your business. Keep it simple, all your links can take people to the next level of information. You could also use a tag line, something like "Retire To Paradise" (probably cheesy and doesn't suit your target market but you get the idea). You need a lot more information to satisfy your customers and it has to be complete.
Anyway, too much to write here and i have to work on my own inadequate site Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by slingblade333

I agree with GiorosK. A redesign would work best.
In light of the lack of critique, here are a few.
The quality of the background picture is poor. It also interferes with the lines of the main template, the whole thing is a blow-out white wash. The background picture also overlaps as it repeats itself.
Try using pictures in your templates and keep the background simple. Because of the type of business you have, it seems to me, a good picture gallery could give your customers a good idea of what you're doing. On the home page, you could follow up with a short 10 to 20 word summarization of your business. Keep it simple, all your links can take people to the next level of information. You could also use a tag line, something like "Retire To Paradise" (probably cheesy and doesn't suit your target market but you get the idea). You need a lot more information to satisfy your customers and it has to be complete.
Anyway, too much to write here and i have to work on my own inadequate site Hope this helps.

Agreed. The first thing a person looks at is the layout itself. A good layout will represent your company well. You should try to keep it in a more professional atmosphere.

Mikey .. get it into a WP install, find a nice theme and you're on your way. Add a few SEO/SEM friendly plugins and watch the traffic grow. Remember to add some nice Costa Rica related information eg: what to do? what to see? etc

Missed all you guys' replies. Hiring a new designer now and will get to work. Have any of you ever built a site with Joomla? I have seen some really good ones recently, real estate based ones too.

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

Missed all you guys' replies. Hiring a new designer now and will get to work. Have any of you ever built a site with Joomla? I have seen some really good ones recently, real estate based ones too.

yeah seen some nice ones around - not just real estate related but various. keep in ind that you may have to maintain the site Mike. There are various classified ads / real estate scripts/programs out there that may be easier than joomla.

Here's a simple and inexpensive one to look at, they have a user demo and admin demo online:

The Real Estate Script -- The Best PHP Real Estate Classifieds Script

I actually have a license to a paid script for real estate that I believe works with Joomla. I am not using it, unfortunately I lost my entire drive that the info for that license was on just a week or 2 ago!

Ewww, If I were you, I'd scratch the web layout and completely start fresh.

Actually, wait. You could use the same concept but it's better to completely overwrite everything on the site.

sorry for the bad words,
but its a poor design.
you might consider posting a contest for redesign.
you can get very low prices this way (15$-30$)
but the site definitely has potential.

Originally Posted by orielo

sorry for the bad words,
but its a poor design.
you might consider posting a contest for redesign.
you can get very low prices this way (15$-30$)
but the site definitely has potential.

Don't be sorry, lying hinders growth, I think it's a "poor design" as well. You can tell someone with no design experience put it together, but some people are ok with their site looking that way and only care for content. I happen to care for the whole thing.

Not sure what $15-$30 will get him to be honest, it's a shame people charge so low for their work.

wow...I think I would start over. Its not a bad site.....well it just looks like it has never been seen before. There are parts you can still use but mostly i would redesign the whole thing. When i read what this site was i was thinking bright colors, fun nice and modern.