Whether it’s poor design quality or not providing adequate functionality, there’s no denying that dozens of poorly designed WordPress themes are out there and available for purchase. That’s why it’s important for real estate agents to take time and research all available real estate WordPress themes before making a final decision on which one may be the best fit for your professional website.

After running a quick Google search, I was able to find what I would consider 5 of the best real estate WordPress sites currently available to consumers. Below is a quick summary of why I think these real estate themes made the cut:

WP Pro Real Estate 4 by ThemeForest:

I think what makes this particular real estate WordPress theme so attractive is the theme’s custom background. Website owners have the option of unlimited skins and backgrounds, but as long as you choose a crisp, professional photo, such as the example on the demo, there’s no doubt this theme can really demonstrate a luxury, high-end feel and keep home buyers coming back. In addition, WP Pro Real Estate 4 also has a Drag & Drop homepage builder, which is especially convenient for real estate agents without a lot of web building experience.

 Property WordPress Theme from WPdaddy.com:

To me, the best real estate WordPress themes are clean, chic, and have a modern vibe and the Property WordPress theme fits this criterion perfectly. The theme’s main background allows for agents to input custom photos, while the interior background of the theme remains solid white with a variety of clickable options available to home buyers that include a featured listings slider, different areas of specialization, your website blog, or whatever you ultimately choose to display on the homepage.

Loan WordPress Theme from WPdaddy.com:

The Loan WordPress theme is pretty similar to the Property theme also offered at WPdaddy.com in that it has a chic, contemporary feel but some there are some key differences in the sidebar and homepage display. There’s also not an option for a customized background like seen in the Property WordPress theme, which actually has its advantages. For agents with little to no design experience, finding the right background image that fits the feel of your website and maintains a high resolution can, believe it or not, be quite challenging at times.

deCondo by ThemeShift:

I think what makes the deCondo theme so attractive is the image heavy homepage. Along with the top slider that rotates between featured listings, the remaining portion of the homepage is solely dedicated to other nicely displayed featured listing excerpts. So if you’re a real estate agent that does the majority of your business as a primary listing agent, the deCondo theme is an excellent choice for presenting your clients’ properties.

Smooth Pro by Gorilla Theme:

Of my list of top 5 real estate WordPress themes, Smooth Pro is probably the most complete theme in terms of the homepage layout. Along with a featured listings slider at the top, the homepage of this theme also allows for a large real estate search box, plenty of space on the sidebar for social media plugins, an attractively designed blog roll, more space for additional featured listings, and even a spot for some call-to-action buttons. In addition, the theme’s footer has four additional sections that allow you to get creative and input anything you couldn’t find room elsewhere on the homepage. In my opinion, Smooth Pro is probably you best real estate WordPress theme if you plan on making this your primary real estate website.

Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working as a Market Research Associate and writing published Market Snapshots for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence in Chicago, Joe now works as a Web Marketing Specialist and is a managing partner at Real Estate Web Creation, LLC.

To help with faster loading times, following some of these tips will help with speeding up your real estate WordPress site:

Install an effective caching plugin

As perhaps the easiest and best way to speed up a WordPress site, a cache plugin takes just seconds to install and will likely reduce load times from seconds to milliseconds. Most WordPress sites use W3 Total Cache.

Always make sure you’re running the latest version of WordPress

WordPress is constantly making security and maintenance updates, but will always notify you when you need to download the latest version. Right now, WordPress 3.4.1 is the current version, which was released on June 27, 2012.

Optimize images properly

Of course having great looking pictures is vital for a real estate website, so excluding them is not an option. So when you upload images to your site, make sure you do one of two things. First, make sure the file size is within reason, as larger images will dramatically slow down a website. However, if the image you upload does have a larger file size, install the WP-SmushIt Plugin for free, which will reduce the file size of an image, while not reducing the quality one bit.

Add LazyLoad to your WordPress site

Although I typically don’t use this feature, installing the jQuery Image Lazy Load plugin can really speed up page loads. How it works is that when a page is clicked on by a user, only the images above the fold will load. As the user scrolls down the page, the remaining images will load just before they come into view on your screen. This can be especially useful on real estate websites with lots of home and condo listings with images.

Turn off pingbacks and trackbacks

WordPress will automatically notify your site when another blog site outfitted with pingbacks and trackbacks mentions your URL. In turning this feature off, WordPress won’t have to update data on your posts and pages, ultimately speeding up the site.

Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working in the market research sector and authoring published Market Snapshots for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, Joe now works as a Web Marketing Specialist and is a managing partner at  Real Estate Web Creation, LLC.