Do you need a custom website for your development?

Many property managers and developers today often ask us a similar question: do I really need to invest in a custom website?

For Class A properties in competitive markets, you should think of a custom website as exactly that—an investment. It’s difficult to convey the unique features, amenities, and personality of your property on a look-alike templated website that is also used by your competitors.

It’s true that templated websites being offered by companies like Jonah or Yardi Rent Cafe keep getting better and better. If you have a Class B or C property and are under a tight budget or timeline, then those templates are usually a satisfactory fit.

For other properties, you deserve more than just a logo and colors dropped into a template.

We’re hearing from the top property managers that UpShift-designed websites outperform templates.

• Higher web traffic that converts to faster lease-ups
• Better SEO/SEM performance
• Stronger user engagement while they visit the site
• Greater recall when the site offers unique experience, features, content

But wait, that’s not all…. no Ginzu knives but we can make these promises:

Functionality: We’ve heard too many times that other sites built by other firms are tough to use or simply don’t work. Therefore, UpShift has invested heavily in our backend so we can integrate seamlessly with a variety of APIs for real-time availability, pricing features, and CRM integration.

Features: We provide more ways for prospects to search for apartments and express interest versus the standard templates. We are also constantly on the lookout for ways to make sites more modern and engaging—social integration, better mobile experience, video, movement… the templated websites cannot offer these unique, engaging elements because they are designed to be a one-size-fits-all solution.

Maintenance: If that’s not enough, we also offer a Monthly Web Maintenance Plan—for one low monthly fee we not only manage all of the vendors and site integrations but we also pay those vendors from that low fee—this means custom fonts, plug-ins, backups… it’s all handled for you.

Dev Time: UpShift has greatly trimmed down the dev time needed to deploy a custom site. True, we can’t match the time that the template folks need to just upload a logo and enter some colors.

Cost: We’ve greatly shaved out costs for custom sites built for apartments, too. Those template companies aren’t exactly cheap. And have you tried to talk to a human being or make any customizations. Good luck!

As you can see, we’ve taken the pain points out of custom websites.  They perform better for your brand. Faster lease-ups. Better brand recall. Smarter prospect engagement. They are a better investment—after you’ve spent millions on the building why cheap-out on the website?

Reach out today to UpShift today. We’ll hook you up.