Choosing a website host can be a complicated process, especially when your business is real estate and NOT technology. First, we have to decide if you even need a website host:

Do you currently have a website host and you're looking to switch to a new provider? Do you have your website hosted at a provider like Advanced Access or Z57 and you're considering dropping them in favor of a site you own and can control? Do you want to make sure your website, emails and domain names are all in one central location under your control?

If your answer to any of these is "Yes!" - then you need a website host. Let me explain a bit more about hosting:

Website hosting - the business of providing the storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve files for a website. Web hosting can not only serve your website's pages, it can contain databases, process your emails, hold your 'forwarding' emails, hold your domain names, forward your domain names and much more.

Here are some things to consider when comparing hosting plans:

Operating System - Unix, Linux, Windows, etc.
Disk Space - "storage" - often measured in MB.
Data Transfer - "traffic" - often measured in GB.
Email - POP3, autoresponders, forwarding.
Databases - storage space and database type.
Scripting Languages - PHP, ASP, JSP, etc.
CGI-Bin - custom scripting or prepared scripts.
FrontPage - special extensions needed for FP.
IP Address - unique number just for your website.
Log Files - the "raw" line-by-line detail of activity.
Statistics - summaries, sometimes with graphics.
Secure Server (SSL) - needed for e-commerce.
Shopping Cart - some hosts offer a default cart.
Control Panel - web-based account management.
Setup Time - automatic, hours, days, or unknown.
Payment Terms - monthly, quarterly, yearly, other.
Price - satisfy your needs, then worry about price.

Choosing a website host should be based on your technology needs. If you currently have a website provided by a vendor such as Advanced Access, Success or any of the templated real estate companies then you don't really need a website host. However, this means your site will be limited on the types of technology and services you can implement. Often, you have to pay extra fees for additional domains, email addresses and functionality.

If you're considering having a custom website built that you will own outright, then you need a solid host that can handle the built in functionality that you'll want for your website. For example, do you want forms on your site that will automatically populate a drip email campaign or forward contact info to Top Producer or your email inbox? Do you want to pull the raw IDX data from your Board of Realtors and put that on your website with ASP or PHP? Do you want the ability to market individual listings with their own sub-domain such as '123Main.YourDomain.com' and create a custom website for that listing? All of this is best accomplished with your own website host.

We've created several hosting plans that may suit your needs:

Starter Plan	$9.99 per month
Includes 1 site, 25 megs of storage, 1 gig of bandwidth, 3 email addresses and 10 forwarding email addresses.  No monthly updates included
Experience Plan	$24.99 per month
Includes 3 sites, 50 megs of storage, 2 gigs of bandwidth, 25 email addresses, 100 forwarding email addresses and monthly updates included
Expertise Plan	$49.99 per month
Includes 5 sites, 75 megs of storage, 3 gigs of bandwidth, 100 email addresses, 1000 forwarding email addresses, monthly updates and 1 free hour for any website project

( *Updates include: Daily backup of Joomla database where applicable, update Joomla core files and all extentions, free weekly SEO reports sent via email)

If you have any questions at all about website hosting, feel free to call or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We're here to help and make the process as smooth and as affordable as possible. Thank you!

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