Why did I stop renting my website?
For years we paid a website company every month. They owned the software. They owned the design. If we left, we left with nothing. The pages we spent years building stayed on their servers. That is renting. You pay forever and you never own the house.
On March 19, 2026 I made the first commit on this site. That is the day it started. By the middle of April it had more than 200 community pages. Today it has more than 800 community pages, more than 850 blog posts, live home search for every MLS we belong to, lead forms that drop straight into our CRM, and a team of AI helpers that write, check, and post for us. Nobody built it for us. We built it with AI, and it is ours.
I am not a programmer. Neither are the people on my team who work on it. We type what we want in plain English, the AI writes the code, and we check the result. That is the whole trick. This page shows you exactly how, in the order we did it.
Which AI should you use, Claude or ChatGPT?
Both work. We used Claude for every page on this site, so that is what I know best. The honest answer is that either one will get you there. What matters is that you pick one and stick with it. The AI gets better at your project the longer it works on it, because it learns your files, your style, and your rules.
The thing you actually need is the coding tool, not the chat window. Claude’s is called Claude Code. ChatGPT’s is called Codex. Both run on your own computer and edit your real files. The chat window is great for questions. The coding tool is what builds the site.
| What | Claude | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Price to start | $20 a month (Pro). $100 or $200 a month (Max) when you are building every day. | $20 a month (Plus). $100 or $200 a month (Pro) for heavier use. |
| The tool that writes your code | Claude Code. It runs on your own computer and edits your real files. This is what we used. | Codex. Same idea, runs in your terminal or in the ChatGPT app. |
| Reading screenshots | Yes. Paste a screenshot and it tells you what is wrong. | Yes. Same. |
| Best at | Long, careful work on a big project. Following rules you write down once. | Quick answers, brainstorming, and a huge library of how-to guides online. |
| Watch out for | The $20 plan runs out of daily usage fast when you are building. Plan on Max for the build weeks. | It will sometimes sound sure about a fact that is wrong. So will Claude. Check both. |
| Our pick | This is the one we used for every page on this site. | A fine choice. Pick one and stick with it so it learns your project. |
My advice: start on the $20 plan to learn the tool. When you are ready to build for real, move up to the $100 plan for a month or two. You will burn through the $20 plan’s daily limit in an afternoon of building, and stopping in the middle of a page is frustrating. Drop back to $20 once the site is built and you are just adding blog posts.
Step 2What accounts do you need before you start?
Make these accounts first. Most are free. Write your logins down somewhere safe. The AI will ask you to paste keys from these accounts into your project, and that is normal.
- Your domain name. You probably already own one. If not, buy one. About $10 to $20 a year.
- GitHub. Free. This is where your site’s files live. Think of it as the filing cabinet. Every change is saved, and you can always go back.
- Vercel. This is the host. It takes the files from GitHub and puts them on the internet. Every time you save a change, the site updates in about a minute. $20 a month for a business site.
- Supabase. Free to start. This is the database. It holds things like saved searches, leads, and anything else your site needs to remember.
- Resend. Free for 3,000 emails a month. This sends the email you get when someone fills out a form.
- Your MLS’s IDX approval. Every MLS has a form for this. Fill it out now, because it can take a week or two. More on IDX in Step 6.
- Google Search Console and Google Business Profile. Free. Search Console shows you what Google sees. Business Profile is your map listing. Set both up on day one.
- A CRM. We use Follow Up Boss. Any CRM with an email or web form connection works. This is where your leads go.
What is the one rule that makes all of this easy?
When in doubt, ask the AI. That is it. You do not need to know what a “repo” is or what “deploy” means. If a word confuses you, ask. If a screen looks wrong, ask. If you get an error, copy the whole error and paste it in. The AI is patient, it never gets annoyed, and it will explain the same thing five times if you need it to.
The screenshot trick
This is the most useful habit you will build. Whenever you are not sure if something is right, take a screenshot of what you see on your screen and paste it into the AI. Then ask one of these:
This is what I see. Is this correct?
This is what I see. Fix it.
This is what I see. What do I click next?The AI can read the picture. It will spot the missing button, the wrong color, the error message in the corner, or the setting you clicked by mistake. You do not have to describe the problem in words. Just show it.
Prompts that work
Here are real prompts, the kind we use every day. Change the names and you are off.
Build me a homepage for a real estate agent in Henderson, Nevada.
My name is ___. My brokerage is ___. My license number is ___.
I want a big photo at the top, a home search box, three buttons
(Buy, Sell, Contact), my reviews, and my phone number in the footer.Make a community page for Green Valley Ranch. Use the same layout
as the Summerlin page. Here is the real data: [paste your numbers].
Do not make up any numbers. If you do not have a number, leave it out.Explain what you just changed and why, like I am in 5th grade.What pages does a real estate website need?
Here is the full list. You do not build them all at once. You build them in the order in Step 5. But you should know the whole picture before you start, so nothing surprises you later.
| Part | Why you need it |
|---|---|
| Homepage | Who you are, where you work, a search box, and one clear button to contact you. |
| About page | Your photo, your license number, your story, and your reviews. Google and buyers both want to see a real person. |
| Community pages | One page for every neighborhood you sell in. This is where most of our search traffic lands. |
| Blog | Answers to the questions buyers and sellers type into Google. Every post is another door into your site. |
| Home search (IDX) | Live listings from your MLS, with a page for every home. Without this, people leave to search somewhere else. |
| Buyer and seller pages | What you do for each, what it costs, and a form to start. |
| Lead forms | Every form sends you an email and drops the lead into your CRM. Test every single one. |
| Legal pages | Privacy policy, fair housing notice, and your MLS’s required IDX disclaimer. Not optional. |
| Sitemap and robots file | Tells Google which pages exist. The AI makes these for you in one prompt. |
What order should you build it in?
This is the order we used. Each step gives you something you can look at and be proud of before you move to the next one. Do not try to build everything on day one.
- Day 1: the homepage. Use the first prompt above. Look at it. Screenshot anything you do not like and ask for changes. Keep going until you would be happy to show it to a client.
- Day 2: about page and legal pages. Your photo, your story, your license, your reviews. Then ask the AI for a privacy policy, a fair housing page, and an accessibility page. Boring, but required.
- Day 3: one perfect community page. Pick the neighborhood you know best. Give the AI real facts: the builder, the HOA, the schools, the parks, real prices from your MLS. Make it great. This becomes the template for every other one.
- Day 4 and 5: the rest of your community pages. Tell the AI to make one page per neighborhood using the template. Give it real data for each. Ten pages is a good start. We have more than 800, and we added them over months, not days.
- Day 6: home search. Connect your IDX feed. This is the hardest step, and it is the one where you will lean on the AI most. See Step 6.
- Day 7: the blog. Ask the AI to set up a blog where each post is a simple text file. Write your first post about the question you get asked most.
- Day 8: lead forms. Wire every form to send you an email and drop the lead into your CRM. Then fill out every form yourself and make sure it arrives. Every single one.
- Day 9: move your old site. See Step 8. Do not skip the redirects.
- Day 10 and after: speed and SEO. See Steps 9 and 10. Then keep adding community pages and blog posts every week.
How do you pick an IDX, and what is it?
IDX is the rule that lets you show your MLS’s listings on your own website. It is how a buyer searches homes on your site instead of leaving to search somewhere else. Every MLS has its own IDX rules and its own approval form. Fill that form out early.
You get IDX in one of two ways. A plugin is a search tool you drop into your site. It is fast to set up, and it looks like their tool, not yours. A data feed gives your site the raw listing data, and the AI builds your search pages and listing pages from it. It takes more work, and the result is pages that look like your site and that Google can rank. We use a data feed.
| Option | What it is | Cost | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repliers (what we use) | Data feed (API). Your site builds its own search and listing pages from the raw MLS data. | Free preview to build with. Paid plans start at $199 a month per MLS, as of September 2026. | You want pages Google can rank and full control of how search looks. Best fit for an AI-built site. |
| IDX Broker | Plugin. Drops a search tool into your site. | $60 to $149 a month plus MLS fees and a setup fee, as of September 2026. | You want something proven and do not mind the search looking like their tool, not yours. |
| Showcase IDX | WordPress plugin. | From about $95 a month plus MLS fees, as of September 2026. | You are building on WordPress and want a nice-looking search fast. |
| iHomefinder | Plugin plus a built-in CRM. | From $169 a month, as of September 2026. | You want search and lead follow-up in one bill. |
| Your MLS’s own feed | Raw data (RESO Web API). Ask your MLS. | Varies by MLS. Some are cheap, some are not. | You are comfortable letting the AI do more work, and you want the lowest bill. |
How to choose
- Do you want Google to rank your listing pages? If yes, you want a data feed. Plugin search pages usually cannot be ranked.
- How many MLS boards are you in? Most vendors charge per MLS. We are in three, and that is the biggest line on our bill.
- Do you have the patience for one hard week? A data feed is harder to set up. The AI does the heavy lifting, but you will hit errors and need the screenshot trick a lot. A plugin is easier on day one.
- Ask your MLS what they charge. Some MLSs charge a data fee on top of the vendor. Some charge nothing. Ask before you sign.
Whatever you pick, every listing page must show your MLS’s required disclaimer, and listings must refresh on the schedule your MLS sets. The AI will do this for you if you paste in the exact words from your IDX agreement.
Step 7Why are community pages and blog posts the most important part?
Here is how people actually find an agent online. They do not type your name. They type a question. “Is Summerlin a good place to live?” “What are HOA fees in Inspirada?” “Best neighborhoods in Henderson for families.” Every one of those questions is a door. If you have a page that answers it, they walk through your door. If you do not, they walk through somebody else’s.
That is why we have more than 800 community pages and more than 850 blog posts. Most of the traffic on this site lands on one of those pages, not the homepage. Your homepage is your front door. Your community pages and blog posts are the hundreds of side doors, and that is where the people come in.
Community pages
One page for every neighborhood, master plan, and condo tower you want to sell in. Each one should have real prices from your MLS, the HOA, the schools, what is nearby, a map, and a live list of homes for sale there. Start with ten. Add one a week. The AI writes them in minutes once you give it the facts.
Blog posts
Every question a client has asked you this month is a blog post. Closing costs. Property taxes. How earnest money works. Which side of town has the best schools. Write the answer, put real numbers in it, and say where the numbers came from. The AI can draft the post in a few minutes. Your job is to make sure it is true and that it sounds like you.
How do you move your old site without losing Google?
This is the step people are most scared of, and it is the one where being careful pays off most. Google already knows your old site. It has ranked some of your pages. If those pages just disappear, Google forgets you. If they redirect to the right new page, Google follows along and you keep what you earned.
- Make a list of every page on your old site. Ask the AI: “How do I get a list of every page on my old website?” It will walk you through it. Google Search Console has a list too.
- Build the new site on a test address first. Vercel gives you a free one. Nobody sees it but you. Build everything there.
- Make a redirect map. For every old page address, write down which new page it should send people to. Old “/summerlin-homes” goes to new “/summerlin/.” Paste the list into the AI and say “add these redirects.”
- Copy your best content over. If an old blog post ranks, bring it to the new site at the same address if you can, or redirect it. Do not throw away pages that Google likes.
- Point your domain at the new site. This is one setting at your domain company. The AI will tell you exactly which one. It takes a few minutes to a few hours to take effect.
- Check Google Search Console every day for two weeks. It will show you any page that is now broken. Fix each one by adding a redirect.
- Do not cancel the old site yet. Keep paying for one more month while the new one settles. Then cancel it and never look back.
How do you make the site fast?
Slow sites lose people and lose rankings. Google has a free tool called PageSpeed Insights. You paste in your page address and it gives you a score from 0 to 100 and a list of what is slow. Here is the whole process:
- Run PageSpeed Insights on your homepage and one community page.
- Screenshot the results, or copy the list of problems.
- Paste it into the AI and say: “Here is my PageSpeed report. Fix the slowest things first.”
- Run it again. Repeat until the mobile score is in the green.
The usual fixes are the same on every site: pictures that are too big, pictures that load before they are needed, and too many outside scripts like chat widgets and trackers. The AI knows all of these. You just have to ask.
Step 10What are SEO, AEO, and GEO, in plain words?
These three letters get thrown around a lot. Here is what they mean and what to actually do about each.
SEO: showing up in Google search
Every page needs a clear title, a short description, one main heading, and real content. Google needs a sitemap, which is a list of your pages, and a robots file, which tells it what to read. Ask the AI to set all of this up. It is one prompt. Then submit your sitemap in Google Search Console.
AEO: showing up in the answer box
Google now answers many questions right at the top of the page. To be the answer, write your headings as questions, put a short direct answer right under each one, and add a list of frequently asked questions at the bottom of each page. Tell the AI to add “FAQ schema” to every page. That is the code that tells Google your questions and answers are there.
GEO: showing up when people ask an AI
More and more people ask ChatGPT or Claude “who is a good agent in Henderson?” To show up there, your pages need real facts with sources, your name and license on every page, and clear plain-English answers that an AI can quote. Ask the AI to add a file called llms.txt to your site. It is a simple list that tells AI tools what your site is about. The same things that make a page good for a person make it good for an AI.
Step 11What do you do every week once it is live?
- Write one blog post. The question you got asked most this week. Real numbers, real source.
- Add one community page. The next neighborhood on your list.
- Check Google Search Console. Look for broken pages and for questions people are typing that you do not have a page for yet. Make that page next.
- Test one lead form. Fill it out yourself. Make sure the email and the CRM entry both show up.
That is about two hours a week. Over a year, that is 50 blog posts and 50 community pages you own forever. No website company will ever build that for you.
What does it cost each month?
Here is the honest bill. These are the vendor’s own prices as of September 2026. Check their pricing pages before you sign, because prices change.
| Item | Low | High | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI helper (Claude or ChatGPT) | $20 | $200 | Start at $20. Go up to $100 or $200 for the weeks you are building. Drop back down after. |
| Hosting (Vercel) | $0 | $20 | The free plan is for hobby projects. A business site should be on Pro at $20 a month. |
| Database (Supabase) | $0 | $25 | Free to start. $25 a month when you have real traffic and want backups. |
| Email sending (Resend) | $0 | $20 | Free for 3,000 emails a month. That covers most agents. $20 after that. |
| MLS feed (IDX) | $60 | $400 | The biggest line. See the IDX table above. Your MLS may add its own data fee. |
| Your domain name | $1 | $2 | About $10 to $20 a year. You probably already own one. |
| Maps | $0 | $0 | Mapbox and Google Maps both have free tiers that cover a normal agent site. |
| Total | about $100 | about $300 | Most agents land near $150 once the build month is over. The MLS feed is the big one. |
Compare that to what you pay now. Then remember the difference: at the end of the year, this one is yours.
What mistakes should you avoid?
These are the ones we made, so you do not have to.
- Letting the AI make up facts. It will. Give it real data and tell it not to invent numbers. Check every price, fee, and rating before it goes live.
- Building the new site and then trying to figure out redirects. Do the redirect list first. It is boring. It is also the thing that protects your rankings.
- Skipping the legal pages. Privacy, fair housing, and your MLS disclaimer are not optional. Ask the AI for them on day two.
- Not testing the forms. A form that looks fine and sends nothing is worse than no form. Fill out every one yourself.
- Trying to build everything in one weekend. Build the homepage. Enjoy it. Then build the next thing. Small wins keep you going.
- Not asking. Every single time we got stuck, the answer was to ask the AI one more question, usually with a screenshot. It has never once not had an answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to know how to code to build a real estate website with AI?
Should I use Claude or ChatGPT to build my site?
How long does it take to build a real estate website with AI?
What does it cost each month to own my own real estate website?
Will I lose my Google rankings when I move off my old site?
What is IDX and do I have to have it?
What do I do when the AI makes a mistake or something breaks?
Can the AI write my community pages and blog posts too?
Want to see it working before you start?
Everything on this page describes the site you are reading right now. Click around. Open a city page, a home search, a blog post, and a community page. All of it was built the way this page describes, by people who are not programmers, with an AI helper and a lot of screenshots.
If you are an agent in Nevada and you would rather plug into a site that is already built, that is what our team gets. Here is how to join. Either way, stop renting. Own it.
About Chris Nevada
Chris Nevada leads Nevada Real Estate Group, Nevada’s #1 real estate team, with 150+ agents, 9,600+ closed transactions, and 9,061+ verified five-star reviews. Licensed in Nevada (S.181401), brokered by LPT Realty. Southern Nevada: (702) 637-1759. Northern Nevada: (775) 277-2120.