How to Connect Your Own Domain to Your Real Estate Agency Website

Say your firm is called Sharma Realty and you work in Mohali. A buyer sees your signboard, types the name on a phone, and lands on a page with your photos, your listings and a green WhatsApp button. That only works if the address on the signboard opens your website.

Connecting your own domain is the step that makes it work. It sounds technical. It isn't. You add one line of settings at the place where you bought the address, press one button in your dashboard, and wait.

Here is how, in the order we'd do it.

Before you start

You need three things.

First, a domain you own. That's an address like sharmarealty.com or sharmarealty.in. If you haven't bought one yet, read how to choose a domain name for a real estate firm first, because a domain is hard to change once it is printed on a card.

Second, the login for the account where you bought it. This is where agents get stuck more than anywhere else. A nephew or a website designer bought the address years ago, and nobody knows the password. Sort that out before anything else. Ask the person to move the domain into an account owned by the firm, or to hand over the login.

Third, an Agency website on the Agency plan, with a design picked and your details filled in. Your domain will show that website. If you connect it to an empty one, buyers will see an empty one.

The short version

In your dashboard, open Agency website and find the box called Point your domain. Type your address there and press Add domain. The dashboard then shows you a single DNS record. Add that record where you bought the address. Come back and press Check DNS. Once it passes, your website opens on your own address, and the padlock is already set up.

That's the whole job. The rest of this page is the detail, and the things that go wrong.

Step 1: finish the website first

Pick a design. Add your logo, the firm's name, the address and the phone numbers. Press Save website. Your properties, your team and your reviews appear on it by themselves.

Take five minutes to open the website on your phone. Most of your buyers will see it there first.

Step 2: add the domain

Under Point your domain, type the address without anything extra. Write sharmarealty.com. Not https://sharmarealty.com, and not www.sharmarealty.com. Just the name.

Press Add domain. The dashboard now shows you one DNS record. It has a type, a name and a value. Keep this window open.

(DNS is the phone book of the internet. Your domain seller keeps a page where you tell the phone book that sharmarealty.com should go to our server. The record you are shown is that one line.)

Step 3: add the record at your domain seller

Log in where you bought the domain. Look for words like DNS, DNS records or Manage DNS. Every seller names it a little differently, and the page is often buried.

Add a new record and copy what the dashboard shows. Copy it exactly. In most cases it is an A record, which points a name at a server address. Some sellers ask for the name as an @ sign when the record is for your main address. If the dashboard shows your domain as the name, use @ there.

Two mistakes catch people here.

The domain typed twice. Some sellers add your domain to the name automatically. If you type the full domain into the name box, you can end up with sharmarealty.com.sharmarealty.com. If the box already shows your domain after it, type only the short part.

An old record left behind. If your domain pointed at an old website before, there is already a record for your main address. Delete it, or change it. Two records for one address means some visitors reach your old site and some reach the new one. It looks like a random fault. It isn't.

Step 4: press Check DNS

Go back to the dashboard and press Check DNS.

If it finds the record, you're done with the hard part. If it doesn't, don't panic. A DNS change can take a few minutes, and sometimes up to a day, to reach everywhere. Wait half an hour, then press the button again. Check the record only if it still fails after that. Look for a typo in the value, or an extra space.

While it is waiting, you may see a page on your own address that says it is connecting. That's our page. It refreshes by itself. Nothing is broken.

Step 5: look at it the way a buyer will

Once Check DNS passes, open your address on your phone. Use mobile data, not the office internet, because a router sometimes keeps the old answer for longer.

You should see your website and a padlock next to the address. The secure certificate is set up for you and is usually ready within the hour. If your browser says the site is not secure in the first few minutes, wait and reload.

Step 6: add www if you want it

Some people type www in front of everything. If you'd like that to work, add a second record at your domain seller for the www version, the same way as the first. Visitors who type it are sent to your main address. The certificate for the www version can take a little longer to appear.

Step 7: put the new address to work

This is the part people forget. The website is only useful if your buyers find it.

Change the website link on your Google Business Profile. Change it in your WhatsApp Business profile. Use it in your ads and in your email signature. And the next time you print cards or a signboard, print the new address. An email on your own domain, like info@sharmarealty.com, also looks more serious than a free one, though that part is set up with your domain seller or an email provider, not with us.

When it still doesn't work

Check DNS keeps failing. Open the record at your domain seller and compare it with the dashboard, letter by letter. Then look for an old record on the same name.

Your old website still shows. Your phone or browser remembers the old answer. Try another phone, or wait an hour.

The browser warns about security. Wait for the certificate, usually up to an hour, and reload.

You can't find the DNS page at all. Search your seller's help pages for "add a DNS record". Or ask their chat support to add it for you. It takes them a minute, and you can read them the record from your dashboard.

If you're stuck after all of that, write to us through the contact page and include your domain name and what you see on the screen.

Keep the address safe

One last thing, because it costs people their business cards. Turn on automatic renewal at your domain seller. Use an email address the firm owns, so the renewal notice doesn't go to someone who left two years ago. And put the expiry date in your calendar.

An address you let lapse can be bought by anyone, and your signboard will send buyers to a stranger.

The full steps are also on our support page for the agency website and your own domain. If you're still deciding on a plan, see the Agency plan.