We redesigned a broker's site in a weekend — here's what moved the needle

Most real-estate websites don't have a design problem. They have a clarity problem. The photography is fine, the listings are there, the agent is smiling — but a visitor can't tell, in three seconds, what they're supposed to do next.

We took a working broker's site and rebuilt it over a weekend. Same content, same brand colours, same headshots. Here are the three changes that did most of the work.

1. One job per screen

The old homepage tried to do everything at once: search, a bio, five service blurbs, a mortgage calculator, and a newsletter box — all above the fold. We cut it to a single promise and a single action: "Find your next place in the west end," and one button.

Everything else still exists. It's just sequenced now, so each scroll has one job.

2. Speed is a feature

The original site shipped 4.2 MB of images on first load and scored 41 on mobile Lighthouse. We:

• Converted hero images to modern formats and lazy-loaded everything below the fold
• Removed two marketing scripts that added 900 ms of blocking time
• Served the site statically so the first paint is near-instant

New mobile Lighthouse: 98. That's not vanity — Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal, and buyers bounce off slow sites.

Fast is the design. A beautiful page nobody waits for isn't beautiful.

3. Make the next step obvious

Every section now ends with the same, calm call to action. Not "Contact us" buried in a menu — a specific, low-commitment ask: "Book a 15-minute call." Conversions on the contact form roughly doubled in the first two weeks.

The takeaway

You rarely need a rebrand. You need focus, speed, and an obvious next step. Get those three right and the site starts earning its keep — usually in a weekend, not a quarter.

Want us to take a look at yours? Book a taste-test — it's free, and there's no pitch.