ABOUT THE AWARD
On a weekly basis, The Real Estate Ring selects a web presentation that best demonstrates high intensity graphics design, skilled presentation programming, and top quality marketing savvy. The Award for Real Estate Excellence, is not for every real estate web site, but rather only for those few that truly stand above the rest.

The honor of the Award for Real Estate Excellence is not only for the largest brokers. In fact, a large real estate corporation does not qualify for any special consideration in the review. Many agents have higher quality presentations than some of the biggest firms on-line today.

Anyone may submit a commercial -- .com extension -- URL for consideration, but preference is naturally given for those that are either designed by or endorsed through one of the real estate ring members. Submission may be made by e-mail to the address below. Please be sure to include the correct URL in the body of the message. Additionally, please use only the words, "Award Submission" on the Subject Line.

View who has received The Award for Real Estate Excellence.

REVIEW CRITERIA
The Real Estate Ring's review criteria are intuitive and include three distinct areas: Graphics Design, Skill in HTML Coding, and Quality of Marketing Copy.

1. Graphics Design and Intensity
A good site design will always include top quality graphics. Load times are important, to be sure, but the standard for the Real Estate Excellence Award is a little more lenient in this regard. Nonetheless, the quality of the graphics should warrant the extra time spent waiting to load the page.

Standards for Review:

A. Top quality, original graphics
B. Smooth and balanced backgrounds
C. Color balance and contrast (value)
D. Graphic layout and text integration

2. Skill in Programming
Too often design agencies take shortcuts, either knowingly or unknowingly. Some simply don't know any better. Those who program to the higher Netscape standard will always receive higher marks, but it is important that the site be designed to work well also in Microsoft Explorer.

Standards for Review:

A. Proper use of HTML, or other code
B. Flexibility for Netscape and Microsoft browsers
C. Organized, intuitive, navigable structure
D. Unique, advanced features and approaches

3. Quality of Marketing Copy (Text)
The quality of writing that goes into a commercial web site is critical to a company's potential sales. Too often, designers write poor copy, then dress up the site with good graphics. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and poor style are commonplace throughout the Web.

We like tight, focused copy, not long-winded dissertations about the quality of your products and services. The average user seems to spend less than a minute on any one page. If the opening page of your site features ten screen loads of boring text, few viewers will ever read it anyway. If you cannot get your message across in 30 seconds or less, your on-line marketing potential plummets. When reviewing marketing copy, we focus on the intensity and speed with which the message is delivered.

Standards for Review:

A. Overall quality of marketing copy
B. Grammar, spelling, and style
C. Impact and intensity of copy
D. Use of "tie-in" marketing or other methodology to increase readership

SUBMISSION ADDRESS
Please use this e-mail address to submit your URL for consideration. If a Real Estate Ring member endorses the site by personally submitting the URL on your behalf, you will receive preference in our review. Similarly, members of The Real Estate Ring are encouraged to submit the very best of their design work for consideration by the review committee.
 
Please send your submissions by e-mail to: award@therealestatering.com

View who has received The Award for Real Estate Excellence.