22 Questions to Ask an Apartment Website Company

If someone has handed you the job of finding a website company, the hard part is not the calls. It is not knowing which answers matter. Every vendor will sound competent for forty-five minutes.

These are the questions that actually distinguish them. They are grouped by what they protect, and each one includes what a good answer sounds like and what should give you pause. Ask all of them or pick the block that matches your risk.

Ownership: what you are left holding

This block matters most and gets asked least.

• 1. Who owns the finished site when the project is paid for? Good: you do, stated plainly. Worrying: any answer involving a license, a platform, or "as long as you are a client."
• 2. Who is listed as the registrant on the domain? Good: your company. Worrying: the vendor registers it "for" you.
• 3. Who controls DNS? Good: you can get access on request. Worrying: hesitation, or a support ticket process.
• 4. Can we be handed the source files and host them elsewhere? Good: yes. Worrying: "the site cannot really be exported."
• 5. Whose account owns the analytics? Good: yours, with them granted access. Worrying: their account, with reports emailed to you.
• 6. Who owns the Google Business Profile? Good: ownership, manager granted access.
• 7. Can we export the leads the site has captured, including after we leave? Good: yes, anytime.
• 8. What happens to the site if we stop paying? This is the whole block in one question. Ask it last and listen carefully.

Integration: whether your systems keep working

• 9. Which property management systems have you actually connected to, not which do you claim to support? Good: named systems and specifics. Worrying: "all of them."
• 10. Which modules does that require us to have turned on? A vendor who cannot answer this has not done it before.
• 11. Do our residents keep their existing portal logins? The answer is yes if the work is done properly, because the portal is not part of the marketing site.
• 12. What can the site show before our units exist in the system? Relevant on any new construction, and a real limitation to plan around rather than paper over.
• 13. Who pays any integration or feed fees, and do they recur?
• 14. How long does listing syndication take to go live? A concrete answer here signals experience. Zillow, for example, requires approval before a feed is built and its documentation describes testing typically taking four to six weeks. A vendor who says syndication is instant has not done it.

Money: the number after the number

• 15. Is this a one-time cost or a subscription? Both models exist legitimately. You just need to know which you are buying.
• 16. Does the agreement auto-renew, and what notice is required to stop it?
• 17. What is the total over 36 months? This is the question that makes subscription pricing comparable to a build price. Some vendors publish monthly rates openly, which is helpful, but a rate card is not a total.
• 18. What does a content change cost after launch? Ask for the price of a specific realistic task, such as adding a floor plan.
• 19. What does it cost to leave?

Delivery: what happens when the schedule moves

• 20. What is the definition of done, in writing? Good: a written scope that says what is being delivered. Worrying: enthusiasm.
• 21. What happens if our certificate of occupancy slips six months? On new construction it will move. You are testing whether they have lived through it.
• 22. Is there a warranty period after launch, and what is the response time? A ninety-day bug-fix window with stated response times is a reasonable ask.

On accessibility, ask it correctly

Ask which version and level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines they build to, and how they test. A specific answer, naming a version and a testing method, is what you want. Be skeptical of any vendor whose entire accessibility answer is an overlay widget added to a finished site. Overlays are a product sold as a shortcut, and they are not a substitute for a site built accessibly in the first place.

Five questions for their references

Vendors supply references who will say nice things. These five get past that.

• Did your availability information ever go stale, and how long did it take to fix?
• How long did the integration actually take, against what you were told?
• What happened when a floor plan or price changed mid lease-up?
• Have you ever tried to export your site or your leads, and what happened?
• Who did you call when something broke on a Friday evening?

A word on vendor size

You may be told to avoid small vendors. It is worth knowing that this is a sales argument, not a finding. Headcount does not tell you whether you will own your site, whether the integration will work, or whether anyone answers the phone. Published pricing, a written ownership clause, named systems they have actually connected, and a reference you can call tell you all four. Test those instead.

For what it is worth, we will answer all twenty-two of these in writing, and we would encourage you to send them to everyone you are considering, including us.