Design an awesome look for a real estate website that doesn't look like a real estate website

Real Estate & Mortgage

We are a real estate team based in San Francisco. Our website is a real estate and home inspiration blog. We feature relevant real estate content shared with an authentic voice, as well as providing inspiration and resources for home owners. We also feature content about all the exciting elements that make up the San Francisco lifestyle. After all, the reason we all spend so much money to live here is because we freaking love this city. Our readers are 25-45. They are tech savvy, very plugged into social media and design conscious. They value professionalism and informative content shared in a clear, accessible way. We want this site to make real estate seem fun and exciting.

49doors.com. However, just the basic wordpress platform installed.

See attached file of some logos, headers and color palettes our designer has worked on. We like the color palette, but are open to any changes that might bolden it up a bit. For the header, we like something very much LIKE page 3 of logo_variations_final_pdf. We think the words could use some treatment. What we like the most about it is the treatment of the "49 doors" aspect, with the 49th door being open. This is also a link to some things we gravitate towards. http://pinterest.com/49Doors/website/ Quick note in the attached files: we were playing with different tag lines, but final tagline is: San Francisco Real Estate with Style, Creativity and Vision

Homepage: When people come to our site, we want them to think: "wow, this doesn't look like real estate websites I've seen." It's not cold and uninviting. It's not trying so hard to look professional that it's veered into completely unmemorable. Kind of style blog meets informative real estate blog. We'd like an area for the "main content" of our real estate postings. Equally important, we'd like a sidebar that's laid out in a visually appealing way, that will lead viewers further into other areas of the site, as well as have links to and display our involvement in social media. We want our homepage (and the whole site) to feel professional but *equally importantly*, inviting, fun, modern and on the younger (30-45) side. We'll need our header, for 49 Doors, as well as the logo for our parent company, Zephyr, which is attached in the file section. Some things that need to be included on the sidebar: -social media buttons. Would like to include: twitter, facebook, pinterest, google plus and linked in. Would also like an area where people can subscribe to the blog. -A photo that says "home inspiration" on it, that will then take viewers to the category page. Would like this to take up the whole (usable) width of the sidebar, since it's a main feature of the site. Similar to the "inspiring interiors" photo on the sidebar of this page: (http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/categories/) -A photo that says "Search San Francisco homes" on it. We like picture number "2" and "7" on our pinterest board. (info below). This will take viewers to a page where a search feature will be embedded. -A photo that says "Happening in the City.." that will take viewers to a blog post page devoted to things happening in San Francisco. -a plug in that says "Featured Real Estate Listings" like on the sidebar of this page (http://www.brownstoner.com/). The basic idea of this part of the sidebar is to be able to enter listings that show as a thumbnail and a small amount of info about the property, which can be easily customized. Or possibly something like this: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/fs-real-estate-plugin/screenshots/ -Also want included: -posts by category section -recent posts section The main navigation buttons we would like on the home page (that we could then add subpages to) are: -About -Buying -Selling -Search for Homes -Resources -Home Inspiration -Happening in the City -Featured Listings -Contact Page 2: template page to be used throughout the site. This page would be used for more static pages, such as "For buyers" This is where we might have just text and photos, or down the road we might add an infographic flow chart. On this page (and every page), we want the sidebar to follow the visitor. Ideally, we'd like for this page to have the flexibility to be static, or to be used as a blog like page, with separate posts showing. (possible to do this?) Page 3: This will deal with the part of the site that is devoted to "home inspiration," a huge feature of the site. Similar to this page (http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/categories/), visitors can use this organizational page to decide which category to visit. i.e.: kitchen, bathroom, small spaces, etc. Page 4: This will be a template page that can be replicated for each category of "home inspiration." For example, one whole page would be called "kitchen." Each page is going to be all about visual imagery. On each photo, we'd like the viewer to be able to roll over the photo, and have some kind of block of text appear that describes the photo. we'd like this block of text to be totally customizable, so that it could say something very short, or it could be as long as we wanted it to be. We were thinking of either a simple grid style, kind of like this (but maybe with smaller photos) http://demo.graphpaperpress.com/gridspace/ with some kind of styled element (rounded corners, etc.), or something more like this grid mosaic plug in. (http://codecanyon.net/item/media-grid-wordpress-responsive-portfolio/full_screen_preview/2218545?ref=themespotters&ref=themespotters&clickthrough_id=106626677&redirect_back=true). Also like this IDEA, though not this style, where there would be an option to click on the photo and be taken to a page where there would be a full blog post about a topic (like, for kitchens: 10 inviting breakfast nooks).

Just to be clear: WE DON'T WANT THIS TO LOOK LIKE A TRADITIONAL REAL ESTATE WEBSITE! We are very much looking for something that blends design, real estate and style blog. Some sites we think are really boring (style wise): http://www.paragon-re.com/ , http://www.hill-co.com/home/index.php?t=1&gclid=CMj8iqmcoLUCFWKCQgodwAkAoA , http://www.californiamoves.com/.

Hopefully this is not information overload. Just trying to be thorough. PLEASE feel free to get in touch with any questions you might have, or to clarify. Thanks so much!

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