How to Create a Real Estate Directory Website Like Zillow

Want to create a real estate directory site like Zillow without spending a lot of money? This topic will not be about discussing the benefits of creating a real estate directory or similar resources (you already know that). Rather than, you’ll get a laser-shot tutorial on how to build a site like Zillow.

You can start your real estate directory with $0! But in this tutorial, we’ll use some premium extensions and them so that you can cover up the core sections as well after you scale your business. So without wasting any more time, let’s start creating your real estate directory.

How to Create a Real Estate Directory for free

Step 1: Set Up the Foundation

1. Choose the Platform

We’ll use WordPress.

Why?

• No coding required
• Huge plugin ecosystem
• Easy to scale later
• Beginner-friendly dashboard

Everything in this guide is built with simplicity in mind.

2. Domain & Hosting

You need two things:

• A domain name (your website address)
• Hosting (where your website lives)

Choose a short, memorable domain related to real estate or location.
Pick hosting that supports WordPress and offers one-click installation.

Helpful guides:

• How to Register a Domain Name in 4 Easy Steps
• How to Migrate a WordPress Website to a New Domain
• 5+ Free Domain Name Generators for WordPress Businesses
• Top WordPress Hosting Services for Directory Websites (2025)
• WordPress Hosting Guidance for Making Faster & Safer Directory Listing Websites

Install WordPress

Most hosting providers install WordPress for you automatically.

If not, you can follow a simple tutorial:

• How to Install WordPress (Beginner Guide)

Once installed, you’ll have access to the WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Add Directory Functionality

Install the Directory Plugin

Now comes the core part. For this tutorial, we will be using Directorist as it is the most scalable and versatile WordPress directory plugin you can find in the WordPress repository.

The free features include a drag & drop page builder with unlimited custom fields, free page builder integrations (Elementor & Gutenberg), multi-directory, OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, frontend listing submissions, frontend dashboard for users, SEO plugin integration, ratings & reviews, WPML integration, RTL support, CSV bulk import-export, and many more.

The plugin has a whole range of premium features that will stun you with its 4.7 user ratings out of 5. Currently, it has more than a 20K user base from around the world. So, rest assured of the quality of the plugin.)

This plugin handles:

• Property listings
• Frontend submissions
• Search and filters
• User dashboards
• Monetization options

Think of it as the engine behind your Zillow-like site.

To install, navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search for the keyword ‘Directorist’ > Hit the “Install Now” button (as indicated with arrows).

Next up, you need to activate and configure the setup wizard to make a fresh start. After setup, some additional tools suggestions will appear at the top. These tools are recommended for better performance. We recommend you to visit our official documentation so that you can configure it perfectly or the way you want.

Install a Real Estate Theme

You can use any popular WordPress theme to use with Directorist. Because the tool is fully compatible with all WordPress themes. But we recommend you use a directory niche-based theme to get the best results. For this tutorial, we’ll use dRealEstate.

Navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Appearance > Themes > Add New.

The theme controls:

• Layout
• Design
• Property page structure

Finally, activate the theme to take an effect by clicking the ‘Activate’ button:

You can enjoy the professional look out of the box by using wpWax Demo Importer. For this, Dashboard > Tools > wpWax Demo Importer. Taking a pre-caution backup of your website is recommended before using the wpWax Demo Importer as it will replace the whole design.

Once you install the theme, you will see a suggestion in the form of a notification to install some supplementary plugins and tools. They are necessary to run the theme perfectly. So, make sure to install them using the “Begin Installing Plugins” option.

And that’s it!

Make You Real Estate Directory more professional and functional

To make the site more professional and functional like Zillow, some extensions are recommended. You will get every detail how these extensions word by following the documentation sections. If you face any issues, don’t hesitate to contact in our support section.

• Listing With Map (Learn more how it works)
• Social Login (Learn more how it works)
• Pricing Plans (Learn more how it works)
• PayPal Payment Gateway (Learn more how it works)
• Stripe Payment Gateway (Learn more how it works)
• Live Chat (Learn more how it works)

Beyond these recommended extensions, Directorist offer few more amazing extensions that you should check out.

• Directorist Analytics (Learn more how it works)
• Directorist Advanced Review (Learn more how it works)
• Directorist Universal Search (Learn more how it works)
• Directorist Search Alert (Learn more how it works)
• Directorist Announcement
• AddonsKit for Bricks
• HelpGent Integration (Learn more how it works)
• WPML Integration (Learn more how it works)
• Digital Marketplace (Learn more how it works)
• Job Manager (Learn more how it works)
• Booking (Reservation & Appointment) (Learn more how it works)
• Listings with Map (Learn more how it works)
• Business Hours (Learn more how it works)
• WooCommerce Pricing Plans (Learn more how it works)
• Gamipress Integration (Learn more how it works)
• Mailchimp Integration (Learn more how it works)
• Multi Directory Linking (Learn more how it works)
• BuddyPress Integration (Learn more how it works)
• BuddyBoss Integration (Learn more how it works)
• Oxygen Builder Integration (Learn more how it works)
• Authorize.net Payment Gateway (Learn more how it works)
• Directorist Coupon (Learn more how it works)
• Directorist Ads Manager (Learn more how it works)
• Compare Listings (Learn more how it works)
• Mark as Sold (Learn more how it works)
• Image Gallery (Learn more how it works)
• Listing FAQs (Learn more how it works)
• Listing Slider & Carousel (Learn more how it works)
• Google reCAPTCHA (Learn more how it works)
• Claim Listing (Learn more how it works)

Step 3: Build and Customize Your Site

Design the Site

Customize your theme if necessary:

• Change colors
• Update fonts
• Adjust layouts
• Update Images

Everything is visual. No coding required.

Add New Categories and Tags

Creating categories and tags allows you to keep your directory website neat and tidy. The listing owners can choose relevant categories and tags to upload their listings. This way visitors can get their desired listings with ease.

In the Directorist menu, you will find both of these items where (category) you can also add images, assign the category to a parent one, give a description, add icons & colors, and even choose directory type (if you are using the multidirectory feature).

To add categories, you just need to go to the Directory Listings > Categories > Fill out the fields > Hit the “Add New Category” button.

Similarly, you can add tags from Directory Listings > Tags > Enter Credentials > Add New Tag.

Add New Locations

Just like adding categories or tags adding locations helps the users find the desired real estate property in a better way. Creating locations allows the listing owner to add locations that are really useful for the users to filter out while searching. To add locations, you have to go to the Directory Listing > Locations > Enter credentials (name, description, directory type, etc.) > Hit the Add New Location button.

Create Listing Submission Form

Your users can upload listings by navigating to the “Add Listing page”. Next up, the user will find the following submission form to submit his or her listings, he or she must fill out the required fields to proceed:

When you have a few listing owners and they submit a number of listings, the all listings page will look somewhat like this (depending upon the theme you choose):

So, you are already done with creating a basic real estate directory website. But one important aspect is yet to add – which is monetizing your directory website. The following section shows the ways to monetize your real estate directory website.

Step 4: Adding Advanced feature: Monetizing your directory website

With Directorist, you can monetize your website in a number of ways that can enable you to earn a huge pile of revenue:

• Charge for listings (Free)
• Featured listings (Free)
• Allow businesses to claim listings (Premium)
• Charge for viewing private listings (Premium)
• Allow private/sponsored advertising (premium)
• Charge for membership (Premium)
• Sell business leads (Premium)
• Promote affiliate products (Premium)
• Allow sponsored articles/guest posting (Premium)
• Bookings & appointment (Premium)
• Access control (Via 3rd party plugin)
• Ranked featured lists (Premium)
• Paid ad placement (Premium)

Want to learn these ways in detail? Give a read to this article, “How to Monetize a Directory Listing Website” now!

You can use the first 2 free ways to monetize your real estate directory website.

Adding a Free Payment Gateway

Directorist free version supports only the offline bank transfer method to receive payments. To receive payments through your bank account, you need to insert your bank account credentials. To add your bank account details, navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Directory Listings > Settings > Monetization > Offline Gateways Settings > Insert your details > Save changes.

Note about Bank Transfer Gateway:

• You should remember that this payment gateway needs some manual action to complete an order. After getting a notification of an order using this offline payment gateway, you should check your bank if the money is deposited into your account. Then you should change the order status manually from the “Order History” submenu.
• Apart from the offline Bank transfer method, Directorist also supports online payments gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net. However, they are available in the premium version only.

Related Post: How to Add Payment Gateways to Monetize Your Directory Website

Step 5: Launch and Grow

Before launch, test:

• Property search
• Listing submission
• Contact forms
• Payment flow (if enabled)

Fix issues early to avoid user frustration.

Bonus Tips

• Free Elementor Support: Directorist ships with multiple widgets and is fully compatible with Elementor. If you use the dReadestate theme, you will get a section called “Theme Elements” in the Elementor editor panel. This section contains some important widgets such as Section Title, Contact Info, All Listings, and Search Form. Let’s enter the “Search Form” from it:

However, you can also insert and customize the ‘Search bar’ from the Directorist widgets like any other Elementor widgets.

Just like the Theme Elements of OneListing theme, you can effortlessly edit the Directorist widgets too. For instance, you can control whether to show the pagination or not, select the width of the container, etc.

• Free Gutenberg Support: You can also generate the Directorist pages using the Gutenberg block editor. This makes the tool even more useful as the WordPress ecosystem is gradually adapting to the Gutenberg block editor instead of the page builders. Directorist currently has16 Gutenberg blocks. For example, let’s generate the “All Listings” page in Gutenberg block editor using Directorist blocks:

SEO Optimization

Search traffic is critical for real estate sites.

Focus on:

• Location-based keywords
• Optimized listing pages
• Clean URLs
• Fast loading speed

Recommended guide: How to Do SEO for Directory Websites

Promote Your Directory

Start promoting through:

• Social media
• Local real estate groups
• Content marketing
• Location-based blog posts

For inspiration, check: Real Estate Directory Examples

Wrapping up

With a powerful WordPress directory plugin like Directorist, you can build a real estate directory fast and with great control. The free version offers some features that are often sold as premium ones in some other directory tools. We can guarantee that you won’t regret using this amazing directory builder tool.

If that sounds interesting, you can try out the demo version to get a hand on experience before you start downloading and using the plugin forever. You will get the demo link below.

We hope this tutorial will properly and efficiently guide you to build your real estate directory. In case you are stuck with one of the steps mentioned above, don’t hesitate to drop us a line below. We will take it seriously and someone from us will reply to your query. if you are already using Directorist, don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comment section.

For regualr updates, you can follow Directorist on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn! You can also join the Directorist Community for sharing your thoughts and experiences relating to the directory niche. Come and join us to see what we’re up to.