Need help Wanting to add a website but dont know where to start

[Jason Smith]

After 6 years of slowly growing my rental portfolio and looking to add even more homes I can see a real need to create a website.  I would like to have things such as the rental applications, property vacancies (with pics and virtual tours), and the ability to accept payments online. 

Currently I am listing my homes on Zillow and FB market place and get overran with inquires.  Answering all of them takes the better part of the day and I would much rather be able to refer them to a webpage to answer their questions.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to start with this process?  Recommendations on hosting, or designers and so on?

[Dan Armich]

We set up a simple squarespace website that handles the pictures, application, and the weeding out that you are having trouble with. The basic idea is that applicants from FB or Zillow are immediately asked to submit an application via the website. Anyone that asks a question that could have been answered via website, can't figure out how to submit the application, or doesn't fill out the application completely is rejected. Immediately pointing your applicants to the website should weed out 80%.

I suggest squarespace as it is easy to set up for most of us without any prior programming experience. You get the result you want without paying a ton for it. If you can sketch out what you want your website to look like and the flow/functionality, you can even go with fiver for cheap coders.