Home Page Design - Real Estate Assistance

Golden State Shortsale

The name refers to the "Golden State" of California. "Shortsale" is way of selling your house which is better than foreclosure, but still hurts your credit. It is a more responsible way to sell your house than just walking away without paying.

1. Generate leads for people that need help selling their home via "shortsale". This means that the people can't afford their payment and need to sell it, but they owe more on their property than it is worth. Therefore, they need help in order to make it happen by doing a "shortsale".
2. Be an online brochure to answer questions and interest visitors.
3. Want the site to look like a government assistance site with blue and white scheme of some sort. An example is iShortSale.com.

Love web 2.0, subtle gradients, clean, big and bold helvetica-ish fonts NO reflection.

SOMEONE GOING THROUGH FORECLOSURE IS LOSING THEIR HOUSE. THE COMPANY IS JUST MAKING IT EASIER TO LOSE IT.

So putting a picture of a really nice house is exactly the opposite of what we want to do as it just reminds them of their misfortune.

This is why we want you to check out ishortsale.com. We really want it to look like a government site because I think people that are going through foreclosure will like a more drab blue-ish site - but still have quality design.

I have attached a wireframe and their logo to use in the header / footer.

Also, please look at these examples for websites we like:

http://www.rigneygraphics.com/image…01_lrg.jpg
http://www.rigneygraphics.com/image…01_lrg.jpg
http://www.rigneygraphics.com/portf…/index.php

We really like how the images "pop" out of these sites. We love the use of a big image that uses gradients and colored brushes on top or around the picture to make room for the "call to action" (like "Call Us Now For an Appointment". Then use faded gradients around the image to integrate the heading and form for them to fill out. The images fill out the space. They are big.

If you read the following articles on "polish", "quality" and "negative space", we will love your design:

http://psd.tutsplus.com/designing-t…he-polish/

And Quality:
http://wefunction.com/2009/04/quali…eb-design/

And Using negative space (see their demo):
http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/…s-a-guide/

The wireframe is just to show where elements go. It DOES NOT mean I want boxes everywhere.

Functionally, this is everything the home page needs (refer to the wireframe)

1. Logo, Phone #, and space for 3 - 5 pages in the top navigation.
2. Beautiful picture w/ call to action and an arrow or something subtle to point to the form on the right. The image should be large and fill the space. I DO NOT just want a picture in a rectangular box. I want the picture to either "pop out" of the box, or to fade into the top or body and work with the text around it.
3. a form containing a header, smaller description, name, phone, email, submit button and privacy statement on the right hand side.
4. Under that, a place for the main blog and a sidebar.

I can't say it enough - imagery and polish, imagery and polish. I want it to look like it was created in 2010.

Common Complaints From Completed Projects.

1. Don't make the top of the page vibrant with color, and ignore below by making it different greys.
2. The image should use gradients, brushes, fades to integrate it behind the form. It should also "pop out" of the box if possible.
3. Don't go too crazy with boxes. I dont want box with an image, with a box for a form, a box for a phone, a box for each heading, etc. Use gradients and spacing to achieve same effect.