Also, I intentionally looked for the top agents in my area to see if I could find them on the Web. I quickly discovered that many top producers were ignoring the Internet or paying minimum attention to the medium by linking to an office site or merely setting up a one page generic site. In addition, I discovered that there were several agents that appeared very prominent on the Internet that I knew are very marginal salespeople. So I expanded my search nationally to see what agents in other cities were doing. In no time, it became clear to me who understands the Internet and who does not.
Several things are now perfectly clear.
The same concepts apply to web design. A good webmaster knows what works, what attracts clients, and in particular, what to avoid. I would suggest hiring someone that has Realtor success, specifically, not just success designing for any old business. When I first hired my webmaster, Dave Nienberg, I wanted to argue with him about a lot of details that he thought were important. Marketing on the web is critical.