If you are going to include only your own listings, this will not be that expensive; however, if you are planning to offer your services to agents across a wide geographic span, it will cost significantly more. You will also have to design some sort of tracking system to track your referrals to the agents that you represent.

You might consider purchasing comprehensive Web traffic analysis software, which will enable you to track where your Web site visitors are coming from. This information can be quite beneficial for future marketing purposes. Other costs that you will incur are related to the promotion of your Web site. Estimated cost is $10,000 to $60,000 to start.

The approach you take to operating this business determines how many employees will be needed. If you are going to represent only your own real estate listings online, you will need one employee—yourself. If you are targeting a wide geographic span, one to three employees will be needed. They will handle the offline and online promotion, fulfill service requests, and take care of all administrative tasks involved with running the day-to-day business operation.