Commercial real estate website maintenance can keep your property pages useful and your inquiries moving when the support agreement names the work, the owner, and the limits.
I recommend treating that agreement like a working plan for your brokerage rather than a vague promise to keep the website running.
Your site can load while a brochure points to an old flyer or a contact form sends inquiries to a former employee.
A hosting invoice alone won’t tell you who fixes either problem.
Before your next renewal, ask the nine questions below and request answers in writing.
The goal is a plan your team can use on an ordinary Tuesday and during an unexpected outage.
I focus on creating commercial real estate websites, so I care about what happens after the launch celebration ends.
A clear plan helps connect the website you buy with the work needed to keep it useful.
If you are comparing a replacement site with another year of repairs, I can help you start with a defined website project.
Request my website design price list so you can discuss the build and ongoing care as separate decisions.
Hosting coverage needs a written boundary.
1. What does the hosting fee actually cover?
Hosting, website care, and content editing can be sold together, but they aren’t the same job.
Ask your provider to separate them on the proposal even if you receive one bill.
The hosting portion should describe the environment that serves your site and the provider’s part in keeping it available.
The care portion should explain who handles the website software and checks the public pages.
Content editing should say who changes listings, team details, downloadable brochures, and contact information.
I would ask for a simple example involving a property page that stops loading.
Does the hosting team investigate only the server, or does someone also inspect the website itself?
If another company built the listing system, who contacts that company and stays with the issue?
Ask whether the agreement includes domain renewal, certificate renewal, and the email service used for website messages.
Don’t assume those services are covered just because the same logo appears on their invoices.
Request the actual renewal terms for each included service, including who receives notices and approves payment.
If the proposal mentions availability commitments, ask how availability is measured and which exclusions apply.
A service credit, a repair commitment, and a promise to answer the phone mean different things.
You need the definition that applies to your contract.
Put one named contact on your side of the agreement so routine approvals don’t bounce between every agent in the office.
That person doesn’t have to be technical, but they should know which issues deserve attention.
Backup promises need a recovery target.
2. How much work could disappear after a restore?
Ask how often backups run, how long copies are kept, and what each copy contains.
The official WordPress backup guidance distinguishes the database from the website files.
Both matter when your site depends on page content, uploaded property photos, and downloadable documents.
A content export alone is not a substitute for an agreed full recovery process.
Use the WordPress backup documentation to compare that distinction with the provider’s written coverage.
Then bring the conversation back to your listing workload.
Imagine your team updates several vacancies after the most recent backup and the site later needs to be restored.
Which changes would someone have to enter again?
This is a planning example, not a prediction about how often your website will fail.
It helps you judge whether the proposed backup schedule fits your business.
Ask where copies are stored and what happens if the main hosting account becomes unavailable.
Also ask whether a clean older copy can be selected if a problem goes unnoticed for a while.
I want the agreement to identify who chooses the recovery point and who approves the loss of more recent changes.
Restoring the website might not restore records stored in an outside listing or email service.
Have the provider name those boundaries instead of implying that one backup covers every connected account.
Finally, ask when a restore was last tested for your setup and what evidence you can receive.
A dated test summary is more useful than a reassuring screenshot of a backup switch.
Update work needs testing and a fallback.
3. Which updates are included in maintenance?
Ask whether the plan covers the website platform, theme, plugins, and any custom code your site uses.
For a WordPress site, ask which updates happen automatically and which receive a separate review.
Automatic updates don’t remove the need to decide who checks the result.
The official WordPress update documentation recommends backing up the website before updating it.
The WordPress update documentation provides a reference for that backup step.
Ask your provider to describe the normal sequence in plain language.
For example, the provider might confirm a current backup, apply changes, and test the pages your brokerage relies on.
Your contract should describe the actual process being offered rather than borrow that example as a promise.
Request a separate explanation of urgent security fixes, because a routine schedule may not describe how those are handled.
4. What happens if an update breaks something?
A useful answer identifies who investigates, who approves a rollback, and what happens when custom repairs cost extra.
Ask how changes are tested before they reach the public site and whether a separate test copy is included.
If a test copy exists, ask how it is protected and whether it can send real inquiry emails.
The test should include opening a property page, downloading a brochure, and sending a marked test inquiry.
A homepage screenshot won’t show whether those actions still work.
Also ask who pays for a replacement when an abandoned add-on can no longer be maintained.
I prefer that discussion before a renewal because it separates routine care from a future development project.
Neither side benefits from discovering that difference during a repair.
Listing accuracy needs an editing agreement.
5. Who keeps property information current?
A maintenance plan may cover software while leaving every listing edit with your team.
That can be a sensible arrangement if everyone knows it.
Ask whether the fee includes changing availability, replacing flyers, removing a departed agent, and correcting a phone number.
For included edits, ask what counts as a request and whether revisions use the same allowance.
Some tasks may be quick, while others require design or development work.
Let the provider define those boundaries rather than using the word small as a measurement.
I would send a sample request that includes a property address, the current page, the approved change, and the desired completion date.
Ask the provider to classify it under the proposed agreement.
If listings come from a separate service, identify the place where the authoritative record should be edited.
Changing the website display may not change the source record.
Ask who checks that an approved change has reached the public page and its linked brochure.
A space can show new availability on the page while the old PDF still tells a different story.
Create a simple approval habit so an agent confirms the facts before the edit is requested.
The website provider can publish supplied information without knowing whether a suite is still available.
Keep a dated record of the request and the final check so the next person can see what happened.
That record also helps when several agents share responsibility for one property.
Once your listing edits have a clear owner, give that person a practical place to start with the next marketing task.
My free commercial real estate marketing resources can help you plan that work alongside the website.
Support hours need a clear escalation route.
6. What does an urgent response include?
Ask which channel creates a support request and which channel is reserved for emergencies.
Then ask what the provider means by response time.
An acknowledgment tells you that the request arrived, while a diagnosis or repair takes additional work.
A response commitment is not automatically a resolution deadline.
Have the agreement state its business hours, time zone, holiday coverage, and after-hours options.
If your brokerage works across regions, make sure the people submitting requests understand those hours.
Next, agree on examples of urgency.
A site that cannot load, a suspected account compromise, and a typo on a team page need different handling.
The exact categories should come from the support agreement rather than a label someone invents after an issue occurs.
Ask who may authorize emergency work and any charge outside the regular plan.
If that person is unavailable, name a backup decision maker.
During an incident, the provider should know where to send progress updates and who will notify the brokerage staff.
I would also ask how often updates are sent when there is no repair estimate yet.
Silence can leave three different people opening three different tickets about the same problem.
A single shared record keeps the problem description, approvals, and next action together.
For suspected security problems, ask what containment and cleanup the plan includes and what requires specialist help.
The WordPress hardening guidance treats security as an ongoing set of precautions, not a promise that a site can never be compromised.
The WordPress hardening guidance explains why backups, updates, and access precautions all belong in the discussion.
Connected services need an investigation owner.
7. Who follows a failed inquiry across services?
A contact form can appear to send while the intended person never sees the message.
Your support agreement should identify who tests the whole route rather than stopping at the success message.
Use a clearly marked test inquiry and confirm its arrival with the receiving team.
Then ask what evidence the provider records without placing private client information in routine reports.
A useful record might include the test time, the page used, and confirmation that the expected mailbox received it.
If delivery fails, someone needs to decide whether the problem sits with the website, the sending service, or the receiving mailbox.
Ask whether the provider coordinates that investigation or simply gives your team the next company’s contact details.
For outside listing feeds, ask the same question about a missing property or outdated brochure link.
Support from one company does not automatically include control over another company’s system.
I would ask for a list of the connected services covered by the plan and the ones your team must manage separately.
Each entry should name the subscription owner and the person who can approve a change.
You don’t need to publish passwords or account details in that list.
Keep sensitive access information in the business’s approved secure system.
Agree on how staff should report a failure with enough detail to investigate it.
A page link, approximate time, device type, and description of the expected result give support a better starting point than saying the website is broken.
If you prefer watching before planning your next website project, browse my helpful video walkthroughs and tools and choose a topic that fits your next task.
Monthly reports should show completed work.
8. What evidence comes with the monthly fee?
Ask for a sample maintenance report before signing a renewal.
It should help you see what was completed, what was checked, and what still needs a decision.
An update count alone doesn’t explain whether the brokerage’s key workflows work.
I would look for a short record of software changes, backup status, restore testing when performed, and unresolved issues.
The report should distinguish a check that passed from a check that wasn’t performed.
It should also distinguish a scheduled backup from a restore that someone actually tested.
Ask whether your plan includes reviewing the main contact route and a representative property page.
For listings that change often, your staff may still need a more frequent content review.
Agree on that rhythm based on actual publishing activity rather than assuming the monthly report catches every stale detail.
For example, the agent approving a new flyer can check the public download as part of the same task.
That is a suggested workflow, not a claim that your current package includes it.
Give unresolved items an owner and a next step so they don’t live forever at the bottom of a PDF.
If a paid repair is recommended, ask for the affected page, the practical impact, and the proposed scope.
You should be able to tell an urgent repair from a useful improvement.
That distinction makes the report a decision tool instead of another attachment nobody opens.
Renewal terms should separate care from new work.
9. Which changes trigger an extra quote?
Before renewing, ask what is included, excluded, capped, or billed separately.
Common discussion points include new page layouts, additional listing features, replacement software, and repairs involving outside services.
These are questions to ask, not claims about what any particular provider includes.
If the plan includes an editing allowance, ask how time is recorded and whether unused work carries forward.
Ask how the provider gets approval before going beyond that allowance.
For paid add-ons, identify who owns the license and what happens if it expires.
Also ask how cancellation affects support, hosting, stored backups, and access to the website.
Those services may have different end dates even when they share an invoice.
I suggest keeping the renewal answers together on one page with the provider’s written scope attached.
That gives the next staff member a usable reference without making them search old email threads.
You don’t need the biggest plan to have a clear agreement.
You need coverage that fits the website’s role and a realistic owner for everything outside it.
If the same broken workflow keeps returning, ask whether it needs a defined repair project rather than more routine maintenance.
A redesign can be a separate decision with its own brief and quote.
Maintenance shouldn’t become a mystery charge for rebuilding the website one small request at a time.
If the renewal discussion points to a new website, I can help you define what the new build needs to do.
Get my website design price list and bring your maintenance questions to the project conversation.
Website maintenance questions have practical answers.
What should commercial real estate website maintenance include?
At minimum, agree on responsibility for hosting, backups, software updates, key workflow checks, and support requests.
Content editing, outside services, and custom repairs need their own written boundaries because they may be sold separately.
Is hosting the same as website maintenance?
Hosting serves the website, while maintenance describes the work performed to keep the website software and agreed workflows usable.
One provider may sell both services, but the agreement should explain what each fee covers.
How often should a CRE website be backed up?
Choose a backup schedule based on how much recent listing and content work the brokerage could accept reentering after a restore.
Ask about retention, storage, and recovery testing as well as frequency, because a frequent backup still needs a usable recovery process.
Do automatic updates replace a maintenance provider?
Automatic updates can handle some software changes, but they do not decide who checks forms, resolves conflicts, or approves extra repair work.
Your team can handle agreed tasks internally if it has the access, time, and skills to do them.
Are property edits included in a maintenance fee?
Property edits are included only when the agreement says they are.
Ask how changes are submitted, who approves the facts, what allowance applies, and who checks the public page after an edit.
Does a maintenance plan guarantee immediate repairs?
A maintenance plan provides only the response and repair commitments stated in its terms.
Ask the provider to distinguish acknowledgment, investigation, restoration, and any separately quoted work before you renew.
