I was wondering if people have done their own websites or if they hired it out?

It is always better to use a web design company if you are interested in having your site built and to rank at in the search engines at the same time. The reason I say that is because there is a very large learning curve for internet marketing so you can spend your time selling houses.

This is very true. A lot of the times people are so bogged down with trying to design a site and then realize there's much more to it than they think and it just wastes time. My site is a work in progress. Check it out.

I'm working on getting listings set into the pages, but for now, I just want it simple to see how much traffic I get the way it is.

Liz2Sell

I did my own web design, but I hired someone to build the programming side of the site.

hey i m not a very good web developer but i design websites very well and use photo shop for designing websites i would also recommend u to use that for better designs songs

I would always use a web design company, when you are not already very skilled in this field.
Because as liz2Sell already said, it is a lot more to do as just using front-page or similar programs. It has also a lot to do with combining marketing, informatics and design (usability, etc.). And all the three disciplines have a huge deepness, which can't be learned in a few months..

I came from this field and we made our website Tierralinda - Costa Rica Real Estate - Home by our own. And this was a process of 1,5 years and we are still improving.

Hope I could help a bit..

im into free templates in the net and using my little html knowledge, i tweak it and voila design for my page