IveGotAHammerwebsite redesign:before & after

IveGotAHammer Real Estate Investments is a small family business in Efland, North Carolina. It buys houses and land, including vacant lots and rural acreage, and it has been doing it since 2020.

Its own site says it has closed 165+ properties, that it pays all closing costs and that there are no commissions or fees. The name comes from the founder, Mark, who worked as a carpenter and remodeler for 12 years before moving into real estate full-time.

A person landing on this page owns a house or a piece of land they no longer want. The homepage has one job: tell them in seconds that this company buys it, and make it easy to call or ask for an offer.

This is not an agency rebuild. I gave the concept about 2 hours and spent them on the fixes that do the most for customers: the 20% of the work that gets 80% of the improvement.

To show how much that improves, I score every original homepage and every concept on the same 100-point checklist. Most checks are yes or no, and a script runs the technical ones (speed, mobile, accessibility). When in doubt, the point goes to the original site.

The original does real things well. Its Google rating ("Based on 50 reviews", with named reviewers) is in the second screen, the "165+ properties since 2020" line is a number a seller can check, and the mobile page already has an "Get an Offer" button on the first screen. The gap is on a wide screen, where the first screen has no words that say what the company does. One note on the capture: the "Recently Sold Properties" area is an empty white box in my screenshots. The live page has an embedded Google map there that the capture browser did not draw. So I do not count the empty box as a flaw, and I could not see what the map shows.

The first screen and the mobile view, original on the left and concept on the right. The slider at the top of the post compares the first screen up close.

First screen

01Say what and where, at the top

"We Buy Houses and Land - Fast" is the headline, with "North Carolina's Cash Buyer" above it. The original's slogan says "helping people achieve their dreams and goals", which could be any business.

02One main button, one number

"Get My Free Offer" is the filled amber button, "Call Us Now" is an outline beside it, and the number is written out in large type above both. The header has the same number and a "Get an Offer" button.

03Proof next to the promise

The line under the headline says "165+ closings since 2020", the same figure the original states lower down. A bar of four numbers follows the hero: 165+ properties, 5+ years in NC, a 10-day minimum close and 4+ deals a month.

04A two-field form

Every offer button scrolls to a block with property address and phone number. On the original, "Get an Offer" goes to another page whose form asks for seven things.

Mobile

01A call bar that stays put

"Call Now" and "Get Offer" stay at the bottom of the screen the whole way down. The original mobile page has one button, but no phone number.

02Buttons a thumb can hit

The two hero buttons are 57 and 59px tall. The phone link in the header is only 17px tall, which I list below.

1. 01Let the first words on the page say what you buy. "We buy land and houses" was already on this site, but a screen too low on a desktop. Put it first.
2. 02Keep your Google rating on the homepage, near the top. This is the one thing the original did better than my concept. A named review on Google is worth more than a promise.
3. 03Put the phone number where a thumb or a mouse finds it. A seller with a house they need gone is often ready to call. Show the number in the header and in the first screen, and make it a link.
4. 04Ask for less on the first form. An address and a phone number is enough to start. Timeline, asking price and comments can wait for the call.
5. 05Show the people, not a slogan. The site already has a page naming Mark, Derek and Krizza. Bring them to the homepage with real photos, and say the founder was a carpenter for 12 years.
6. 06Use real photos of houses and land you have bought. A computer-made house says nothing about your work; a photo of a property you closed on says a lot.

The concept does not score 100. About 2 hours doesn't fix everything, and the checklist applies to my work too:

• The Google reviews are gone. The original has a 50-review Google rating with named reviewers, and my concept has no reviews at all. That costs the concept 11 points on the checklist. They need to come back near the top, linked to Google.
• The photos are not the business's. The house, the land aerial, the handshake and the Raleigh skyline are stock or unattributed. Real photos of properties and people would do more than any layout change.
• The team cards have initials, not faces. The names, roles and numbers come from the original's Our Team page.
• Some claims are mine, not the business's. The "written" offer, the list of eleven counties and "Serving All of North Carolina" are not on the original site. The "5+ years" and "4+ deals a month" figures come from "since 2020" and "closing 4+ deals per month". IveGotAHammer needs to confirm each one.
• The form is not wired up. It posts to a placeholder address, so it needs to be connected. The original also has a consent line for text messages that the concept dropped.
• Menu items are missing. The original links to Available Properties and Join Our Buyer List, for people buying from the company. The concept has no place for them.
• Mobile text is 15.4px. It should be 16px or more. Lighthouse mobile performance is 68 (the original scored 65), so it is only a little faster, and the accessibility scan found 11 serious issues.

If I were talking to Mark and Derek, I would start with what is working. You have a Google rating with real names on it, a number of closings a seller can check and a team page. That is more than many small buyers can show. The old homepage just hid it behind a big picture and a menu button.

The choice I am least sure about is the dark blue and amber look. It reads as a serious, fast company, but your name and your carpenter background suggest something warmer and more hands-on. That might be a better direction with real photos of you and your crew. I also left the reviews out of the concept, and that was a mistake I would fix first.

What the concept does not solve is the people. I named the team, but without real photos it is still a page about a company, not about you. Layout cannot fix that, and neither can two hours.