Jared, excellent post.
Wish someone had published some thing like your post years ago, before I gained a little knowledge about web sites.
In all honesty I am not an expert or claim to be close to an expert on web site design - actually my knowledge would probably fill the tip of the baby finger for some one like you.
I might be missing a point, but real estate agents need to be able to evaluate the "pro's" and "con's" of template vs custom, as well as, how to evaluate the route to the Utopian web site.
One of my personal goals is gain more knowledge and with people like Jim, Ken and yourself, I hope that I will be able to gain more. As the old saying goes "How can you soar with the eagles when you fly with turkeys."
Rather than another post - adding I am also looking forward to the rest of the articles.