How to make a website for a real estate agent?

You (he) definitely needs a CMS. Take a look at OpenSourceCMS, http://www.opensourcecms.com/index.php, which basically has umpteen of 'em installed and provides a public admin account so you can take any of them for a test drive. They're arranged by function, and I'd start with the Portal category, maybe also checking out E-Commerce (though without the whole shopping-cart issue) and Wikis. SpecialK's got a good point, too, though. WP is very user-friendly, and the most recent version supports tags in addition to categories. The only thing would be finding a good theme (presumably he's not cut out to design one of his own) that breaks out of the usual blog format to display the listings how he wants 'em.

http://www.open-realty.org/ http://www.phpmyrealty.com/

I think I'd just put his profile on Zillow or Realtor.com. That's where the buyers are going to be, and the sites are already hooked into the MLS system. If he is going to blog regularly about the local market and try to build a reputation as a local expert, then a blog makes sense. If he just needs a place to plant his profile and listings, I'd go where the rest of the real estate world already is online.

Forgot to add, I would get a memorable domain for email purposes, and just point it at his profile at Zillow for web.

If you don't want to follow the suggestions above (which all seem pretty good), another option would be to pay someone to code a small site for him. This type of problem is perfect for php with a MySQL database, and really shouldn't take all that long for someone with knowledge of both.

2nding the Wordpress suggestion. It's the solution that's going to require the least customization for your needs. You could probably have it up and running in an hour.

RealTown's http://www.internetcrusade.com/Products/WebhostingServices.asp has lots of stuff like this, just for real estate pros. I've never heard anything bad about them in my time in the industry.

Curiously, I was the original author of OpenRealty, the project that eventually became http://www.open-realty.org/. I haven't kept up too actively with the project, but that's probably what you're looking for -- a cms specifically for real estate. There are a number of plugins that allow you to suck up MLS data (if you want it), but for just adding / searching property data, that'll be more or less what you're looking for.

I've installed Open-Realty for this purpose, but haven't really gotten into using it yet. On the other end, here are some http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/using-wordpress-to-sell-real-estate for Wordpress. I would check out that route, as you already have WP experience, and it should be super simple for your dad to jump into.