Domains are not property, virtual or otherwise. If you must use the real estate analogy - each domain you own is the same as a property lease. You are required to pay an annual fee else the lease expires and the domain reverts to the registry.

There are a lot of types of domainers ( The Different Types of Domainers | mwzd.com ), none of which are understood by the general public tbh.

To explain this to the average joe I'd written this post - Domaining is not cybersquatting! | mwzd.com

I'll quote a couple of people who definitely know a lot more than I do about domaining:

Sahar Sarid - "We always hear the comparison of domains to real estate however the other comparison I heard many years ago from a fellow domainer is that domains are like collectibles. If one can collect cards or memorabilia one should be able to collect domains. Is it any wonder that many in the domain space are people with prior collectible interests? In Rick’s house, in the living room, there’s a jar full of hotel keys from his salesmanship/tradeshows days. Another highly successful domainer started first collecting sports cards, and yet another started collecting watches. Why not collect domains for their rarity/scarcity value? And if this is acceptable (as it should) then it is essentially a bona fide use of a domain and should hold against trademark owners. If the world was as it should be."

Yun Ye - "People collect Pokemon cards, and they don’t call them Pokemon squatters."

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