Realtor Bill Hauck shares knowledge about Real Estate Domain Names

IT.com

domainking131

Forum Leader
Staff member
Bill Hauck shares his experience with Real Estate Domain Names:


I’ve been a residential real estate agent for nearly 20 years and a domain name investor/enthusiast for at least the last ten years, maybe longer. During that time, I’ve purchased a number of real estate-related domain names to use for my real estate business, and others for the sole purpose of licensing or reselling. If you’re considering purchasing real estate-related domain names with the goal of licensing or reselling them to an end-user, my thought process as both Realtor and as a domainer may be of some help to you.

As a Realtor, I wanted to acquire geo-specific, real estate-related domains for lead generation. I was able to acquire several on Namejet and purchased (or negotiated trades for) other domains directly from the owners. Here is a list of domains I was willing to purchase over the years, albeit not at very high prices; SiouxFallsLots.com, SiouxFallsLand.com, SiouxFallsListings.com, SiouxFallsTeam.com, SiouxFallsCondos.com, SiouxFallsCondominiums.com, SiouxFallsBuilders.com, SiouxFallsBuilder.com, SiouxFallsSDRealEstate.com, SiouxFallsProperties.com and SiouxFallsHome.com. While I still own most of the above domains, the most desirable domains a Realtor can own, and more importantly may be willing to pay thousands of dollars for, are “City”Homes.com or “City”RealEstate.com. I was fortunate to acquire SiouxFallsHomes.com after many years of staying in touch with the owner and making generous offers for the domain.

In my opinion, “City”Homes.com is a bit shorter and slightly more brandable. However, I like the keywords in “City”RealEstate.com better and the domain can also be used for residential and commercial property. While there may be some money to be made in other real estate-related domain names, my personal preference when investing in geo real estate domains is to focus on “City”Homes.com and “City”RealEstate.com.

Once you have a quality real estate domain (RED) that you want to license or sell is to find an end-user. Years ago, I used to make lists of individual real estate agents and their e-mail addresses. While I had some early success that led to licensing three real estate domains (REDs), the returns weren’t high enough to justify all of the work. More recently, I’ve found that it’s become difficult to find e-mails addresses of individual agents, although I suspect there are services available for such purposes.

Here are some bullet points from my personal experience

  • The best domains for Realtors are “City”Homes.com and “City”RealEstate.com.
  • Don’t buy any domains with the word “Realtor.” It’s a trademarked term, should always be capitalized, and the National Association of Realtors does some policing to make sure non-Realtors aren’t using the term. Even agents have to be careful how they use the term.
  • I’ve only had male real estate agents willing to license or buy domains from me. I don’t know why, it’s just my experience.
  • I’ve had a more difficult time licensing and selling domains of cities that are suburbs vs. the domains of what I call “free-standing” or “stand-alone” cities.
  • I think it helps to set up a simple website (I use WordPress) for each domain pointing out the benefits and a way to contact you. I really like the Domena WordPress Theme. See AugustaHomes.com for an example.
  • It’s A LOT of work to contact individual real estate agents.
  • Don’t assume people in real estate in California are necessarily going to be more tech savvy than agents in Nebraska or Minnesota. I’ve spoken with office managers and brokers in California that thought the idea of spending a couple thousand dollars for the “City”RealEstate.com domain of a city with a population well over 100,000 was crazy. I’ve also found there are some very smart, savvy agents in the Upper Midwest.
  • Focus on contacting the gatekeepers, such as the office managers at real estate firms. You may even be able to convince the head of the Multiple Listing Service in the relevant area to offer the domain in the announcements, which are often times run daily and e-mailed to all the agents.
  • Purchase real estate domains of fast-growing cities with robust real estate markets. Also, you’ll want to focus on cities with expensive housing, not the ones in which the average price of a home is $100,000.
  • Generally speaking, I focus on cities with populations over 100,000 people. However, I recently made an exception and purchased OkobojiRealEstate.com for $160 on Namejet. I liked the domain because I’m familiar with and travel to the area about once per year. While the town is quite small, the home prices for lake property are very high. Given there are fewer than ten real estate firms in the area, it took me less than 30 minutes to contact each of the Brokers and make them aware the domain was available. I had an offer within a day or two for a couple thousand dollars. I didn’t sell and plan to develop the domain.
  • I’ve had more success licensing and selling domains to agents that live in the same part of the US in which I live, the Upper Midwest. I think there’s more of a trust factor when you’re dealing with someone that lives in a similar area.
  • I believe once you receive a lead on one of your domains, it’s best to call and actually speak with the interested party. I think you have a better chance of sealing the deal with someone when you take the time to speak with them.
Find the complete article here

Source: DomainInvesting.com
 

whois



Forums dedicated to Indian domain names, including buying, selling, appraising, developing, and monetizing.

About Us

Threads
29,388
Messages
76,792
Members
7,945
Latest member
nilamburfurniture
Top Bottom