If you are a domain investor and you have ever had the opportunity to exchange emails with Richard Swerdlow, you’ve probably been impressed with the company logos in the footer of his email: Condo.com, Houses.com, Property.com, and Location.com. With the exception of Location.com, which is under development, the other three exact match domain names are fully operating businesses.
I read some news about Houses.com that was reported yesterday, and I want to share it with you. In light of the recent Apartments.com deal and Auction.com deal, it seems that there is quite a bit of money flowing in the real estate space, especially for these exact match keyword .com domain names with successful businesses.
In a press release yesterday, Houses.com announced a joint venture with Bayview Asset Management, LLC, a huge real estate investment and mortgage firm based in Florida. According to the press release, “the transaction provides Houses.com capital and resources to elevate its brand, add product features, and scale consumer traffic and revenues.” Terms of the deal were not shared in the news release.
It would be very cool to see another great exact match domain name like this become a well known brand in this space. According to Swerdlow, that is the plan for Houses.com. “We are dedicated to becoming the definitive marketplace for single-family houses and a leading consumer brand in the massive, growing online real estate market,” he said.
The full press release announcing the new joint venture is below:
Houses.com, an online real estate brokerage and marketplace for single-family homes, has entered into a definitive joint venture agreement with Bayview Asset Management, LLC. Bayview is a real estate investment and mortgage firm with headquarters in Coral Gables, Fla. The transaction provides Houses.com capital and resources to elevate its brand, add product features, and scale consumer traffic and revenues.
The joint venture is expected to position Houses.com to seize opportunities emerging from online real estate growth. Borrell Associates reports more than $15 billion was spent in 2013 on online real estate advertising in the U.S. The total market for real estate advertising in 2014 is projected to exceed $27 billion.
Houses.com has more than two million annual visitors and more than five million market-rate and distressed property listings. Its real-time feeds from more than 100 data sources enable users to view a comprehensive selection of homes and connect with real estate professionals.
“We are dedicated to becoming the definitive marketplace for single-family houses and a leading consumer brand in the massive, growing online real estate market,” said Richard Swerdlow, CEO of Houses.com. “This joint venture will enable us to leverage our brand and acquire traffic and qualified real estate leads. Our differentiated value proposition – real-time connections to a nationwide network of real estate professionals, extensive inventory selection, and unique marketplace approach – gives Houses.com a prominent seat at the table among consumers’ best choices for finding homes.”
As a licensed brokerage company, Houses.com participates as both a publisher in the $15 billion annual market for online real estate advertising and as a broker in the $990 billion residential real estate market. Houses.com showcases houses for sale, rent and vacation, along with foreclosures, auctions, homes for seniors, new construction, and rent-to-own properties. It is curating more than 250,000 housing communities on the site, giving holistic views into quality of life and real estate opportunities in these communities.
As the category domain name for single-family homes, Houses.com is expected to benefit from significant organic search traffic, in addition to paid traffic, attracting qualified homebuyers and generating high-quality leads. It provides a comprehensive marketplace for consumers and a well-branded marketing channel for real estate professionals, banks, hedge funds, and other inventory partners.
About Houses.com
Houses.com is a national real estate marketplace for listing, searching, buying, selling and renting single-family homes. The licensed real estate brokerage company provides a suite of brokerage and advertising services to consumers and real estate professionals. Located at the “category-defining” address for houses, the site is differentiated from other real estate search sites by its marketplace approach, comprehensive inventory of houses, and broad base of service providers. Houses.com is part of the portfolio of digital real estate properties owned in part by eReal Estate Holdings, which includes Condo.com and Property.com. These portals are considered some of the world’s largest online marketplaces for real estate, with more than five million active properties for sale and rent in the U.S. and more than 70 countries worldwide and receive more than 20 million unique visitors per year. The privately owned company has headquarters in Miami. Visit: www.houses.com
About Bayview Asset Management
Bayview Asset Management, LLC (“Bayview”), initially founded in 1993, is an investment management firm focused on mortgage credit, headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida with approximately 1,500 employees across asset management and loan servicing operations. Bayview has substantial experience in sourcing, purchasing, servicing, and managing residential and commercial mortgage loans and mortgage-backed securities. More information is available at www.bayviewassetmanagement.com
I don’t really like the domain, houses.com…the plural ruins it
and you’re a domain “pro”?
i think houses.com is a great domain,catagory killer,and says EXACTLY what it is about,house.com?? If your selling one house,the grammer is fine,but it doesn’t seem quite right does it,don’t know what domain pro is on about Elliot,I’d love it in my portfolio.
I like homes.com
now thats a sweet name
I like them both.
Houses seems like a pretty strong name. Must’ve cost them a fortune.
nice domains….
choose low cost domain purchase from…..
this is one of the industries where the domain name is dying off quick, it is proven time and time again, zillow, trulia, curbed, etc. In order for them to gain any traction they need to create a business model that is different and compelling, showing property listings is not going to do it, perhaps their capital influx will help, but when you compare their traffic to zillow its not even in the same league and zillow lost money last year on 190 million in revenue.
We picked up SouthernHomes.com and have a a handful of other names to go after listings in a geographical niche area of the southeastern US. With a lower listing cost and some promotional tools, we hope to get a small piece of that market share.