I was born and raised in New Hampshire, and I currently live in just outside of Boston, which is about an hour from New Hampshire. I learned how to ski in New Hampshire (Loon and Waterville Valley), spent time in the lakes region, and enjoyed being raised in NH (for the most part).
Over the last year or so, I bought a handful of New Hampshire vacation area domain names:
- LakeWinnipesaukee.com – Private acquisition
- Sunapee.com – Auction at NameJet
- SquamLake.com – Auction at NameJet
- NHMountains.com – Hand registered at Uniregistry
I also own quite a few real estate domain names such as WhiteMountainsRealEstate.com, JaffreyRealEstate.com, BowRealEstate.com, LakeWinnisquamRealEstate.com, and a few others.
Lake Winnipesaukee is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the State. There are many beach houses and cottages on the Lake, and there are great restaurants and hotels in the area. Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in New Hampshire. Lots of people spend their Summers on Lake Winnipesaukee, either in vacation homes or even at Summer camps.
Sunapee is a town in NH that is home to a ski area, Mt. Sunapee, and a large lake, Lake Sunapee.com. Similar to Lake Winnipesaukee, there is lots to do in Sunapee.
Squam Lake is a smaller lake in the NH Lakes Region, and there are lots of fun activities there, too. There are also vacation homes, restaurants, and hotels in the area.
NH is known for its mountains, and I figured NHMountains.com was worth owning, especially because it was an inexpensive hand registration.
Whenever people ask me about development these days, I tell them I have no interest in doing anything additional. This blog takes quite a bit of time, and my other websites along with my business also take time to manage. However, I could see myself building out these domain names in the future, especially if I spend more time up there in the future. I don’t know when the future will be, but perhaps there will be a time I want to shift focus and build these out.
In the last year, LakeWinnipesaukee.com and Sunapee.com have received several inquiries, and I turned down a large offer for Sunapee.com shortly after winning the auction. I may regret not selling for that offer, but taking risks is a requirement in this business.
I didn’t intend to buy a group of NH domain names, but I would classify myself as an opportunistic buyer. When I see a good domain name, I will jump on it if the price is right. These are investments for my company, although I don’t know if they will be developed or re-sold.
The names you registered look very good and they might return a good profit! Best of luck!
I, too, am a fan of what the northeast region has to offer tourists, vacationers, weekend getaway-ers, those seeking a nearby place to relax. That inspired a few domain regs years ago.
What are your thoughts regarding somewhat related, generic / descriptive domains – such as LakeCottages.com, NYLakeHomes.com, etc? I’ve long been a fan of the FSBO market so I’ve picked up a number of domains that might be developed along those lines (HomeFSBO.com, CondosFSBO.com) or acquired by a real estate agency.
What’s been your experience “of the trends” in selling to the real estate broker/agent/agency market? Have you seen signs of resistance to investment “in a (better) generic / descrptive address” falling away as the WWW becomes an increasingly competitive marketing space / marketplace?
I ask such simple questions. 😉
Interesting valuates.
would love to hear a general idea % wise of what you pay for these?
I think 5% of valuate is fair based on the economy.
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LakeWinnipesaukee.com $19,000
Sunapee.com $9,700 456,000 6,750 – high $1.89 All Taken SquamLake.com $5,000 202,000 2,000 – medium $1.07 All Taken NhMountains.com $760 33,300 262 – low $1.27 Com Taken
Valuate says some of my shit domain names are worth a ton and some of the names I sold for a ton aren’t worth much of anything.
I turned down an offer of more than 10x what I paid for Sunapee.com in August. It may have been a foolish, but I am happy to have the name, especially now.
Great names you have there-we own DoverListings.com and NeedhamListings.com for real estate but could only find one good one in a great ski town-JacksonHole.Those “ski/resort” geo names don’t come easy. Good luck with them.
Coincidentally, I own NeedhamRealEstate.com and JamaicaPlain.com.
That’s interesting-I also own about five others in Ma.but didnt want to spam your thread-but if you sell Needham and they want Dover and Needham (listings .com drop me a note!)
Personally I would register all the relevant typos for LakeWinnipesaukee.com and include them with the sale. The spelling is very hard to remember with that one. It’s worth the extra 80 bucks a year to have 5 or 10 obvious typos.
If developed that would be a good idea. It doesn’t get a ton of type-in traffic so I am sure the typos get way less.
Good to know that NH Related domains have some interest. I also find that Area Codes should find some interest in the long term and hence I have kept two aged brandable domains with plans for development or selling them if I get a price near to what I want. I own NHFind.com which could be developed into say New Hampshire directory website. Same for NJSpace.com which I think could again be developed into New Jersey directory. And to add to this, even Valuate gives reasonable figures to the domains. So what do you think about future trends in the directory / real estate market because both these domains easily fit the bill for geo + real estate + search + brandable domain if I am not mistaken.
No idea about the value of those. I suppose someone could want to build them into brands, but branding is not my area of expertise.
Yes I think if some brand picks up it may hold immense value. But as you rightly say value of a domain cannot be determined. Its like “Beauty lies in the hands of the beholder”. Any domains value is zero to reg fee till some other person shows interest. It is perceived value rather than intrinsic value that drives the domain market. One user or a group of users may feel that the domain is a junk domain, but any one who has plans for the domain may feel its available for a steal. Right from start I strongly feel that a domains value is that much that any user is willing to pay you!
NH native here – Seacoast area. I know you’re not a big fan of gTLDs, but I can’t help but think that there is nothing more memorable than natural-language. In our visual world of advertising, a name that’s semantically correct like Seacoast.Properties is easy to remember. If someone can’t get the dot com, it’s useless to have .net, .biz, .us, etc. I have quite a few New England names but will only be renewing the ones that have generated interest, or that I have decided to develop myself. Reg. fees are astronomical, right?
Anyway, I’m rolling out a series of .market domains that I’m developing for the Seacoast area – trying to raise awareness of the gTLDs & do some good for our community by supporting the farmers. http://www.ExeterFarmers.Market is live – still working on the others. Boots on the ground marketing – handing out tee shirts and reminding farmers that .farm is available.
Thanks for sharing what’s in your NH portfolio – Sunapee.com is gold!