US City .Com Domain Names Wanted

I am once again looking to acquire smaller US city .com domain names that meet the specific requirements set out below. Please see the bullet points below, and if your domain name(s) meet ALL of the requirements, please post a comment with your domain name(s) and price(s).

  1. Actual United States city known by its residents as the name you have (Wikipedia page is a must)
  2. .COM only
  3. No hyphens
  4. Between 15,000 – 75,000 residents
  5. Keep in mind that I am not paying end user prices, so if your pricing isn’t great, your names aren’t for me. There’s nothing wrong with setting high prices, but I am looking for good values for these types of names.

If your name does meet the requirements but just isn’t of interest to me (maybe due to pricing or other reason), I will still post your comment so others can see.

If your domain name doesn’t meet one of the requirements, I will delete it and will not reply. I don’t mean to be harsh, but I have set out very specific parameters, and I would hope you respect my time and not submit domain names that aren’t related to this request.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

53 COMMENTS

  1. Edited – sorry.

    I know its not what you are looking for but I figure at $50 you or someone else just might be interested. It does have a college there and it is a pure geo, if still a .us.

    If you think I’m taking advantage of you posting this Elliot then please just don’t publish the comment. $50 does not mean much to me, just thought that someone might actually want to buy this domain.

    Troy

  2. We can talk discuss TampaBayCity.com if you are interested. It’s strange one because the place can be Tampa, Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay City, and of course you can choose the population to match. Either way, it’s not on my development list and I would like to see it go to a good home.

  3. Just a question…

    Would you ever consider a city.org which have a bit less of 3 million residents… and it’s one of the main cities of a south american country (VE)?

  4. @ Elliot

    Every time I visit your blog you give me a “new homework”. I always learn something new, and you give me new ideas on how to expend my small internet business.

    I know this is very off topic but i had to mention it 😉

    Thank you!

    • @ Chef Patrick

      I think the name is over priced in this market. It’s also not the type of name I am looking to buy (city .com names with 15k-75k residents)

  5. Tacoma.com would be a great domain to own but the owner has consistently been asking prices that are way to high. Seems funny that before this recession started he was asking $100k for it, now he wants you to get $150k Patrick.

    I admire a man that tries to broker regardless but it is unlikely that Tacoma.com will sell at that price.

  6. I don’t know what type of return people look for….but a city the size of Tacoma for $150,000 is a great deal. It should be purchased by an end user/operator in Tacoma that should develop the appropriate software, and begin to monetize the site. A City.com this size will easily bring in $100,000 PLUS in yearly revenue, giving the owner an incredible multiple return on his investment. Within 18-24 months, Tacoma.com should be worth 3-5 times a buyers original investment, plus throw off positive cash flow. We make between $48,000 to $60,000 per year on FountainHills.com in Arizona, with a population of less than 25,000. I wouldn’t sell FountainHills.com for $150,000….so Tacoma.com in the proper hands at $150,000 imo is a good deal.

  7. @Troy

    $150k is a starting point, there is always a little wiggle room.

    Tacoma means more than just the city, so we may have some success without going the GEO route. I just got this under contract so I’ll start my marketing efforts after DOMAINfest this week. Guess we’ll find out what it sells for soon 🙂

    And thanks!

    • @ Chef

      That would be a nice double middle finger to Rick if you could sell it for $150k when he couldn’t sell it for $110k in August LOL 🙂

  8. Classic case of investor versus end user on price valuations. I agree it may not be a quick buy/sell for an investor….my reasoning is end user based only. That is where I would concentrate for sure. Elliot…we’ve got lots of work to do on Burbank.com, but I predict that the “business” not just the “domain” this time next year will be worth a multiple of what someone could have purchased it for last year. Once City In The Box is completely installed, and the revenue is generating $60,000 to $100,000 annually, it is a whole new ball game.

  9. Fred, FountainHills.com is making $46-$60K per year?

    I know Compete.com is not exact, but that is some serious money from 500 to 2500 unique visits per month.

    Sorry, but that throws up a BS flag! 🙂

  10. We don’t sell on CPM, and you are correct, Compete.com is far from exact. Our golf commission on trade alone earns us over $36,000 per year…the remainder is real estate, directory upgrades, etc. I have nothing to prove or hide, and have no reason at all to inflate earnings on Elliot’s Blog….just trying to share my experiences. We are presently working on a major casino deal…there is a large one in FountainHills…and also a deal with the Radisson…so our earnings, if we are successful in closing these 2 pending deals, should take us close to $100,000 per year in a city with less than 25,000 people. Now, I am the first to admit that Fountain Hills has more going for it than many 25,000 populated cities, plus we are local, as it is right next to Scottsdale and Scottsdale.com….but it shows what can be done when an end user develops a City.com properly.

  11. @ Tommy

    Fred is one of the most straight up, no bullshit guys I know in the goedomain space.

    As I said when I announced the Burbank.com news, I will be happy to provide revenue updates (as much as I can share without breaking any confidentiality) on how the site is doing with Fred’s City in the Box platform. I am confident in Fred and his team.

  12. Hi Elliot and Readers:

    Can anyone tell me if there is a formula for buying Geo Domains as it relates to population?

    I thought I once read that the norm is $.50 per member of population. So if a city had a population of 20,000, the selling price should be around $10,000. Is this correct?

    Thanks,
    Mark

  13. @ Mark

    Very hard to say because so much depends on the actual city. There are plenty of small touristy towns that I would happily pay more than $1.00 per resident and there are others where I wouldn’t even pay $.10.

    Lately, I’ve been paying anywhere from $.10-.20 for city .com names where there’s nothing outstanding about the city/town. The market isn’t great for geodomain names right this moment, but that could be attributed to the fact that people think their domain names are worth more than someone would pay and/or they just don’t want to sell for market prices. Some people do, and some people don’t.

  14. Fred,

    What does this mean?

    “commission on trade”

    Are you saying that you are trading for services on FountainHills.com and claiming profit at the full value of those services? Like if I traded advertising to a golf course and instead of them paying me they let me play for free then I claimed a profit at the retail price of what it would cost me to play on that course?

    Sorry, but I am confused. =)

    Troy

  15. I don’t mean to point fingers here but if a domain is such a good price then why have you not bough it? If you know that you can make $100,000 next year along on Tacoma.com then you are a fool for not snapping it up right now and using Chef Patrick as the broker. Just the fact that you are not buying it Fred make me question if you really believe what you are saying.

    You can’t claim that you are too busy because you are still working to build city in a box sites for others and as an entrepreneur you would certainly be willing to make more money for yourself.

    I am not trying to start a fight here. To be honest I think that you an I have a handful of very large reasons to work together (which I am not quite willing to admit to you yet in that we are in a very remote way competitors, you just don’t know about me yet=) and be friends but I am desirous to really understand you. If you really think it could make that kind of money, and if you are making a great living with geo sites, then I can’t think of a single reason why you would not buy it.

    Please explain.

    Again, I am not trying to start a fight here. Something is just not making sense in my mind and perhaps you can clear it up.

  16. @ Troy

    Not trying to speak for Fred here, but my own perspective is there are TONS of opportunities in the domain space and it would cost millions of dollars to take advantage of them all. It’s difficult to tie up $100k in one name even if you know in your mind that you can make that back.

  17. Elliot,

    That argument does not make a lot of sense for me.

    “It’s difficult to tie up $100k in one name even if you know in your mind that you can make that back.”

    We are talking about the belief that you can turn a $150,000 domain plus development into 100,000+ in profit each and every year! We are not saying that you will “eventually” make it back, we are saying that it will be returned in just over a year and that by that point you will have another $8000 per month in profit to reinvest in other domains. If this is the case then simply saying there are too many opportunities does not work because there are not that many opportunities. Point out to me someone that is routinely returning that kind of profit on a geo domain and if they truly are retuning that kind of profit then they have the cash to invest in others.

    Lets take Burbank.com as an example. You have a domain that you paid $50,000 for and then $5000 for development then who knows how much time you put into it yourself. In response to that investment of $55,000 cash and your time you are generating $1000 per month. I am not attacking your profitability on Burbank.com but if you are really going to say that there are tons of opportunities out there where you can buy a domain for $150,000 and be making 100k or more per year then all I can come to the conclusion to is that you made a really poor choice on a domain that is returning about 25% per year when you could be returning 66% a year like Fred says he would do with Tacoma.com.

    Now I don’t think you made a poor choice with Burbank.com. I think that a 25% return on investment is pretty good and you should be grateful for that, what I am saying is that a 66% return on investment on a geodomain that costs $150,000 is not nearly as common as Fred is saying. It simply can’t be or he would have bought it by now.

    Something is not right in the details that are being shared in these comments, somewhere something is wrong because if it was as Fred said then there is no excuse for not buying it. If it is as has been said then your Burbank.com is really a failure (and we know that that is not the case).

    I just want to get to the bottom of this. I want to get to the nitty gritty of the numbers like Rick S. talks about. Numbers never lie but people can be a little confusing.

    What is going on here? We are seeing domains like SanDiego.com and Sex.com go bankrupt and yet we are still acting like everything we are told by the owners of these domains is true, that they were cash cows, raking in money hand over fist. Who knows if Boulevards Media is really making much of a profit, I have heard rumors that they are really in trouble, who knows if FountainHills.com is making that much in cash? The only thing that we can guarantee is true are the actions of others. If Tacoma.com is that good off a deal and if Fred knows it then I can’t see any other result then for him to buy it. Just the fact that not a single major player in the geo domain industry has bought it makes me think that no one is willing to put their money where their mouth is.

    This comment sounds a lot more accusatory then I intended it to be. I really am being honest when I say I am not trying to attack anyone here, I just think the lack of transparency in the industry is really a bad thing. To most domainers anyone with a category killer is racking in the cash but that is simply not true. All is not roses, huge companies are failing left and right, yes, there is plenty of room for success and I will admit that I am taking some really big risks right now and I think they will work out but domainers as a whole have got to stop drinking the kool aid that others are serving them. To generate huge ROI’s is hard and it takes a lot of work, if it was a simple as we say then Fred would have bought Tacoma.com by now.

  18. @ Troy

    Just at the outset, I will say that the price I paid for Burbank.com is confidential and hasn’t been made public by me so not sure where you got the $50k number. I paid $50,000 for Lowell.com, which was a publicly reported sale. I also said that I didn’t think Tacoma.com was a great deal for me when it was cheaper, but I think the crux of your argument is with Fred’s comments rather than mine.

    From my perspective, if I knew for certain that I would make $100k/year right away with Tacoma.com, then of course I would buy it for $150,000. However, there is uncertainty with any development project and nobody could say for certain whether it would absolutely make that. Shoot, Toyota could decide to file a UDRP and/or lawsuit trying to get Tacoma.com and while they would probably lose, there is no certainty there either.

    Let’s take real estate as an example for a second because my wife and I were talking about this recently. I live in a one bedroom apartment in NYC. There’s an older lady who lives right next door to us in a 2 bedroom apartment with a balcony. For argument’s sake, if I bought her apartment at market price and combined it with my unit, both together would probably become worth 25-35% more than the individual unit prices once the walls are knocked down simply because we live in a fantastic building and there aren’t a whole lot of 4 bedroom apartments available to buy in the city (we’d turn one living room into a bedroom to make 4).

    However, I am not going to go try to get her to sell (even above market price) because there are no guarantees that it would be sold for that much more. After closing costs (and time to close), construction, and renovations, the market could possibly change. I would probably have to put out close to $1.5m for this (really just a guess) and although I would likely make a few hundred thousand dollars on this type of deal simply by selling the joined apartment units, I wouldn’t put that kind of money on the line with no guarantee when it’s not something I need to do.

    This is similar to Tacoma.com because even if Fred feels he could make it earn $100k, there are no guarantees. If I knew without a doubt that it would absolutely make $100k a year right away, I would buy it, but there are no guarantees, and I believe I have better opportunities with my $100,000 than this name.

  19. I think you and I are in total agreement Elliot. If I knew it could make that kind of coin in a year I would sure buy it as well. But I just am much less confident than others are that it could.

    Sorry about getting your domains screwed up. I guess the numbers that I guessed were for Lowell.com.

    I sure wish that the industry was as beautiful as some make it out to be, I just think that never recognizing the difficulty is not the best for any of us and I also think that actions speak louder than words. And I just don’t comprehend the discrepancy between the actions and the words.

  20. @ Troy

    The good thing about Fred is his positive attitude, which I also see from people like David and Michael Castello. They are all very confident people, and I think the confidence runs off on sales staff and advertisers see it. I will see the results with Burbank.com and I am confident in their abilities.

  21. Elliot- I know it is slightly less than the 15k you wanted but Fedhaven.com is a Florida city of 13,853 Zip Code 33854 Interested? $300 I look forward to hearing from you!

  22. Wow….glad I chimed in here….now I have to explain myself. Troy….in all due respect…you need to read what I wrote prior to making all kinds of assumptions that do not logically connect. Regarding Tacoma.com….I said “end user in Tacoma” not myself in Scottsdale. I cannot monetize Tacoma.com from Scottsdale in the same manner that a local, connected end user businessman or organization in Tacoma can. Same thing for Burbank….I feel that, from Scottsdale, with our systems and procedures in place, we can make XXXX per year; if I lived in Burbank and had a presence, I could make more…however XXXX will make the site worth a multiple of its present value. Regarding our golf trade, if I receive $1200 of golf trade in a specific month from a specific course, and I am able to sell it as part of a package for $1200, then $1200 is my income….if I can sell it for $800…then $800 is my income…if I can’t sell it, then zero is my income. I can also state that if I lived on the east coast, I would not be as successful with FountainHills.com as I am….because I live here and it is connected to Scottsdale.com and I have substantial resources at my disposal….that is why FH.com is making what it is making. With my City In The Box….our goals are between $1,000 to $4,000 per month revenue in many of the cities we are developing….there are exceptions, as Burbank.com, Tunica.com, and many others we are projecting more. However, if we were local and had a staff on premises (and the overhead that comes with it) we would no doubt be able to generate higher monthly/yearly revenue.
    I hope this answers your questions. Please read what is written prior to assuming certain points. I also purchase City.coms that are not associated with Scottsdale (Sausalito.com as an example) but my numbers are always based on what I could generate from afar, rather than if I was local. And finally Troy….if you are Phoenix.org….you are not the Official Website of the Valley of the Sun….please. Whatever agenda you may have, please let us know. I will be glad to discuss with you.

  23. @Mark….for Sausalito, I paid more than $5 per resident! Yet valuate.com says I already more than doubled my money! All sorts of factors come into play….for me, mostly tourism, hotels, packages, surrounding area, demographics, potential, and other issues enter into my thinking. I personally do not have a price per resident formula.

  24. Ahhh… guilty as charged.=)

    You have clarified my questions for me Fred. You are right, you did not say that you could make 100k, you said an end user in Tacoma, I just assumed that that meant any enduser. To back up my statements that I never intended to start an argument I will gladly admit that I made an incorrect assumption. But I don’t think I was the only one that made that assumption, I was just the only one to be obnoxious enough about it until it was answered.

    Regarding your golf trade. If you sell the package at a 100% profit to you then absolutely you are making a profit on it. I was wondering if you were trading in free golf for you and counting it as profit on FH.

    I also think that an end user in Tacoma could make 100k per year off of Tacoma.com but it would take a lot more than just putting up a local site and letting the money come in. It would take a local presence, it would take sales calls both on the phone and in person, it would take lots of writing and lots of interaction with the community. To be short it would be close to, if not more than, a full time job for the person that purchased it. I incorrectly assumed that you were saying that putting up a “city in a box” site would be the main requirement to making 100k a year, I was wrong in that assumption and I apologize.

    Regarding the site you mentioned, yeah, its me and its getting more exciting each and every month. I recognize that I have a TON to learn and to be honest I would love to chat with you about some things. While technically we are competitors I hardly think that two of us in a huge metro area will be stepping on each others toes in any way. Especially considering that you seem to focus on resorts and golf and I have not necessarily gone that direction as much.

    I am glad to hear your clarification, even if you were pretty clear to begin with. I respect what you have done with your sites in AZ, I think your grouping and business plan are well thought out and a good example to others. My questioning of you was only based on incorrectly reading into what you had written.

    In closing, I was really close to going with your city in a box package when looking to design my site but actually was worried that you might not want to work with another guy in your home turf=) Silly? probably so. Anyway, I do hope to get to know you better in time and always wish for you to be successful.

    Troy

    ps.

    The “Valley of the Sun” never seemed to mind.=) Now had I put the official site of the city then I might be in a little legal trouble, but official site of the Valley of the Sun… I think I’m safe there. The is no official body to complain.

  25. @Troy….thanks for your last comments. Regarding Tacoma…or any City.com…it would take more than one person’s efforts to make $100,000….as simple as I try to make City In The Box for people to buy/utilize, I never preach that it is simple to be successful in this business. I still, with the best name in this market, constantly work to get and keep advertisers. Please send your contact info to me at fred@scottsdale.com and we can begin a relationship….

  26. @Elliot, why do you want to develop for such as small city, what am I missing here?

    @Fred, you make some good points, especially about being in the area of the city.com that you’re developing, thanks for sharing!

    @Chef, no offense but good luck selling tacoma.com at that price. 15% of the city is below the poverty line, income is 34K, and crime, well take a look at the news headlines! :-/ Perhaps Toyota wants to buy it ?!

    – Richard

  27. I know this is slightly off topic but it is also the best place to ask the question 😉

    What do you guys think about cityrealestate, cityrestaurants, cityinsurance etc. domains for smaller cities (population 50 000 and up)?

    Do you think they have any value or would you rather not touch them.

    Thanks again and sorry about the off topic question.

    *Adi

  28. Hi Elliot,

    are you still looking? I know the post is old, but just in case I’m selling the domains MiltonFreewater.com and Milton-Freewater.com as a package for just $1,500.

    Milton Freewater, OR is a lively city with an active Internet community and a Facebook page that has currently 4,300 likes and counting. The city has much to offer, including golf courses and water parks.

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