.RealEstate will be one of the new domain name extensions coming on the market at some point in the not so distant future. According to the ICANN website, there are currently four applicants for the .RealEstate domain extension: Uniregistry, DotRealEstate, LLC, Top Level Domain Holdings, and New North, LLC (Donuts).
Since the registry hasn’t been awarded yet, I have no idea what the price will be for .RealEstate registrations, let alone premium domain names. If I was to venture a guess, I would say that the corresponding exact match .RealEstate domain name many large US cities and cities with high end real estate will be considered premium, and they will have a premium price tag and renewal fee.
Considering how some real estate agents value domain names, it remains to be seen what will happen to the value of [area]RealEstate.com domain names when .RealEstate domain names become available. A major factor is how Google treats the new domain names, but I think the SEO aspect isn’t as important is at once was considering the domination of Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and other popular real estate website. More importantly, in my opinion, is the branding and trust factor that comes with owning an exact match domain name.
With all that said, I am curious what your thoughts are on the values of [Area]RealEstate.com domain names once the new .RealEstate domain names become available. Will these exact match .com domain names go down in value because there are cheaper alternatives, or will they go up in value because of confusion and familiarity with the .com?
Vote in the poll below, but importantly, share your thoughts on why you voted for what you voted. As I mentioned yesterday, I am still buying (and also selling) US city RealEstate.com domain names.
As has been said many times before the domainer is taken out of the new gtld equation, the registry is the domainer, and I will assume if you have power brokers doing 9 figures of sales in Beverly Hills these type of gtld’s will not be given away at $35. You are looking at 4 figure annual renewals, and maybe premium pricing on the purchase end. I saw many of this weeks releases via donuts carrying a $650 annual renewal. Whoever wants to float the registry, with 3-4 figure renewals go ahead, and waste your money. You had realtors laughing at the thought of paying more than $100 to a so called Domain Squatter, who purchases domains on speculation, and sells them by possibly using a broker later, wonder what profession that resembles?
There is going to be a huge flood of like minded realtor/real estate agents using these new extensions. They will be talking about this extension at seminars, on real estate blogs etc……. The more they are used the more they are accepted and down comes .com values. The only reason they can justify buying a .com is if Google continues to justify a .com.
If renewal rates on .realestate are reasonable then this extension will be a huge success. If they price gouge they will dig their own grave.
That is probably true, but perhaps Boston.RealEstate (for example) will drive error traffic to BostonRealEstate.com and add value to that name and potentially cause the .RealEstate owner to feel the need to upgrade to avoid confusion.
Why would .com values come down, with the given geo real estate locations, there are only set amount of premium .com’s which one party can hold, and numerous other parties would love to have them. How can the value of something decrease, when there is no supply, and still constant demand?
Perhaps alternatives will drive down demand?
Maybe a Boston real estate agent would be fine with Boston.RealEstate or Boston.Realty or Boston.Homes or BostonHomes.RealEstate….etc
Sure there will be error traffic but it will decrease over time as gTLDs are more understood. Buying a .com for error traffic makes sense only if the error traffic would increase but it won’t so it’s a bad investment.
Alternatives will drive down values because the target market will be very acceptant of these new extensions. Remember if .realtor is given away for free then they will be widely accepted because tons of realtors will be using them. In turn the acceptance of .realtor will easily promote the .realestate extension within this same community and make it accepted also.
The realtor association will want everyone to use one of these since it makes it that much easier for them to not only promote the association but police their own trademark. The Realtor Association will probably make it mandatory for every Realtor in their association to have and use a .realtor extension. If this happens imagine how much you will see this new gTLD. It only takes one gTLD to get out in mass to the public to make them all viable.
Elliot
I think this is a great topic but you have to take into account other new gTLD’s that are in this vertical before you can fully consider the effect of .realestate
Those wold be .real, .property, .realtor, .realty, .condos, .house, .mls plus the Geo’s like realestate.nyc or realestate.miami for example
See my comment above for that, but I think those will have less of an impact than .RealEstate.
IMO, someone who wants a .Realtor is probably the same person who buys theirname.com, which doesn’t have much of an impact on the keywordRealEstate.com domain name that has value to an investor. The .Realty name would be similar. I also think .Condos and .Property are more niche than .RealEstate.
It does make sense you can buy a fairly decent state domain name or city name (.com) for 25k to 100k.
If renewals are going 2-5k a year why not just finance or lease the .com over 10 years. The state names in these extensions .Realestate will go for 4 figures but they will have to upgrade at some point.
One lost sale to due to confusion is 10 or 20k in commissions. It is actually great for the .com owner. I mean if you’re going to start out with a 2nd or 3rd tier name why not just get the .net or .co then upgrade. No reason to pay thousands for these extensions.
I would take .homes over .realestate if given the choice. Realtors will decide if this is a good bet
.property names will be $29.00 retail .. Many of the best geo’s will be registry reserved and only available through the pioneer program.
Still there will be good regional geo’s, slang city names, and others available at registration price. The odds of somebody turning 100 $29 reg price names into more than the $3000 it took to buy them, are pretty darn good.
Everyone should look at these new spaces through that optic.
You will not get WellKnownCity.property for $29 but if you’re creative you’ll get foreign language, foreign towns last names, landmarks etc etc etc.
Like anything if you buy smart there’s money to be made
So if i am a new realtor, and I want Miami.property and go thru your pioneer progr, and submit my realtor license you will have over this domain up me for reg fee?
With so many geo real estate.com’s still not developed, I would only think that bringing domain name attention to the real estate space can only help the value of the .com’s
Most likely, domain investors will initially buy the city.realestate and city.homes brands. The struggle will be for the end user (real estate agents and real estate brokerages) to pay up for these brands.
IMO, there will be value for these new gTLD’s if they can get traction by end user through extensive local brand marketing. In the event, the new gTLD’s remain in the hands of the domainer’s, they will struggle to gain acceptance initially.
Personally, I own DenverRealEstate.com (Kentwood Real Estate $2.2B in sales last year), DenverHomes.com, HomesinDenver.com, DenverRental.com and Denver.com. I would pursue acquiring (when available): Denver.RealEstate, Denver.Homes, RealEstate.Denver and Homes.Denver
@ Peter
The registries are checking to see what has sold for what in the past, and using this Data to reserve, and charge premium pricing on such domains.
So if you have to pay $15,000 to acquire Denver.RealEstate, and pay $5,000 per year in renewals is that something you are willing to do as the end user?
Yes, I would pay a premium upfront…No, I wouldn’t pay a huge annual premium. At those numbers you outlined, it would be a huge struggle for a real estate agent to pay.
My strategy was to buy the all the real estate brands to control generic keyword real estate search in Denver.
@ Peter
I only say that as RealEstate.Agency sold with an annual $4,000 year renewal, and the TOS on many of the GTLD’s have no set cap per price increase on renewals, just a set time period they would give you say 30 days notice of an impending price increase. Which in the eyes of many end users who do not bother with such facts until they become front, and center.
With so many realtors, and real estate pros out there, it is essentially a given everyone will want a generic geo, but the only way to weed out that demand, is to bring it to a price point only a few would be willing to take a stab at it.
ICANN actually has a rule on price increases, I believe the registry has to give you 6 months notice on domains you own AND give you the right to renew it before the increase for the balance of the 10 year contract at the price that was in effect when you registered the domain
Having the time frame is great, but every registry operator so far has found, and exposed loopholes. Not having a max renewal rate increase cap is very dangerous of your setting up a business on this gtld. Who is to stop them from asking $35 before you build a site, to asking $1000 after you are developed? I guess we are to trust the ethics if the operators.
From all this fake trademark talk, to reserving 20,000 names and expecting other registrants to build up your gtld, marks disappoint towards icann as only getting the job half done, and not closing off all these holes, every step has been gamed, and who says it stops once you register the domain, simply moves into phase 2.
I hate to say it, Elliot, but I’d be concerned and these could be a bit of threat to examplerealestate.com’s, which is not a niche I have focused on for what I do. The .com’s would still have the edge in what people actually look for naturally, though. Also, I totally agree with the sentiment that ridiculous reg and renewal pricing would dig their own grave, which is good for you.
there are approx 20 thousand real estate agents in massachusetts give or take a few thousand. most make minimum wage, these are the ones who think a domain is worth 10 bucks.
then there are the 1% of agents who make a killing, these people make money by marketing and primarily branding.
if your card says bostonrealestate dot com you are automatically ahead of the game from a believe-ability standpoint, the name itself brands you.
another thing to keep in mind is that although the housing market has improved from the 2008 thing, it still isn’t great. wait till there is another housing boom and see who is willing to pay a ton for a great real estate name.
also area+homes is a very popular real estate type name as is area+realty.
then there is the thing that the premium realestate names like bostonrealestate dot com are mostly for brokerages, what about the individual realtor who wants to brand themself, they too will be in the market for decent real estate type names.
as for the new gltd’s, my personal opinion is that they will eventually just cause so much confusion what with .home, .homes, .realty, .realestate, .realtor, then .every large city in the country
finally i worked as an agent for bostonrealestate.com about 10 years ago, i believe the owner at the time turned down $250K for the name.
Frank Schilling@
TLD Apathy is an infectious killer for good & bad cognitive traffic. Tooo much medicine killed the patient.
Very interesting discussion, thanks for the insights all. Does anyone have any idea when exactly .realestate domains are going to be available? I’ve heard Q2 2014, but that’s about it.
Wow…chris…
Turning down $250,000 for that domain name, it must have been a well established .com with Branding attached to it. Were they just buying the domain name or all of the content on the site as well at that price?
Cheers…George