Buying “Off Market” Real Estate Like Buying Domain Names

Prospecting for off-market real estate is similar to prospecting for domain names.

I’ve been looking to buy our build a new house and have noticed striking similarities to the process of buying domain names.

The areas of town I’m interested in buying a lot have very little inventory. There are a few lot listings in the MLS, but most are “off market”.

The process of inquiring about these off market lots is similar to buying a domain name:

1. The owner of the lot, just like with a domain name, isn’t necessarily thinking about selling it.

2. There’s an online “whois” for the lot owners in the form of the county tax records database. Unfortunately for me it doesn’t include a phone number or email address, so to contact the owners I either have to knock on their door or send snail mail.

3. If someone is willing to sell, they’ll ask me to make an offer first to see if it’s worth their time. This is similar to domain names…the person wants to know they’re not dealing with someone who will low ball.

I’m finding that many of the lots I’m looking at were purchases to protect another lot’s view. These lots are generally a street behind the owner’s house at a slightly lower level. The owner bought the lot to make sure its view wouldn’t be blocked. I suppose there would be a parallel in domain names if the domain is somewhat related or clustered around the topic of one of the owner’s other domain names.