Many domain names used in real estate are still available in .com.
There are lots of new top level domain names coming out (or already released) for real estate purposes: .Realtor, .realty, .realestate, .casa, .immobilien, .immo and probably a few others I’ve missed.
This week Rightside released .forsale, a domain it is pitching for real estate purposes, i.e. 123Anystreet.forsale.
Domain names purchased for real estate marketing are big business. GoDaddy has frequently touted domain names as a key part of marketing a home for sale. This is part of the reason GoDaddy originally applied for .home and .casa.
There are a number of types of real estate domain names. There are ones registered by agents, ones registered by management companies, real estate service providers and aggregators. But the ones that probably drive the most volume are individual home websites, which have become quite popular in the past 5 or so years.
These are the types of sites that GoDaddy saw driving registrations: 123TownCircle.com, 472EasyStreet.com, 9237WinterPass.com.
Yet there’s something unique about most of these address domain names that are used for marketing real estate. That uniqueness is that they are unique. There aren’t too many people that share your same address, unless you live on a very common or numbered street name. What are the chances that a property with your same address is for sale at the same time as yours?
In other words, most domain names registered to market a property are actually available in .com.
For example, the home next to mine just went under contract. Its street address is available in .com, both with our without the “Place” at the end. Why would they register it in .forsale instead?
Another interesting factor in the success of new TLDs designed for real estate marketing is the inverse relationship between housing markets and marketing spend. In hot markets, where homes go under contract within days of being listed, real estate agents are less likely to invest in a unique domain name and website for a property. There are an awful lot of hot markets right now, at least in the United States.
This is not to say that all real estate domain names are designed for single property marketing. .Realtor can’t be used for this purpose; it’s designed for Realtor websites.
And .casa is an interesting play that could be favored over .com in Spanish speaking communities. (Not to mention that its wholesale price is just $2, so it’s a lot cheaper!)
To answer the question posed in the headline: there are lots of uses for real estate domain names. But we don’t need new TLDs for the very common use of marketing an individual property for sale.
Acro says
Most sellers don’t register an address as a domain, and the notion that they’d do in the new gTLDs isn’t pragmatic. On the other hand, realtors or home brokers might want to grab specific regional keywords in *any* related gTLD, that’s where the focus is at.
Andrew Allemann says
Acro,
I don’t know the percentage, and it’s certainly not “most”, but a lot of agents register an address as a domain.
As I point out in the post, there are other uses of these names, as you point out.
Acro says
I’ve seen maybe 1 domain over the years that was a full address eg. 123AcaciaStreet.com – versus MickeyBobRealty.com
Andrew Allemann says
I pay a lot of attention to residential real estate.
Andrew Allemann says
Here’s one I saw when walking the dog this weekend:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/55fi7yzjs3mhzf1/2015-01-25%2009.02.46.jpg?dl=0
The other alternative I’ve seen are agents using mobile text-response systems and QR codes.
About 5 years ago in the recessions I saw a lot more of these address-specific URLs. It seems they’ve dissipated in the past couple years because of the hot market (why bother with a unique website for the home if it’s going to sell right away anyway?). I think we’ll see more of it in Austin now that the market is starting to stabilize.
I, of course, prefer to see unique domain names to QR codes and mobile text response, but I also understand why agents would opt for these. The mobile text, in particular, gives the agents leads.
Onebrand says
Hello, saw you over at DomainSherpa. Nice listening to your interview. Yeah, too many “.real-estate for sale” related domains are actually available in .coms
James D. says
“Do we need new domain names for real estate?” IMHO “need” appears to have been left off the criteria for most of the new TLD’s. But I’ll be exploring some better uses of this particular domain than that mentioned, and see if any marketable names are left.
Robert Simpson says
Twenty other Real Estate related TLDs:
.build .builders .condos .construction .contractors .coop .estate .farm .haus .homes .house .land .lease .maison .mortgage .properties .property .reit .rentals .villas
from http://NewTop.Domains/domains/categories/real-estate.html
Andrew Allemann says
Thanks. I’ve been looking for something like that. Bookmarked it.
Rubens Kuhl says
I like .casa ; it’s not as crowded as the English versions; works in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian; is short.
Ian Ingram says
We don’t need them at this point in time, in my opinion. Says the guy (me) who has a lot of real estate .coms… 🙂
Seriously though, even in 2015, a real estate agent can often still reach out to the domain owner and acquire the best real estate domain they could own for their city or one close by (agents often work the smaller cities around larger ones or get referral commissions this way) for a relatively small amount.
I say this because, while we are by no means one of the largest real estate domain holders, we do have several hundred ‘City’RealEstateDotCom or ‘City’HomesDotCom domains which cover 2% of the US population or so and this is what I’m seeing in the marketplace.
I should note, most of our real estate domains, represent smaller cities and thus typically sell for smaller amounts in the $500 to 2k range or so.
I don’t see the new real estate extensions taking off much right now as the agents who don’t try to acquire a great .com real estate domain seem to be perfectly happy with a sub-domain on the broker’s website or something hand registered of the BobbySellsHomesReallyQuicklyDotCom variety. I’m not trying to be funny here, I see so many of these and if it’s memorable enough, who knows, maybe it works for them.
brand guy says
yes your are correct. However real estate agents are not trained in marketing, are cheap and stupid. Debbiesellsdallas.com is useless there is no brand value. as for using a centry21 subdomain. You are supporting the brand and nothing as an independent contractor.
Robbie says
Real Estate agents for the most part are some of the cheapest, and stubborn buyers of domains out there. There are some that get it, but most that don’t
They would rather bombard you with colorful flyers that cost thousands, than pay a few bucks for a generic geo real estate name.
The real good one GeoRealEstate.com are very hard to get, even in drop auctions, and the rest are years of renewals.
I stay out of this niche, as it just isn’t worth the headache, sorry there is just way to much inventory for any middleman to make money on what you have stated above. Better to focus on other areas.
John says
Robbie makes some good points on real estate agents and their spend. In Chicago area a large local firm buys only .info’s with the home address on it. Kind of funny to see a million dollar plus propery being showcased on a $1 domain name when the .com is available. But, most think cheap yet want to be paid big. That market is slowly getting disrupted where more are listing homes themselves and Zillow is really going to end up doing a number on them
Way too many domain extensions in general and history shows Pigs get Fat Hogs get Slaughtered in any market.