Hi All,

I moderate and/or own several forums, primarily for topics in the area of SEO, Internet marketing and domain names. I don't typiclly frequent real estate sites or forums.

However I just bought several highly brandable real estate and mortage Dot Coms so am looking for realtor resources.

Are there any real estate magazines, forums or newsgroups that are focused on realtors as opposed to home buyers, that allow ads?

Obviously I found this forum and it seems like the most active and friendly one I have found so far, but I am looking for one that allows want ads so I can list my domains. I have read your TOS and being a mod myself I would not want to violate your rules so thought I would ask here if anyone knows of any options.

Also does anyone know of any larger real estate web design firms that buy domains?
I know there are so many realtors and it's hard to find good brandable .coms that aren't taken, so thought that may be an option as well.

Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated.

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Linda Buquet
5 Star Domains for Sale www.5stardomainsforsale.com




[This message has been edited by 5starDomainsForSale (edited 05-31-2004).]

Whoa, I just found a site that specializes in RE domains. Check out the "our lowest price" column. $100,000 - $200,000 for some domains that well... some are not that brandable IMHO.
http://www.townrealty.com/realtydomains

Most of my realty & mortgage domains are all around 1500 or less. Maybe I underestimated the value and should raise my prices ;-)

Want 5StarHomesForSale.com???

Old price $1,500
New Price Only $150,000... Such a deal!!!

(hehe)

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Linda Buquet
5 Star Real Estate Domains for Sale http://www.5stardomainsforsale.com/real-estate.html

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[This message has been edited by 5starDomainsForSale (edited 06-14-2004).]

Hi Linda,
We appreciate you not blatantly soliciting but your pretty close to the line
Just an fyi for you, I had a look at the domains and I wouldn't be too quick to be marketing any domains with the term Realtor as this is a big no-no. I'd hate to see someone buy a domain like that and invest piles of money building and promoting only to have to take it down.
Take Care

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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

Rich,

Oh no really? I didn't know.You can't use the word realtor in a domain? How about real estate or realty? Where is that rule posted or who made it - the real estate board or some organization like that? Or now that I am searching Google for all the site with the word realtor it occures to me its because of realtor.com or .org - the Natl assoc?

There are 483 realtor domains for sale at sedo http://www.sedo.de/search/searchresult.php4

Someone is even trying to sell century21realtors.com talk about a trademark issue.

I just paid to list 5starRealtors as a featured listing. The last thing I would ever do is sell someone something that would get them in trouble if I knew about the issue in advance SO THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP.

I'm not sure I can cancel and get my money back. I assume someone could buy it if they were NOT a realtor? Let's say they wanted to put up an info site with real estate related content, links or Adsense. That would be ok??? Please let me know and sorry for almost crossing the line.

Sorry to here your an innocent victim yourself

NAR does aggressively defend their trademark if used anywhere and the NAR police are active in seeking out violators

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2004

U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Upholds "RealtorŪ" Trademark

WASHINGTON - The United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled unanimously in favor of the National Association of RealtorsŪ (NAR), holding that the terms "RealtorŪ" and "RealtorsŪ" function as valid collective service marks belonging to the NAR and are not generic terms. Petitions to cancel NAR's federal registrations of these marks were denied. Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the country, represented NAR in the case of Jacob Zimmerman v. National Association of Realtors.

Maybe someone else can expand on this a bit.
Hope that helps or at least saves you some headaches



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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

"Realtor" can only be used in a domain name when used to describe a real estate agent - not anything else including a geograhic area.

"johndoerealtor.com" is fine but "chicagorealtors.com" or "thebestrealtor.com" will get you a letter from the NAR lawyers.

Wow thanks so much for filling me in. I just contacted Sedo to see if I can pull that featured listing or change it to one of my other real estate names. I don't like letters from lawyers and could not in good faith sell the name to someone else knowing they could get one.

The NAR must have a really good legal team to prvent a generic industry trade term like realtor from being used in these ways.

Thanks again you really did save me some headaches.

"The NAR must have a really good legal team to prvent a generic industry trade term like realtor from being used in these ways. "

'Realtor' is not a generic trade name. It is intellectual property belonging to the NAR. The whole reasoning behind their aggressive enforcement of their trademark is to keep it from becoming a generic industry trade term.


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Dutchess County Real Estate

Karma Baby

Just testing

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hey 2savvy
the last sig link is not working

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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

Thanks Rich, Doug, Varsity and all.

I took 5StarRealtor.com off my sites, off the featured listing at Sedo and took the parking page down. The only remnant that remains is in the search engines, which I can't control, so hope I don't get a cease and desist from NAR lawyers in the meantime.

I'm sure glad that's the only Real Estate domain I have with the word Realtor in it. I would be super upset if I had several in my portfolio that had to go to waste.

Thanks again,

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Linda Buquet http://www.5stardomainsforsale.com

[This message has been edited by 5starDomainsForSale (edited 06-15-2004).]

Thanks Rich I saw that and updated my sig I thought it would correct it.

I will be swithing my name to not2savvy err

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Hey Bill,
It's working now. Nice site...I didn't know Mars had Cactus

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Rich
Real Estate Websites
Search Engine Optimization

LMAO, I will tell my sister you said that. That was her first web site she is getting better. She usually makes the digital media content.

She is working on this one
http://www.azcustomhome.com

But I think I will be buying some templates for her soon. shhhhhhhhhhh

I have a bunch of names I own:
www.HonestMortgage.net www.IdahoMortgageGuy.com www.SeattleMortgageGuy.com www.WashingtonMortgageGuy.com www.CaliforniaMortgageGuy.com
and the list goes on BUT...........


I wonder how much this one is worth....I am going to use it to make a website with Realtor/Mortgage/Insurance/etc. information on it....
www.CompleteHomeAdvisor.com

What do you think? Looks like a much better name then a bunch of the crap that was for sale on that one site.

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www.HonestMortgage.net

Oh , I forgot, I have this one too, was going to do something with it last year by offering my realtors a free website if they worked with me, what are the thoughts about names with dashes in them? they aren't real sexy but i see a lot of them showing up high in searches?

free-realtor-website.com


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www.HonestMortgage.net

Hey Willy,

I think your domain name falls into the Nar trademark issue that was discussed above.

"U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Upholds "RealtorŪ" Trademark

As one who has been busted by NAR's Internet Police Department I have some unintended and unwanted expertise on the proper and correct use of the sacred word "REALTORŪ" in a domain name.

First of all you must actually be a REALTORŪ to use the trademarked R word.

If you are a REALTORŪ you can log in at www.Realtor.ORG and read the rules:

"III. Use on the Internet

When surfing the Web for real estate homepages, it's quite common to come across sites belonging to REALTORSŪ. If you are looking to add your own electronic presence on the Internet, it is easy to get caught up in designing your own web page and choosing a domain name which will capture the attention of surfers and make you easily identifiable. REALTORSŪ often want to use the REALTORŪ marks as part of their domain name or address to distinguish themselves, but they must keep in mind that there are rules governing proper use of the REALTORŪ marks that must be adhered to at all times regardless of the media used. These rules are found in the National Association's Membership Marks Manual, a reference manual explaining proper use of the REALTORŪ marks including examples of correct and incorrect uses. Here is a brief list of the principle rules affecting use of the REALTORŪ marks in domain names:

1. The term REALTORŪ, whether used as part of a domain name or in some other fashion must refer to a member or a member's firm.

2. The term REALTORŪ may not be used with descriptive words or phrases. For example, Number1realtor.com, numberone-realtor.com, chicagorealtors.org or realtorproperties.com are all incorrect.

3. For use as a domain name or e-mail address on the Internet the term REALTORŪ does not need to be separated from the member's name or firm name with punctuation. For example, both johndoe-realtor.com and johndoerealtor.com would be correct uses of the term as a part of domain names and jdoe*realtors@webnetservices.com and jdoerealtors@webnetservices.com are both correct uses of the term as part of an e-mail address.

4. The REALTORŪ block R logo should not be used as hypertext links at a web site as such uses can suggest an endorsement or recommendation of the linked site by your Association. The only exception would be to establish a link to the National Association's web site, REALTOR.org, or its official property listing site, REALTOR.com.

The public has adopted the use of all lower case letters when writing domain names, even those containing trademarks. Therefore, for purposes of domain names and internet addresses only, there is an exception to the rule on capitalization of the term REALTORŪ and it may appear in lower case letters."

Do it right the first time; it's a lot cheaper. ;-)

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Jim Lee, CRS, ABR, GRI, e-PRO
Realty Executives Associates
Knoxville, Tennessee
http://www.KnoxvilleMLS.com
Jim@KnoxvilleMLS.com
1999 REALTOR of the year, Knoxville Association of REALTORS

I am not an attorney, I am not your attorney, and I am not giving you any legal advice. This response is only given for informational purposes and should not be construed or substituted for legal advice.

Thanks for posting this valuable information, Jim.

FOLKS - listen to Jim. He is a wealth of information and knows how "the system" works. You can learn much and save time. He has done all the research, and he is "for real".

Carolyne www.carolyne.com
bramptonhomes@carolyne.com
ciam@netrover.com for http://www.epowerorganizeIT.com






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Small Company but we're BIG in Brampton. Relocation Transfer packages for anywhere in North America Homes For Sale All Sizes All Prices

My friend who owns the domains at TownRealty.com Linda speaks of above has sold many domains in the past. A domain name provides instant RECOGNITION & BRANDING for the company. It provides 80 percent of the marketing. Search engines pick up not only meta tags but key-words as well.
www.BetterLocation.com
e-mail; info@BetterLocation.com

In addition to those benefits your own domain name is also YOURS. If you leave the company you're currently affiliated with and move on it can go with you.

Your own domain name also provides a permenent e mail address for you even if you change companies or more likely, change Internet service providers.

Make your domain name unique, something related to your business of your own name.

If a name related to real estate in your city is available that would probably be your best choice, i.e. MyCityHomes.com, SusieSellsStLouis.com, ChicagoHomeSeller.com, etc., etc.

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Jim Lee, CRS, ABR, GRI, e-PRO
Realty Executives Associates
Knoxville, Tennessee
http://www.KnoxvilleMLS.com
Jim@KnoxvilleMLS.com
1999 REALTOR of the year, Knoxville Association of REALTORS

I am not an attorney, I am not your attorney, and I am not giving you any legal advice. This response is only given for informational purposes and should not be construed or substituted for legal advice.