My opinion is ignore those who want accuse you.
I have been selling domains for about 5 years now, not just real estate names.
those who accuse you have to much time on there hands anyway...

you can also bet that someone will post some dis like after this post so just ignore them
Have a great day.

I once was a domainaholic with over 200 names. Whenever I least expected, someone made me an offer on one of them. In the domain name business you never know. A name which one person would not pay the registration fee for can possibly get you 1,000s from someone out there who happens to want it.
Just finding those special someones is where the legwork comes in.

Domain names will only increase in value over time as marketers learn that difficult to remember names cost 7-10 times more to market.

Getting repeat traffic is another good reason to get memorable domains.

Granted there are few domains worth millions as business.com, loan.com, mortgage.com and gamble.com but Ive sold several domains over the past 7 years. Spent a couple hundred sold for 20K. The margin is unbeatable and it'll only get worse as dot com names become even more valuable.

Nobody goes to dot net anymore these days and soon the dot coms will be suing dot nets for trademark infringements with all those emails being sent to dot com addresses it's easy to prove confusion.

Dee, to blame people that buy domain names for investment is like blaming people for buying real estate for resale. Cybersquatting is when you buy names that infringe on someone elses trademarks for the purpose of reselling.

To buy names that are generic and valualbe is smart investing. If you could buy land in NY city cheap would you? So what's wrong with buying good names cheap?

HH Miller, I'm not trying to be nasty. You're the one saying that what I think is ignorant. I still do not think the name is worth paying a premium.

My point is that no one will directly type "fireislandsummerhomes" into their browser to look for a site. I've seen realtors with "buy-xyz-homes.com" as their domain and because they promote it, it's one of the most popular sites in town. It makes more business sense to buy a similar domain name and just promote it. The name doesn't bring people to the site, the advertising of it does. If most people calculate the ROI of buying a premium domain name, they'd realize that they get absolutely nothing from the domain name itself. It's only the effort that they put behind promoting it that creates the return.

I think it's crazy that people can just spend a little more time and a lot less money coming up with a good name. I just searched for "BuyFireIsland.com" and it's available. FireIslandSummerHomes.net is also available. I didn't even try and that's already two domains that I can pay only $8 for.

Bottom line...if someone wants to buy it, go for it. Just like real estate, a domain name is worthless until someone puts a premium value on it. All is fair in business, but some things make better business sense. If you think this is ignorant, then so be it.

My longer term plan has me expanding into several different areas. I already have common domain names registered for that eventuality. Included are a number of domains that are related to hobbies and seperate business ventures. I have several that are registered for the kids, for fun and for their early attemps at Ecomm.

I will have to agree that those that register names enmass as a futures investment, are annoying. On the other hand, if someone had a name that would work for my efforts, and they where considering not renewing it, I would consider paying them a few bucks to aquire it. Not much more though.

What would the domain forsalebyowner.com be worth?
I remember when it sold for 800k
I hear what you guys are saying on both sides.
Mike

It probably sold for that much because someone had already started advertising it and there was a purpose for it. Since BuyFireIsland.com serves the same general purpose as BuyFireIslandHomes.com or FireIslandSummerHomes.com, I'm sure you can't get that much for it.

FSBO.com and similar names serve a very lucrative niche, so the ROI may be worth more. Same for Realtor.com and RealEstate.com. The names may actually have a real worth because of the number of people who actually type it directly into a search.

If the ROI makes sense, the domain name makes sense. Otherwise, just have a good marketing plan and get a similar name.

What's wrong with buying names out of speculation to make a buck? Or any investment for that matter?

And how is that any different than helping people buy property as an investment? By your logic they should not buy it unless they want to live in it themselves.

Someone bught business.com years ago for under $100, and later sold it for seven figures. I applaud them.

So many people pat themselves on the back when they make a "smart" business move, but when smeone else does it that call it "greed" instead.

Not sure what logic you're talking about. Maybe you didn't read where I said:

1. For buyers: If the ROI makes sense, someone should buy a domain name. Same for houses.

2. For sellers: I also said that all is fair in business and if someone wants to buy domain a domain you're selling, go for it. Same for houses.

Thanks for all the comments. I've sold the pair.

Nice! Care to disclose the amount or the range thereof?

They sold for > $200.

If you want to sell a website name, I don't see anything wrong with it. Don't listen to what some people say, other agents tell me that getting a degree is a total waste of my time, but I don't see how. With states passing more and more laws about what agents and brokers are to know, having a little extra information at the get-go isn't such a bad thing!

Skyfather, I'm with you on this one. Education is never wasted.

When it comes to domain names anything less than a pure type in isn't worth more than a thousand bucks. Not in my book.

Domains like realestate.com, house.com, business.com and loan.com generate millions of types every month without advertising.

The guy the owns house.com bought his domain in 2003. Somebody the owned it didn't know what to do with all those traffic. So the new owner takes over and turns into a real estate lead site. House.com now is the second most visited real estate site on the web.

We don't know if its a pure type in site or from traffic funneld from the porn site whitehouse.com. Last documented was something like 1.2 million visitors a week. They generate 12-25K leads a month and sell them for $30 each to agents grossing somewhere around 450K a month.

Now that is a solid investment.
I personally have seen domain names sell for 3-5k when in reality they were worth 50 bucks.
Reason being: good ability to sell. The owner approached a business, told them how great the name was and a semi-emotional purchase followed.
Believe it or not, some corporations have a marketing department where the managers don't even know how to search for a domain name.
If you approach them the right way and take the work off their shoulders, you might be able to sell a mediocre domain name for 2k even if similar domain names are still available.