GoDaddy.com, said in a press release today, that it recently discovered a huge surge in the registration of domains named after street addresses.
Comparing 2005, around the time the housing bubble “burst,” to last year, Go Daddy recorded a more than 320% increase in “home address” domain name registrations.
States and cities with the most registrations include California, Florida, New York, Phoenix, Ariz., Atlanta, Ga., and Chicago, Ill.
“We noticed an uptick on domain names containing words like ‘street,’ ‘avenue’ and ‘road,’” said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “When we ran the numbers, the trend line was undeniable. More people are registering domain names matching their physical addresses.”
According to the Cromford Report, which tracks Arizona estate trends, the average time to sell a home in June ranged from 120 to 180 days, depending on the city. One Arizona realtor leveraging domain names and Web sites to sell properties averaged a remarkable 43 days during that period.
The strategy, used by leading edge realtors like Bloodhound Realty, involves registering the domain name that is the physical address of the home. From there, a single Web site is built for that home, or domain name. The sites are simple, but showcase a home’s photos, floor plans and relevant neighborhood information.
“Buyers typically want all the answers to their questions before they talk to me,” said Gregg Swann, owner of Bloodhound Realty, who registers street address domain names with GoDaddy.com. “By making the exact address clients are considering available online, all they have to do is type the street address online and presto, the individual Web site pops up and buyers get all the relevant info.”
Web sites like 1946EastVistaDr.com and 7813WestBerylAve.com are promoted using on-site signage, posted flyers and other conventional tactics, but the domain name and Web site have given many agents an edge.
“The longer potential buyers spend on the site, the more they know about the home, the more they fall in love with it and the more apt they are to make an offer,” Swann said.
“We’ve always believed domain names are 21st century real estate,” said Parsons. “It makes absolute sense real estate agents are successfully selling homes through domains named for street addresses.”
Realtors, like Swann, also point out how the domain names boost search results, typically a result that requires big money and lots of time. “For less than four dollars a month each, my home sale sites not only promote home sales, but also help me with better placements though search engine optimization. It’s a win, win!”
A very interesting announcement.
It makes a lot of sense and anything that could possibly help you market and sell your home, even if your not selling at this point certainly is worth investing a few bucks on.
I just went ahead and registered my address.
It would also be cool strictly from an email address standpoint. Your email address would be almost identical to your physical address.
JohnSmith@1590WillowCourt.com
Nice idea for a somewhat permanent email address.
I have been seeing this for years in our county real estate guide. Although it is mainly done for higher end homes.
Free
“Its a nice idea for a permanent e-mail address”, of course unless you sell your house.
Yes, this can be a simple and very effective SEO and branding technique. We’ve been using address specific domains to promote some of our Manhattan properties (and some overseas too) for years.
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it’s great if you have in mind to become famous and part of the history, so, the house where you are born, will be a destination for tourists
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“the house where you are born”
or the house where you live… if you become a Pop Star… 🙂
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I have noticed for a while, there is a firm that owns the a number of developments/streets in my area. – Connecting Neighbors
They own the development name I live in. And, a local real estate agent advertises on it.
I don’t know anything about them but apparently they work with or target real estate agents.
http://whois.domaintools.com/connectingneighbors.com
It apprears they own around 15K domains.
And here I thought being a house with its own website was unique… everyone’s doing it! 🙁
“And here I thought being a house with its own website was unique… everyone’s doing it!”
Me, too.
. . . and consider this:
Might homeowners have trademark and/or other IP/legal rights in domains of their address?
Before you answer, consider how you’d feel if someone registered your address and posted hurtful statements about you and/or your family on it? Or pornography?
I noticed this in May 2008 when two houses near me were for sale. Here are some pictures of two different realtors using the domain in their sign.
Good idea but didn’t help sell the houses.
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/05-16-08.htm
Steve
I don’t know if they would have any trademark rights to their address, nor any legal grounds to fight use but it could be interesting.
More likely, what if your like me and live in a condo and registered your address?
We all know domain registrations trend has been going south, but this is desperate Bob.
Do you really think we would buy this?
Nice article…
If there is a will there is a domain!
It is nice to see the Real Estate Industry starting to get crawling again. Think I should go ahead and develop LocalRealEstateOptions.com now that things are picking up a bit?
Hi Mike,
This article, although interesting, is like saying: “the logging industry is buying up land where they’re cutting the trees down.”
The real estate industry should have been the FIRST offline industry to embrace domain investing, and they’re among the last to respond. And this is their answer? Register the street addresses of the homes they’re trying to sell? Once the home sells, who gets the domain name? Is it included in the purchase by the new home buyers? If not, so much for privacy.
Real estate brokers just don’t get it. They should be buying geo-specific domains related to property, a la Elliot’s Burbank.com, and CCIN.com, some of the best among the top geo domain builders.
Trademark on a street address? I don’t see how that could be done, since a particular street address can exist in many cities and countries.
I’m a Real Estate agent in Texas and am using that method see: http://www.7434Leightonfield.com and there is no problem with privacy because the way I do it is, that I create a Single Property Listing, by forwarding the domain to the active listing with the association of Realtors, when the property sells, or is taken off the market, the website disapears because the listing is no longer active.
Since I will have no more use for the domain, I just let it expire.
It has been done for a while for top end properties here, $4million+. It is a good extra marketing tool when someone has a high advertising budget and wants to offer more information than would be listed on standard real estate sites, plus the sites tend to give the house an exclusive feel.
I don’t think it is something people would care about once the property is sold (there is usallly a few alternatives *street.com versus *st.com) etc nor would I think people have any interest in this kind of thing for email and seo. I would be surprised if many people were concerned about disputes either, it is too small scale.
Regarding geo names generally, city names etc I don’t think realestate co’s are the most logical owners of those names, probably best suited to media outlets.
no a street address can’t be trademarked anything in a public data base ie the phone book can’t be trademarked.
now what we have here is an industry that is more than 10 yrs behind the times.realtors,and their educated real estate brokers.and the reason we even have this idiot archiac idea is because the entire real estate industry 60 billion in annual commissions is a failure.the castillo brohers own nashville.com and palmsprings.com this is where the buyers go to. because the real estate industry is ten yrs late they informed their brokers to list the street name and number a failed
domain strategy.this is why 60 billion in annual real estate commissions is rapidly evaporating….and the backward advice given to agents from their corresponding agencies.any questions here just ask the castillo brothers and compare the backward nar.
Someone who is trying to corner the street I live on went and registered many different addresses including mine so that now I can’t use this idea to sell my house with. Some very desirable addresses are being snapped up by domain squatters.
Someone I know went and registered an expensive foreign tld with its capital city in the form capitalcity.countrytld but no one was interested in it and he let it go.