Domain name

Buy it now.

Most domain sellers let you 'park' it until you're ready to roll it out.

As long as it's available for sale there is a danger someone else could buy it.

The Internet Crusade is in the domain selling bus. I have bought several from them with excellent results.

You can buy them cheaper elsewhere but nowhere with better customer service.

Thanks Jim.

I did, but I didn't buy anything else yet.

I need to figure out what I will need later.

Thank You Again................Galen.........

One easy thing to do is to add your photo to the Real Town site. It will help build familiarity with you and put a name to the face.

Good Luck! Judy

Hi all, I too am new to Real Town and on module 4 of my epro course. I will be checking out those names soon as I am done!

you should read this post before buying any domains.

http://webrealestatetools.com/web-newbies-start-here/how-to-choose-a-real-estate-domain-name

Check out my blog on RealTown for an amazing offer for my RT friends.

Drew

I respectfully disagree. Your name is your brand. The idea of selling a real estate practice is just that, an idea. I would ask those who make the assumption that selling a real estate book of business is possible to name five people who have done this successfully. I have been a broker and in front of tens of thousands of REALTORS for over 35 years, and I have met very few real estate agents who have successfully sold their book of business. Brokers can sell their brokerages, but it is a pipe dream for most agents to think they can sell their business. A good idea in concept, but one that does not pan out in reality. Because a seller worked with me does not mean they will work with you.

Now, if you think it is a possibility, how would the sale be structured, and then, secured? Ten percent down and the rest over time? Would payment be based on closed escrows? In the event of default, what would you "take back" and how would you do it.

It is easy for trainers to suggest that a real estate book of business is saleable, it is another thing to provide examples and the details of such a sale.

Saul

Hi Saul,

I generally agree with your assessment. However, in my experience, one exception may be property management.

Best,

Ed

I fail Saul's test of name 5 brokers who have sold their "Book of Business". However, it is probably more prevalent than one might expect because these are private deals. Leading me to this conclusion is the way one would price such a purchase.....

Since buying a "Book of Business" is a purchase of "future" business it should be purchased that way. When we purchase a brokerage we pay a small percentage and agree to a pay-off that includes a % of future business over a period of time as some agents won't transfer., changing the value. The book of business parties will agree on the value based upon the actual value of the "Book" through % payments as future business is identified.

Hope this adds to the collective knowledge.

Here I am going to agree more with Drew. While your name may be your "brand", the domain name can also successfully define your niche marketplace as well. So it may be possible to combine the two. For example, www.MikeSellsVirginia.com - pretty obvious the geographic location as well as the site owner's first name. www.HomeSalesByMatt.com - again makes it obvious that Matt is in the real estate business while simply mattshumate.com could be a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant or any other professional.

Another problem is the spelling of your name. Since part of your promotion is saying the domain name out loud in your voice mail greeting or when speaking on the phone to someone, "Just go to my web site at...", if your name is hard to spell, it would be so easy for the listener to misspell it when typing it into their web browser. For example, from above, Mike's name is Mike Pugh. Now to a listener, they might type in www.MikePew.com instead (as in sitting in church) and they would never get to his site. Nabil Ahmed (pronounced Na-beal A-Med), Rafael Beltran (notice the spelling of his first name - not the usual spelling of Raphael that many are used to) or David Maier (pronounced as Meyer), are just three of my other web clients who also could get someone confused as to how to spell their names. So Nabil got www.YourHomeInFairfax.com, Rafael got www.GreatDCProperties.com and David got www.DavidSellsProperties.com.

To me, it is far more important to get visitors to the web site where they will learn all about the agent and his/her services than it is to worry about having the agent's name as the domain name.

Win

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Win Singleton, CRB, e-PRO
Summit Web Design
(703) 536-7631
wins@summitweb.com
http://www.summitweb.com
"Custom web site design that gets results!"
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