discuss So are you INVESTING in domain names or just flipping them?

lolwarrior said:

Generally, there is a big difference between long-term investments and short-term holdings. What is your personal approach? Are in in for long-term with your domain names (10-20 years+) or you just want to buy and sell in very short period of time?

Personally, I think long term investment is much more profitable, over longer period of time. Those who flips their domain names (or doing quick flips of real estate, stocks, etc) are usually ending without money and being POOR (general rule with tons of exceptions, of course). They do not let their best assets to appreciate over time, by simply not allowing enough time for their holdings.

I believe in following : to be financially happy in future:
buy good names, trust your names, and do not be so quick to sell

Your opinion?

PS: and keep your renewals low...​

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My guess is that you know somebody who made a lot of money on long term investment and you think that this rule must apply to everyone and everything. I know guys(real estate) who lost 5 millions euro on a 12 years investment and in the same time others that have made money on long term investments. The same thing applies for short term investments, there are brokerage companies who are specialized just in short term investments(aka flipping) and they are doing huge amounts of money. No matter the investment, you can win big or loose big, depends if you invest at the right time and in the right assets and depends when you sell( meaning 'at the right moment').

boker said:

My guess is that you know somebody who made a lot of money on long term investment and you think that this rule must apply to everyone and everything. I know guys(real estate) who lost 5 millions euro on a 12 years investment and in the same time others that have made money on long term investments. The same thing applies for short term investments, there are brokerage companies who are specialized just in short term investments(aka flipping) and they are doing huge amounts of money. No matter the investment, you can win big or loose big, depends if you invest at the right time and in the right assets and depends when you sell( meaning 'at the right moment').

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I agree with you that "brokerage companies who are specialized just in short term investments(aka flipping)" are making lot of money, no doubts about that, but are their clients making lot of money as well in most cases, or just paying transaction fees?

lolwarrior said:

I agree with you that "brokerage companies who are specialized just in short term investments(aka flipping)" are making lot of money, no doubts about that, but are their clients making lot of money as well in most cases, or just paying transaction fees?

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Probably the clients are making a lot less, but in the same time there are individual who invest themselfs, without brokers...and still using short term investments and sometimes they make lot's of money sometimes they loose. I think exactly the same can happen with domains, if you think that you are safe, just because you will wait 10-20 years, that's a big mistake. It would be enough to check the threads started in 2003, to see how many people lost money holding for years, probably 90% of the domains investors from 15 years ago lost money and they have given up. The old timers which you see today and which made money are just a small % of the total investors.

both, I try to separate them, but it gets mumble jumbled in the end anyway. lol.

lolwarrior said:

Those who flips their domain names (or doing quick flips of real estate, stocks, etc) are usually ending without money and being POOR (general rule with tons of exceptions, of course).​

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I get what you're trying to say but your comparison to real estate and stock doesn't hold up. I know plenty of guys flipping real estate rapidly and making 7 figures a year... profit.

Same goes for stock ofcourse. When it comes to domains (as well as any other business) what truly matters is your business plan. You don't even have to make big sales to make it work as long as you make a lot of small sales with a small margin of profit.

Thing is, most 'domainers' are hobbyists and not real businesses. Bring a serious investment to the table, do your homework, put in the time and effort and flipping domains would work just as well as any other business as longs as you're a good salesman/businessman.

Hitting the jackpot should not even be your goal. Huge sales are an exception to the rule. Focus on a healthy ROI and forget everything else.

Mostly I sell within 1st or 2nd year to endusers...
And no less than high $xxx per domain on average.

p.s. Regular cashflow is critical if we are talking about portfolios of 2K+ domains...

For me, I think 2 to 5 years is a healthy hold-time for a domain. Of course there are some exceptions to this as there are names that are future techs that have a place in the future. Holding such names for 10+ years is expected and usually understandable.

But, I am usually of the opinion that when putting up a name for sale, I should have a ball park figure for that name. If the right buyer comes in a week and meets that price, I will definitely sell instead of waiting for a huge payday in the future.

As with any investment, it also depends on what you are holding. Crap wine ages to still be crap wine. Only very fine wines benefit from aging. Same with domains.

lolwarrior said:

Generally, there is a big difference between long-term investments and short-term holdings. What is your personal approach? Are in in for long-term with your domain names (10-20 years+) or you just want to buy and sell in very short period of time?

Personally, I think long term investment is much more profitable, over longer period of time. Those who flips their domain names (or doing quick flips of real estate, stocks, etc) are usually ending without money and being POOR (general rule with tons of exceptions, of course). They do not let their best assets to appreciate over time, by simply not allowing enough time for their holdings.

I believe in following : to be financially happy in future:
buy good names, trust your names, and do not be so quick to sell

Your opinion?

PS: and keep your renewals low...​

Click to expand...

Long term here...

Long term dude here...but if the right price comes along that will/would change in a hurry!

When you start selling domains then only you come to know what sell and what not. if you keep buying crap thinking its gem, even after 10 year it will be crap.. I am learning to pick good domain for years but as my skill improves the quality of domains available vis a vis at right price point reduced a lot. Now even medi core .com sells for high xxx in auctions

I personally believe that long-term investments are the best.
Obviously if you can afford not to monetize right away (for example you already have a job and a salary and what you want to do is a real investment, in the long term i mean).
I admit that I don't know if this is true in the Internet sector. At the speed with which the Internet is changing the world, perhaps even the world will change the internet and maybe the domains will no longer exist ...

long term investor

I am doing both long term and short term. I was being very random with my domains up until I came across namepros. Now I am being very intentional and niche specific.

I never rush to sell decent .com domain names, unless I receive a decent offer. All my personal top sales were on domains I owned for at least 2 years.

I'm a long-hauler but I can sell if the price is right.

I read mostly about what is coming and try to predict what is worth betting on. Everything changes. We better hope that Google's desire to do away with domain names doesn't happen too quickly.

I usually sell a domain in a month time from the moment I buy it, with 200-300% ROI. (average sales are around $2.5K). If I keep it 3+ months I find that investment a wrong one even though I know I will sell it at the end.
I was selling one domain for a year and a half and in my mind that was not a good investment. (I think I paid around $500 for it and sold it at $1500).

I am happy with fast sales, money needs to flow.

Wait them out yes heels in I do my best to deter low ballers. If I do get an offer I do consider whether I will get another but right now I probably need to build all new landers for my sites which could take some time.

I think that I am investor, not flipper. Because flipping is much harder than investing...

I don't think we can decide whether to get short-term in the long run. For me personally, I have a long-term plan, but if I get a suitable offer tomorrow, I will reverse them for a short time.

GenericDomainz said:

Because flipping is much harder than investing...

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This is true. Anyone can call themselves an investor, because you don't have to prove anything other than the ability to buy.

There's bad and good in all types of domaining, we just do what we're comfortable with. I'm an investor, but I've gained a healthy respect for name flippers who consistently sell, even with small roi's, because they have their finger on the pulse.

How do we know what the pulse is 10 years from now? Big risk, for potentially 0 rewards, so just keep that in mind.

HotKey said:

I've gained a healthy respect for name flippers who consistently sell, even with small roi's, because they have their finger on the pulse

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I have as well. So much so, I have recently opened a secondary 'account' to test my flipping skills. The heat of summer will keep me inside a little more this year so I thought I would spend that time to test.

On a related note, I was talking with rep at a bigger registrar the other day and this issue came up. He said there are several investors/flippers active on their platform..I asked what their buying pattern is/was. He said one of them had just picked up 7500 domains with the intention to flip. He said he has been doing so for a couple of years and has quit his job to devote full time to his efforts...I hate to admit it, but I was so stunned I forgot to ask what extension/sector?!?!

Im a flipper because i like the consistant cash flow, but i do have a few long term investments for future technologies etc

I used to flip a lot, but not anymore.

I see my names as long-term (or semi long-term) investments.