People draw a lot of comparisons between domain names and real estate. One long time domainer, Chad Wright, is trading in some of his “virtual” real estate in order to buy real estate he can walk on.
Wright’s company owns thousands of generic domain names. (One of those domain names — Southpole.com — recently landed in arbitration. See Wicked Fashions Thinks it Owns The South Pole (.com).)
Wright says he’s selling domain names now because home prices in his area have dropped significantly and he wants to invest in foreclosed homes.
“Home prices have dropped but rent prices have stayed about the same,” said Wright. “I can buy a home, rent it, and after about 12 years I will have it paid off including making my deposit back.”
Think about it this way. If domain prices dropped so that you could pay off domains through PPC revenue in a shorter time, you would shift more investment money to domains. Wright sees a similar opportunity with real estate.
Wright isn’t giving up on domain names. He says he’s just trying to diversify.
The domains up for auction include 17 .com city names and 2 state .nets (Oregon.net and Massachusetts.net). According to Wright, the smallest city name being sold is about 57,000 and most of them are in California.
You can see a complete list of the virtual real estate Wright is selling on his eBay page. The domains have reserves, with some of them in the 4 digits. A handful of the domains have already attracted bids.
