domain housesitter.com

[Vanzant]

http://housesitter.com

There's a rather uninspired site there now, running on the emeeting "dating" script. The idea was, I guess, to provide a site where house sitters and house sittees might find each other. What do y'all think of the domain?

Ed

 

[Mike]

Great Idea, decent website, needs a bit more action with property photos and people that actually look for a house sitter. might as well approach the topic from both angles.

the domain alone is should be well in the upper $xxx, with the site, working infrastructure and developed business plan, the sky's the limit.

 

[Vanzant]

Thanks very much for opining. Yes, I think you're quite right about the upside, given a little bit of sprucing up.

Ed

 

[RegFee]

I was kind of surprised to see existing sites like this:
http://www.housecarers.com/
http://www.homeandpetsitters.com/search
http://www.housesitter.us/main.php?smPID=DBX::HS_MAIN

But I wasn't as surprised to see existing housesitting companies:
http://www.arizonagenie.com/housesittingservices.html

I think the hardest part about developing a find-a-housesitter site is getting people to trust random people on the internet to watch their house. I'm not too familiar with the process, so for all I know it's actually a common thing for people to do this.

It is a very generic and wonderful name that I would consider marketing to a nationwide house sitting company if you can find some. They'd have more money and would definitely want it over www.NationwideHouseSittingServices.com

Another option would be a house sitting forum where you could still set up find-a-sitter section.

I think the name has an aftermarket value of around $10,000 and has great potential.

Good luck!

 

[Vanzant]

Thanks for the response RegFee. I agree, it's a touchy thing to trust your house to a stranger. Perhaps there is something to be learned from the evolution of dating sites into social networks, which provide ways for members to earn a reputation on the site -- via the size of personal network, reviews etc. All this Web 2.0 stuff is very encouraging.


Ed

 

[StudioWorks]

Nice name the web site looks OK too. I see that the phrase " house sitter" has a decent good score on OVT. I would value the domain alone in the area of mid XXX.

 

[RegFee]

Perhaps there is something to be learned from the evolution of dating sites into social networks, which provide ways for members to earn a reputation on the site -- via the size of personal network, reviews etc.

Yes, it is very encouraging, especially in your case. However, I think it will still be necessary in the end to provide your members with even more peace of mind, such as verified house sitters (credit card and water bill verification, for example) with references. Also, I can't imagine it would be cheap, but offering discounted bonding service to housesitters would encourage them to purchase plans to make clients feel better.