I just happened to look at a .properties domain yesterday. It was available, but the renewal was $249 at Godaddy.
I just put in a different domain .properties and it comes up as $39.99. With such a wide range of renewal fees it makes it hard to remember or figure out what your fees are going to be each year.
If you have more than 100 domains, this gets to be a problem. Especially when renewal prices keep changing. You never really know what you are going to be paying.
I used to only have only .com and I knew based on how many domains I owned, how much my renewals would be for the year for my portfolio. Now I have no idea what the renewal costs will be for my portfolio due to some of the gtlds in there. Things are getting too hectic for renewals of gtlds.
I like some of the gtlds alot, but they are not making it easy on us to renew and hold onto them for the long term. Renewal prices keep changing and we either have to move them around like we are shuffling cards or drop them. If dropped they can be reclassified into premium domains by the registry and sold for a higher amount. So you thinking you can drop a LLL that you picked up for $1 and then pick it back up for $1 isn't going to happen. All LLL will be reclassified as premium and you will be paying more for it.
$1 initial reg fees only encourage having to flip domains to avoid renewal fees. It also encourages drops. Good marketing, but very bad policy!
High registration numbers make people think that an extension is popular and in demand. Thus fueling the sales.
Having to flip a domain before renewal, puts too many domains back into the market, which lowers the price we can resell them for. Just like the real estate market, supply and demand makes or breaks the market.
If you could buy a house for $1000 but in one year you have to pay $1million for property taxes if you still own it, you will sell that same house for $1001 before you keep it and pay the $1million. Specially if that house is really only worth $75,000.
Same with domain names. If you can reg 1000 domain for $1 you are into the investment for $1000. When renewal comes around you could be looking at a $30,000 bill. You will drop or try to sell before then, even if it is just to get your money back and not make a profit.
So many domains that were bought for just $1 come back onto the aftermarket at $5 or less. That doesn't help us(the domainers). Domains get bought out by domainers and then never make it into the hands of end users because they see a domain as being taken. The domain might be for sale cheap somewhere, but the end user might not know where to find it. They just see it as taken/registered.
$1 sales only help registration numbers. Plus the good stuff is held back, so most of the$1 reg's are of lower quality.
