news .Realtor rises faster than anticipated

[News]

About four weeks ago, the National Association of Realtors released the .realtor domain name. Ahead of the launch, I called it one of the most important launches in the nascent new top level domain name program.

.Realtor has quickly shot up to the #4 spot of new top level domain names with about 85,000 domain names in the zone file.

Much like #1 (.xyz) and #2 (.berlin), its success has a lot to do with giving domain names away for free. National Association of Realtors (NAR) is giving up to 500,000 addresses away for free for the first year; others cost $40.

I spot checked a random group of 50 .realtor domain names in the zone file. 46% of them resolved to a website, including forwards. The rest were parked. That’s a pretty good number.

Full Article: http://domainnamewire.com/2014/11/18/how-realtor-quickly-became-one-of-the-most-used-new-tlds/

 

[RogueWriter]

This extension is a perfect example of why I think several of the new extensions are going to take off. Within a few years people might well be typing in 'yourname'.'profession' or keyword.niche to see what is there. Obviously, some of the weaker extensions, no, never happen. But YourRealtor.realtor has a very professional look to it.

 

[Kate]

I think it will as successful as .pro maybe.

 

[wot]

I think the fact that they are giving the names away 500K of them,if you are an existing realtor member or sign up as one will be the main factor for "perceived" success.
Just a little different to .xyz and similar to .berlin.

Top of the pile come renewals I am guessing .club.

 

[JB Lions]

This should make my .boo purchases really valuable now.

 

[wot]

This should make my .boo purchases really valuable now.

Boo is the phonetic translation for crab in Thai, just sayin!

 

[N-A]

I think the fact that they are giving the names away 500K of them,if you are an existing realtor member or sign up as one will be the main factor for "perceived" success.
Just a little different to .xyz and similar to .berlin.

Top of the pile come renewals I am guessing .club.

I don't believe that a give-away is even necessary for a realtor. It may have enticed them to switch over and unionize ("trade association") to an extent with domain names (they already have to belong to the National Association of Realtors in order to receive one or register one).

I've met a successful Realtor whose commission is upwards of 15% (depending on different scenarios). We got to talking and it turned out he takes on any project, big or small, and can close the deal within a month. The median price of a home he sells is $550,000 and he closes one or two deals a month (he almost made me want to get into real-estate at those figures).

Let's assume he is at the average rate of 6% commission and still closes these deals, what is the incentive not to buy a generic category killer .com domain name if he is able to take home $66,000 pre-tax per month?

I believe switching from his .com to a .realtor may be confusing at first, but people will adjust and they will obviously redirect their prior kings.

It's something that I will discuss with him if it's a choice made by themselves to make the switch or if it's being shoved down their throats to make use of them. Additionally, if he's using one.

I'll report back, but it definitely doesn't sound like this one is going to be a .pro, though a check of more than 50 domains should be done in order to deduce that. However, it's of my personal opinion that I don't think this will draw much more attention to gTLD's than they already have by putting it in the face of 80,000 "unsuspecting" potential buyer's to go out and register anything else (unless they have personal projects on the side of course).

 

[wot]

I have experience of selling properties in the Far East and good commissions apply even in the supposedly less developed countries although I retired some years ago.

However sorely tempted to dip my foot in again as I own a (Country)Property.com that gets 300+ type ins per month.
Don't need to convert too many of them to make a handsome profit. Probably won't though, I am sure one of the local agencies I have recently promoted to will see the value.
Much less hassle!

 

[RogueWriter]

There are probably hundreds of realtors named, say, Bill Smith. Now, one of those guys picked up the dot com, and another ten or so get the typical alternate spellings. Figure another 50 picked up domains relating to their locale or their name/locale. They just need one of the remaining several hundred that wants 'www . billsmith . realtor'..... I have to believe every combination of name will be taken. And then those 50,000 realtors start advertising their .realtor domain to hundreds of thousands, millions of potential clients. That can't but help spread the concept of new extensions becoming available. -shrugs-.

 

[JB Lions]

There are probably hundreds of realtors named, say, Bill Smith. Now, one of those guys picked up the dot com, and another ten or so get the typical alternate spellings. Figure another 50 picked up domains relating to their locale or their name/locale. They just need one of the remaining several hundred that wants 'www . billsmith . realtor'..... I have to believe every combination of name will be taken. And then those 50,000 realtors start advertising their .realtor domain to hundreds of thousands, millions of potential clients. That can't but help spread the concept of new extensions becoming available. -shrugs-.

Not quite. They might be exposed to .realtor, and that's it. Seeing .realtor doesn't mean they'll know about any of the others. It's also a pretty competitive area. Search for a local realtor in Google and what do you see? I see original names, namerealtor.com, keywordmycity.com, a lot of realty.com etc. Pretty established folks. We'll see if they manage to crack that.

I guess some people believe one extension's success can somehow float the boat of the other bad ones. It's not how it works. They'll still never be exposed to most of these other ones. Because low regs, and most of these have very low regs, means less chance of development, which means very low chance of the public ever seeing them. That's just the reality of it.

On top of that you'll have .home, .homes, .house, .property, .properties, .estate, .realestate, .rentals, .condos etc. Funny seeing the singular and plural for some of them. That's not going to work.

 

[tomcarl]

I'm not surprised or impressed that 500,000 things were given away for free. You can give away 500,000 of anything for free and people will gladly accept it.

If I were a realtor I'd be afraid if I put tomcarl.realtor on a card they wouldn't know it was a link to my website unless I go out of my way to explain it was "Visit my website, http://www.tomcarl.realtor" even then, there are a lot of computer illiterates still around. But, I'd gladly accept it for free and forward it to tomcarlrealty.com

I'd have no real incentive to re-invent the wheel if I already have an established site. On the other hand, who knows, maybe new realtors down the line would be willing to take the gamble people will figure it out. It would undeniably convey you were official with a .realtor, I don't know if I'd build my brand on one though, since I don't actually have full *control* and *own* the name.

 

[Kate]

It's not surprising that many will just be redirects. Switching to another domain name is a critical step in terms of SEO - no matter the extension.
It also means printing new business cards and stationary etc.
The stakes are worth it in the long term when upgrading to a superior domain name. That isn't the case here.
The existing Realtors are already branded and they have had websites and domain names for many years.

On the other hand, a Realtor who is starting out, and doesn't have an online presence yet, might consider using a .realtor when setting up his first website.

Then he'll upgrade to a .com as he gets smarter...

 

[N-A]

I think many people here are looking at this from a domain investors’ perspective and not as 1 of the 80,000 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Realtor's; which is the “largest trade association and one of the most powerful lobbying groups in North America” and “has been managing the REALTOR® brand for over one hundred years”, that has stringent membership rules.

Take a step outside of the box for a moment.

To be a member of NAR, you must pay dues. Dues could be in the form of domain name renewals on top of their regular dues. This would allow them to continue belonging to the elite group of Realtor’s (an assumption as I’m not in real estate).

To emphasize my point, here is a rule of the association that could be modified:

Standard of Practice 12-12
REALTORS® shall not:

1. use URLs or domain names that present less than a true picture, or
2. register URLs or domain names which, if used, would present less than a true picture. (Adopted 1/08)

All it takes is a simple amendment (NAR would most likely favor) and it makes 80,000 members put their .realtor domains to use, practically changing the way quite a few people would look at ngTLD’s.

3. practice business under any other (new generic) Top Level Domain other than the TLD .realtor assigned, provided or registered. (Adopted XX/15)

 

[Kate]

All it takes is a simple amendment (NAR would most likely favor) and it makes 80,000 members put their .realtor domains to use, practically changing the way quite a few people would look at ngTLD’s.
...
REALTORS® shall not:
...
3. practice business under any other (new generic) Top Level Domain other than the TLD .realtor assigned, provided or registered. (Adopted XX/15)

Forcing all members to switch to .realtor would be a massive headache for the reasons described above.
This will hurt your ranking and you'll lose traffic. Not even talking about consumer confusion.

Benefits ?

 

[RogueWriter]

Yeah, I don't see them forcing anyone onto that extension, but certainly I could see new realtors launching sites on that extension. And, for a few years, placing www. theirname. realtor on a business card. No big deal to do that. And I could also see them offering incentives, such as wp website templates, integrated listing services, etc., to pull in real estate agents.

The thought process in creating this extension is light years ahead of so many of the other newer extension, .ooo, for example, sheeesh.