I’ve never been a big proponent of property specific domains for selling a piece of property. In most markets it doesn’t seem to make sense. However, after thinking about it for a while I came up with a few reasons why I think selling a piece of real estate using a property-specific URL would make sense and help sell it.
- You know your property will be on the market for a long time
- The property is exquisite and needs to be showcased properly – not in some pre-formatted real estate brokerage site
- The domain is part of the sale – the new owner gets the domain as well as the house
It’s Going to be on the Market for a Long Time
You’ll likely list the property in all of the traditional ways, but since you know the property will not be sold soon it’s worth the investment of creating a special site for it. You probably want to make sure that your property isn’t buried and lost in a sea of other listings over time as well, which makes perfect sense for large or expensive property types.
I came across a great example of this recently “230+ Acres of Prime Connecticut Real Estate” has it’s own website. The designer of the website mentioned the reasoning behind his client coming to him:
The site owner figures the property being sold — 230+ Acres in Connecticut — will be on the market for a while. At only $1.5 million, though, I suspect it’ll sell in a flash. It’s a very nice piece of prime real estate. In any case the owner wanted the site to be highly indexed so hopefully it will be. The tools are in place.
Showcase High-end Properties Better
If you’re selling a piece of property for a lot of money, a case can be made that spending some money on a really well designed website can make you stand out, be noticed and shared more easily.
The Villa Pelican beachfront property in Montecito, California is amazing. With 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, great grounds and neighbors and a view to die for, it’s worth making sure people can really see and enjoy it. Here it is listed at LuxuryRealEstate.com, and here is a link the Villa Pelican specific website created for the property. See the difference? For a house selling for $34,000,000 it probably makes sense to have a good looking site for it specifically.
The Domain (if it’s a good one) Becomes Part of the Value
Realtors can start thinking of including the domain as part of the package. If it’s a well done website that showcases the property well, then it’s an asset. When the new owners want to show people what they just bought, or when they decide to sell it themselves, they now have a way to do that more easily.
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13 users responded in this post
Erik,
It’s dean with Domus, we met through Kevin Boer at Inman.
I like your premise and examples. My only concern is with seo and how such a url will place in a Google search. If you blog about your domain it will get traffic. But as a stand alone I am not sure?
Your blog looks great!
Dean Guadagni
[...] Erik Hersman — When You Should Consider Using Property Specific Domains to Sell Your Home [...]
[...] When You Should Consider Using Property Specific Domains to Sell Your Home Summary: Tips on when a property for sale should have it’s own website address. [...]
Great post. Finally some sanity is bought to this topic. This list is on the money.
Dean, SEO value is a great point to bring up, and something I didn’t talk about in the post. I would say that there are 2 things to consider here.
First, you’d still want to list your property on other listing sites, or offline publications, that have a high volume of the right types of clientele. That should be the initial drive and the initial linking to the property specific domain.
Second, in the scenarios that I suggest utilizing a domain for a specific piece of property, you’re looking at it likely being on the market for a little while anyway. The longer it’s up, coupled with the links from listing sites and your own site, will help it make it through Google’s sandbox.
One last point. The perception of the property is what you’re really working on here. The search value can be improved if possible, but what you’re really trying to do is showcase the property in an even better way than within a simple listings engine.
Great post, great topic!
I’ll agree completely that property specific URIs are not the greatest thing in the world, I also think we’re going to see more and more of their use in the near future. If for no other reason, as agents and brokers continue to discover they can grab a domain name for 7 bucks a year, the bandwagon effect will boomerang.
By the way, what an awesome example of an individual property listing website. If only all real estate sites were that functional and eye appealing at the same time…
Erik,
I must agree with you. Your second point especially escaped me. I failed to consider that the combination of time online, links to listing sights, and the link to your own site will increase traffic and search ease.
Nice volley Erik!
Dean G.
Great balls of fire Erik. I say, you also need to do link exchange by having some related blogs link to your blog site in this way you can increase your PR (page rank) from which is one of the components that google are considering in search engine results.
Hope I explain it clear.
As to the first comment on this post, let’s not forget that the property URL should be emblazoned on every other piece of marketing collateral that the property is being advertised on. Hey, how about having the owner of the property pitch in and (in the case of a long term sale), start helping to expose his property by putting it in his/her personal email signature line, possibly even getting an automobile decale.
[...] Especially classy are the photos, not only in content and quality, but also in their presentation on the website. Seems to have almost a hi-def flavor to me. I’d like to see more real estate property websites look just like this. Thanks to Realty Thoughts for leading me too this example. [...]
[...] When You Should Consider Using Property Specific Domains to Sell Your Home [...]
I could see purchasing a domain name for a building with several units. Not for a single family home. Just seems silly.
I would rather put that money towards an ad words campaign geared towards a specific property.
Just my two cents.
Jesse Kaye
http://greatunionhomes.com
An interesting article, but it opens up a pandoras box of thought. If someone is good enough to create a home specific website than they might be smart enough to just make a home specific page on their already existing website and enjoy any ranking they already have from that site.
As far as buying a home specific url, I feel for the agents who believe that $ 9.23 is too much to spend on marketing a property. Maybe next time you take a listing you could just ask the seller to pay you the commission up front. As a virtual tour provider in the South Florida market I consistently notice one thing, those that continue to push and those who have every reason in the world why they can’t make money in the market. This downturn might just be what the doctor ordered. Sellers deserve strong marketers, nothing less. When an agent is looking for a way to get additional exposure on a home I often suggest that they purchase a home specific url, a matching sign rider and then forwards that url directly into the virtual tour. From the tour the buyer prospect can link through to the agents email or website. If you want to see samples or want more details please take a look at my site at http://www.mls-tours.com
Steven