Wanted: Domain Appraisal Estate-Agents.com

[Edwin]

How would you value Estate-Agents.com?

PLUSES
- .com
- Market for property has never been hotter
- 110,000 exacts
- #1 term, far ahead of "estate agent"
- huge competition
- registered since 2000

MINUSES
- hyphenated
- term only applies in the UK

Where does that leave it?

 

[namealot]

For me instant reaction is names like this are good then dig a little and they bury themselves?
No first to market advantage, field is dominated by likes of right move.
Zoopla, primelocation etc many estate agents see those as more important than there own? G local killed directory type without massive investment and I suspect anyone who was to try would go "brand" and hyphen doesn’t sit well with that.

Having said that there are some out there e.g. the .co developers etc who may bite at the xxxx mark but I think that buyers will be very thin on the ground but there’s always a chance which for most of us means we won’t let them drop

 

[Retired_Member38]

If you're talking about developing it... I think its probably worthless. The only real value I see is buying it cheap enough with the sole intention of dumping it onto another buyer and leaving actually doing something of use with it as someone else's problem.

I don't think you can build a brand on a hyphenated domain, unless you own the unhyphenated. And at this point in 2013 I don't think you can get an affiliate site ranking for 'estate agents' and keep it there, whilst sticking to a budget that would allow you to make any money this decade.

So if you can't put an affiliate site on it and you can't build a brand on it, what exactly can you do with it? If I wasn't allowed to sell it on and had to develop it, I honestly wouldn't take it for free. I just can't see how anyone can possibly do anything of value with it, and not lose a fortune in the process

 

[retired_member32]

too much online competition and too short term project that I would invest in, in ten years time we will not have any estate agents on our high street but the hyphen would kill it for online use, so I would say mid £xxx

 

[Edwin]

Thanks, appreciate your thoughts.

 

[bensd]

The likes of rightmove are not competition for this domain. You would never start a portal but it would be a good domain for a review type of site.

As above, mid £xxx seems about right. I can't see the .co.uk getting more than that and "estate agent" isn't really used outside of the UK.

 

[Edwin]

I forgot I had the beginnings of a very old (2004) site I'd been working on for the domain, so I've stuck it up on there now

 

[mstephens2013]

I think it's too "blank" a term/name, even in unhyphenated form. Although saying that, it's worth trying to tap into the large property market given you've got a site. I imagine it's worth more in terms of monetization if a strong content marketing strategy is employed with appropriate ads/affiliation.

As a newcomer to this I feel like I'm teaching my granny how to suck eggs!