Real Estate Agents Getting Results & Triggering Internet Trend

September 28, 2009; 12:43 PM

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sell a house in 43 days – in this market? A statistic like that stuns many home sellers and real estate agents. It’s being done across the country, including in the hardest hit U.S. real estate markets, through the power of Internet, specifically by naming Web sites after the property’s actual street address.

Go Daddy is the world’s largest domain name registrar, by far… and is also a leading Web hosting provider worldwide. The company recently discovered new statistics revealing a huge surge in the registration of domains named after street addresses.

In fact, comparing 2005, around the time the housing bubble “burst,” to last year, Go Daddy recorded a more than 320 percent increase in “home address” domain name registrations. States and cities with the most registrations include California, Florida, New York, Phoenix, Ariz., Atlanta, Ga., and Chicago, Ill. – all struggling real estate markets.

“We noticed an uptick on domain names containing words like ‘street,’ ‘avenue’ and ‘road,’” said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “When we ran the numbers, the trend line was undeniable. More people are registering domain names matching their physical addresses.”

According to the Cromford Report, which tracks Arizona estate trends, the average time to sell a home in June ranged from 120 to 180 days, depending on the city. One Arizona realtor leveraging domain names and Web sites to sell properties averaged a remarkable 43 days during that period.

The strategy, used by leading edge realtors like Bloodhound Realty, involves registering the domain name that is the physical address of the home. From there, a single Web site is built for that home, or domain name. The sites are simple, but showcase a home’s photos, floor plans and relevant neighborhood information.

“Buyers typically want all the answers to their questions before they talk to me,” said Gregg Swann, owner of Bloodhound Realty, who registers street address domain names with GoDaddy.com. “By making the exact address clients are considering available online, all they have to do is type the street address online and presto, the individual Web site pops up and buyers get all the relevant info.”

Web sites like 1946EastVistaDr.com and 7813WestBerylAve.com are promoted using on-site signage, posted flyers and other conventional tactics, but the domain name and Web site have given many agents an edge.

“The longer potential buyers spend on the site, the more they know about the home, the more they fall in love with it and the more apt they are to make an offer,” Swann said.

“We’ve always believed domain names are 21st century real estate,” said Parsons. “It makes absolute sense real estate agents are successfully selling homes through domains named for street addresses.”

Realtors, like Swann, also point out how the domain names boost search results, typically a result that requires big money and lots of time. “For less than four dollars a month each, my home sale sites not only promote home sales, but also help me with better placements though search engine optimization. It’s a win, win!”

To register a domain name and set up your Web site without spending a lot of money, visit www.GoDaddy.com.

About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.

Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 36 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.

Source: BUSINESS WIRE