closed www.villas.com

[D MARKS]

Steve, how long have you owned the domain and is the traffic all type in?

A reseller wouldn't see the value as the type in sells the value short imo, and any real return would be on the development side. It appears you have a nice site, but have not followed through on its development. This sector is very key word expensive and without a specific concrete biz plan I assume you are exploring an exit strategy

I would explore placing an add to sell this in the wall street journal, or contact christies real estate, cendant, remax international, sotherbys or a niche high end mortgage affiliate like luxuryloans dot com

 

[picassoface]

An ad in "The Robb Report" would attract buyers too....

 

[steveatvillas]

Steve, how long have you owned the domain and is the traffic all type in?

A reseller wouldn't see the value as the type in sells the value short imo, and any real return would be on the development side. It appears you have a nice site, but have not followed through on its development. .... I assume you are exploring an exit strategy

I've owned it since 1997, and for 9 of those years it was nothing more than a coupla pages with advertising info for my magazine Villas &..., also for high-end property and lifestyle. Missed opportunity, I know, but I was so busy running my publishing business I just could never find the time to develop it. Moreover, the high-end demographic weren't yet getting into the internet, except maybe to receive emailed photos of their grandchildren. Now all that has changed. The wealthy demographic is much younger, and even the older demo is hip.

Yes, so far all traffic is type-in and SE generated. The reason is is we only launched the site in it's current configuration in December '05. So you see it's only really a few months old. We're still not even fully populated with content. Hence, I don't want to spend money to drive people to a site that isn't complete. Still, a 600,000 drop in Alexa (currently at 180,000) and complete indexing on all the SE's ain't bad for 3 months. Besides I'm still tweaking it.

Exit strategy: I'm of two minds, sell the domain or continue the development. Here's why. Despite all my marketing, branding and financial savvy and 30 years in the Real Estate Biz, sometimes the tail wags the dog. By closely analysing the results of my on-site search tool as well as the other results of keywords on all the SE's, it is becoming very clear to me that the public perception of a "villa" is a holiday let. Check it out for yourself on Google. For <villas> we're currently in the 80's out of 50 million results, and for "villas.com" (in quotes) in the 30's out of 500,000...95% of which are for holidays, vacations, airline tickets, car hires, you name it. Everything except multi-million dollar homes in the most expensive markets in the world...my original raison d'être.

The market speaks, in true Adam Smith proportions, the tail is wagging, and my dog don't hunt! They want villas.com to be about the travel industry...so, I'm not stupid, give them what they want!

Do I want to start over in a field I know nothing about? I could, I've got the capital...but man, I'm 55 and the bones are beginning to ache. I hopped on a few forums to test the water, and to get an appraisal. Everybody said to come to DN, but this is clearly a marketplace for resellers, not brokers, not endusers.

And that's cool, I have learned a great deal and I'm gonna stay here for a while. It's a cool spot, and I've already spec-ed a few names to get into the game.

We'll see where this 'ole dog leads me.

Comments?

Steve

 

[D MARKS]

my appraisal 2 cents would put this in the 100k-150k range for a domainer and probably 250k plus to the right end user.

I have seen real estate domains start to move at a higher price and often the top sales are not disclosed...but recently denverhomes dot com sold for 35k @ snapnames, marylandrealestate dot com went for 21k @sedo, and I would say villas has a much larger appeal for an end user...however the flip side is the real estate industry big dogs have been fairly cheap and not forward thinking when it relates to domains, this may be beginning to shift but still makes finding the right end user a little tough...what I do know is that real estate and luxury real estate and its exposure is rapidly gaining more and more media attention, there are 4 or 5 shows on tv all about flipping houses for example...

I have sat on my realestate domain portfolio without much significant interest for about 5 years, I am also holding out for the right end user or biz opportunity...but most of the offers I see are not worth responding to. Undeveloped I would say and offer of 100k plus seems about right, perhaps your angle should be to offer the domain for a percentage of future revenues to the right end user...property dot com sold for 750k last year and I would say that sets the high benchmark for anything you may see, interesting that this site also is yet to be developed...its tough to create the niche market and drive consumers to your portal...not every gets zillows initial market exposure or 30 million in start up funds, but with them there is also no guarantee of profitabilty...

anyways, I think the travel angle is worth exploring and if you really wish to sell I would try the wsj, and maybe some other international realestate or travel publications...but this also can get expensive...I hope this helps

 

[Theo]

I suggest you approach the large UK market that continuously feeds tourism at villas around the globe, in areas such as Spain, France, Italy, Greece and the US.

I've developed web content for villa-related web sites with names far inferior to your keyword and their turnover was massive.

If all you need is to sell, go after the $1 million mark. It's less than average price for a grand villa with a crest view of the Mediterranean.

 

[domain newbie]

sell for whatever the best offer ,and double your money with newly happily acquired villas.eu :biggrin1:

 

[NavySeals91]

I wish you good luck, villa is a good name (villas). and for a quiz what does Villa mean in latin?

Puella es in villa. Agricolae habitas in magnum villa.

 

[draqon]

god i am so deeply entertained by these blowhards who are intellectually incapable of typing two sentences without bragging about the size of their money market accounts or stock portfolios.

 

[Bionic]

Searches done in February 2006
Count Search Term
453 villas.com

Nice overture!
Reseller: $50K
End User: $200K

 

[Chriscoop]

Villas.com is a great name and has a lot of potential. It depends what you want with the name PPC or sell the name. The highest PPC bid on Yahoo for the name villas is $0.53 and for holiday’s villas is $0.73. Of course it can go a little bit higher. When I see these PPC numbers I would try the sell the domain and I am sure you will get a good price for it. This all depends if you find the right end user. You can try to use a broker like www.ireit.com they have experience and see them some times in http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm

I tried also with them but I didn’t have a big name like you. I have a villa related domain name but it is not near that much worth as yours (auctionvillas(dot)com).

Good luck with your domain.

 

[dvestors]

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[steveatvillas]

That's not true. There are brokers and endusers here.

I wouldn't value your domain at $1M just b/c you can buy a villa for $1M. Villas vary in price, just like any other property. If your basing the value on that, then property.com and farm.com should have sold for $1M b/c there are properties and farm land worth $1M+ too....and the same would go for any domain that's relative to high end property or commodities. But that's obviously not the case.

Hi dvestors:

I'm sure there are brokers and endusers here...I just haven't met any so far! I take that back, several brokers have contacted me, but haven't been terribly upfront about who they are until I prod them a little to get to the point of why they're contacting me. But not an enduser to be found.

But hey, there's a learning curve in any undertaking. And I'm enjoying the ride.

Today is Thursday, and I joined my first domaining forum on Sunday night, and DNForum two days ago. I had no idea there was such energetic secondary and terciary markets for domains before then, as I didn't need to know. I'm beginning to understand a bit more about the role of the reseller and the object of how to win the game. And :yo: go for it! But, as a fellow entrepreneur, there's just no way I'm gonna leave up to 80% (50 for me and 200 for the reseller) of the value of my hard earned value on the table, that's just too fat a trade! If you guys are getting this kind of cut on every trade, I'm getting in the game...In fact I already have.... with appreciation for the fact that I'll have to earn my stripes and pay my dues.

As to your other comment, I am clueless as to your point. The value of my domain has absolutely nothing to do with the price of a piece of Real Estate. It all has to do with its earning power with a site coupled to it. Your pretzel logic lost me, dude.:scared:

Keep those comments comin'

All the best,

Steve

 

[NavySeals91]

If you have not. parking your site may help you generate some income of your name. If you want to know some good parking sites, please feel free to PM me.

 

[dvestors]

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[steveatvillas]

Oh man, read the thread again before you have a hissy fit. Somebody said I should take the 250k and buy a villa in the Caribbean. I replied that 250 doesn't buy much of a villa, e.g. house, in the Carib.

And your words that I shouldn't value VILLAS.COM at $1M just because a villa (the real estate kind) costs a million or FARM.COM if there are farms (the moo cow kind) that cost a million bucks.

And I've been sitting on V.C for ten years for a multitude of reasons, which I have detailed in this thread, but you seem to only be interested in absorbing that which feeds your fire (dragon?). So I'll repeat them for you. 1.) I was too busy running a $2M per year publishing company with 30 employees to get around to concentrating on the site and 2.) The demographic of the mainstream internet user up until several years ago didn't have the dosh (that's money) to buy what I had to offer, so why bother. If you'll note, the starting price of a Villa on my site starts at $2.5M and our current top price is $30M...a world you clearly know nothing about.

You know what, there are two types of people I've encountered on this fakafka forum. The extremely helpful folks who are doing their best to guide me, and are happy for my eventual success in finding an enduser. And the extremely jealous snivelers who can't stand the fact that I'm not gonna let them buy V.C for 150k so they can sell it on a day later for a million.

I got my end users all lined up, junior, and thanks to guys like you I now know just how hot my "property" is. You've told me everything I need to know.

And you know what, I was more than willing to let any one of you have a nice fat commission for helping me. Now, I'm gonna keep it all to myself. The Spanish have a wonderful saying "La avar&#237;cia rompe el saco."

So you see, in spite of your best efforts to confuse me and get me off the path, you've shown a spotlight on the way to go.

Oh, and by the way...I've never seen such a contentious, fractured, disorganised marketplace. It's ripe for exploitation. Make your money while you can. This domain game is a chicken just waiting to be plucked by someone with a some organisation, a pocket full of dough and a willingness to collaborate and help everybody get rich in the process. I've developed a taste for feathers, and I've made some friends here.

Later

 

[dvestors]

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[denny007]

I was more than willing to let any one of you have a nice fat commission for helping me. Now, I'm gonna keep it all to myself.

Didn't you claim you are an older guy ? Because this sounds as rather childish statement to me.


I've never seen such a contentious, fractured, disorganised marketplace.

This is NOT a marketplace per se but rather a FORUM (hence the name - DN FORUM).


This domain game is a chicken just waiting to be plucked by someone with a some organisation, a pocket full of dough and a willingness to collaborate and help everybody get rich in the process.

It is indded already happening for quite some time, companies like buydomains.com and other big players are highly organized.

There is about 10 big players in the game with full pockets (7~8 digit budgets) and hundreds of smaller players with 5~6 digits annual budget to spend on domains (i.e. me).

And people like Adam (owner of this forum) are helping everyone in a big way !!!

PS: I am not jealous of Your domain, I think Dvestors was a little out of the line, but you attacked whole domain industry with your uninformed statements...

 

[JMJ]

I would value this name at about 20-25 years revenue. I'm guessing it gets around 200 uniques/day. At a reasonable 200RPMU (revenue per thousand uniques) it would make around $40/day.

Given those parameters and current market conditions I would value Villas.com at $292,000-$365,000.

Good luck Steve, you have a monster.

I would guess the type-ins to be in the neighborhood of 500+ a day. This name is going to hit the OV score on a daily basis easy. Top bid on OV being $.52. If you had a 50% split and a 20% CTR you're probably on target. Mabey more like $50 a day. To an advertiser it's worth $250+ a day in advertising spending. A cool $90k a year in advertising savings makes 4-500k seem like chump change.

 

[Rockefeller]

<edited>

 

[Mr. Pim]

lol, you are kidding right?