.Homes Registry: Domain Investors Are Not Invited

Dominion Registries, the .Homes domain name registry, has made it clear that domain name investors are not invited in their namespace.

But at the same time the registry has reserved numerous premium domain names that has not priced and will not release until way after the general availability in May 2016.

.Homes domain names will be made exclusively available to registrants that provide products, services or information that benefit the residential real estate industry. All registrants will be validated by the Registry.

Dominion Registries may charge a fee for verification of the eligibility to register a .HOMES domain name or to receive a transfer of a .HOMES domain name from another registrant.

Although Dominion Registries will act as domain investors they try to differentiate themselves from domainers by trying to somehow explain that premium domains have a few “different meanings”.

Premium domain names have a few different meanings. When speaking about legacy top level domains such as .com, a premium domain is typically a name that someone else already owns but is willing to sell at a premium price on the secondary market. There are thousands of domain investors who purchased .com domain names years ago with the intent to flip them and sell at much higher prices.

With new domains such as .Homes, premium domains have a slightly different meaning. The policies surrounding the purchase of a .Homes name prevent ‘domain investing’ for the purpose of flipping the name for a profit. Owners are validated in the residential real estate industry before a name is sold and the domain owner, the registrant, must agree to use the name with relevant content for the community at all times. However, certain names do have a higher value when compared to a standard name.

So the difference is that the sole domainer in the .homes namespace is the registry. And they will probably charge you for a domain name ownership transfer.

The .Homes registry has reserved geographic and premium domain names in order to release them at a later date. Overall, it is important for the real estate community to gain an understanding first that .Homes domains are available to use and build a general awareness. Once .Homes is released for general availability to the real estate community the .Homes registry will consider the best methods and price points in which to release certain geographic and premium domain names.

So once the first adopters have build general awareness on their second-rate domains then the registry will price its premium domains.

The registry’s goal for these special names is that they be used in a manner that is helpful to internet consumers and build strong awareness and credibility for the .Homes domain namespace.

No, it is not. Yesterday, the registry did a blog post with the title “Domain Name Values“. In my opinion this post serves no other purpose than to help some companies sell appraisals. And of course somehow prepare(?) the .homes registrants, that register the available (not-premium) domains at general availability and build them, for the high prices they will need to pay to upgrade to a premium .homes domain.

In the mean time, there are millions of naming possibilities that are available. You can use your name plus location if you would like to include the geography of your market within your website address. You can combine words that may include a premium term. For instance, www.Luxury.Homes may not be available now but www.HadleysLuxury.Homes is and could be a much better fit for Hadley’s website.

Thanks, but no thanks.

You (Dominion Registries) don’t need to hide. You are a company trying to make a profit. You are not here to serve the real estate community. Just say it and be done with it.