National Association of REALTORS® Advertising Supplement - RISMedia - Sept. 2018

.realestate and .realtor An unstoppable digital force

https:// luxury.realestate

Inside

Breaking Ground In The Digital Marketplace Two pioneers tell us how

REALTOR Exclusive Get a jump on the competition ®

https://juliejones.realtor

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https://vintagenyc.realestate

https://annesmith.realtor

.realestate and .realtor

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An unstoppable digital force

In an increasingly crowded digital world, it’s easy to get lost in the ether.

A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the most powerful tools to set you and your brand apart.

And for tunately, the National Association of REALTORS ® (NAR) in partnership with Second Generation, Ltd., has leveraged this technology and laid the ground work to bring .realtor™ and .realestate, two TLDs, to the real estate industry.

Rolled out in 2014, .realtor™ enables REALTORS ® to create distinct email and web addresses that instantly identify who they are and associates them with the professionalism and credibility that comes with being a member of NAR. Now, REALTORS ® and everyone involved in the real estate industry can

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take advantage of next-level digital marketing and branding with a new TLD from NAR, .realestate, launching on Sept. 18, 2018. Designed to help brokers and agents market themselves, their businesses, their listings and their wide array of expertise and services in creative new ways, the .realestate domain will forge stronger connections with homebuyers, sellers, investors, property owners and anyone involved in the real estate industry.

Get ready Turn to page 6 for details on how to get your .realestate domain

An Idea Whose Time Has Come Bofei Cao can attest to this very fact. As the CEO of Realvision, offering digital photography and 3D tours for real estate professionals, Cao founded the company as Toursler in 2013, then changed the name to Realvision in 2016, creating the web address real.vision. His logic for doing so made perfect sense.

As internet usage and functionality has expanded beyond anyone’s imagination at an exponential pace, the value of the .realestate domain goes well beyond creative marketing, says Mike Embrescia, executive director of the Building Owners & Managers Association of Pittsburgh.

“Say the owner of Acme Plaza uses acmeplaza.com as their web address,” Embrescia offers in a f ictitious example.

“That doesn’t tell you much about what Acme does. But add .realestate on there, and now the web crawlers really have something to sink their teeth into.

It tells them this is a real estate asset, and that web address will climb to the top of the search ladder.”

And in 2018, the move away from traditional web addresses is likely to happen at a rapid pace. “Being in 2018 is a lot different than being in 2008,” says Embrescia. “.com has become generic for web search. Now the public is star ting to embrace unique domains.”

Back in 2013, to secure a .com address, Cao had to settle on a made-up word for his company. Now his company has a name—and a web address— that clearly identifies what he does.

“At the time, TLDs were star ting to become mainstream, and we recognized that real.vision was very wellsuited for us,” Cao explains. “This shows that we’re being innovative and that we’re at the tech forefront. Toursler was not conducive to brand recognition. We found that people remember Realvision, as well as the domain.”

A Brief History of Top Level Domains 1985

The first 5 publicly available domains are launched: .com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov

Cao believes that TLDs are the wave of the future for a wide variety of industries, including real estate. “They provide a benefit for a specific target audience. The .realestate and .realtor™ domains immediately tell people what you do—it’s not a random .com name. It immediately says, ‘we do real estate.’”

Sept. 18, 2018 NAR launches .realestate

As of

July 2, 2018 1,224 new top-level domains have launched since 2013, resulting in over 23.6 million new web addresses using these new top-level domain extensions.

2014 NAR launches .realtor™

2013 New top-level domains were launched as the result of ICANN’s efforts

2012 17 new domains added

The Pioneers https://kenbryant.realtor

https://househunters.realtor

Being an early adopter of the .realestate

domain helps you beat the competition to the punch.

Take it from Ken Bryant who jumped on board right away when .realtor™ became available to establish www.kenbryant.realtor and the email address, sold@kenbryant.realtor. “In my mind it was a no-brainer,” says the Los Angeles-area REALTOR ® with New Canaan Realty Group. “In real estate, we strive for branding. We pay money to brand ourselves in all kinds of ways—this is the one ad you get every time you send an email or someone visits your website. Eight out of 10 times, people ask about my .realtor™ web address and it allows me to start talking about real estate. It’s like the wind at your back.”

J e r r y S a n d e n , a R E A LTO R ® a n d b r o k e r/o w n e r o f H o u s e H u n t e r s (www.househunters.realtor) in Colorado Springs, Colo., agrees. “It’s really important to establish a brand standard, and part of that is being able to find a domain that works,” says Sanden. “With all the .coms out there, there’s not a whole lot to choose from, and a lot of them don’t look very professional. My .realtor™ has given

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me the ability to use House Hunters and my name in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to prior.”

Bryant says using the .realtor™ TLD as part of his email address also clearly establishes who he is and what he does right up front. “Why would you use Gmail when you could be using . r e al t o r ™ ? ‘ S ally S e ll s @ g m a il .c o m’ means Sally could be selling furniture.

With my .realtor™ domain, there is no doubt what I do for a living.”

Perhaps most important of all, the .realtor™ domain reinforces the professionalism of being a REALTOR ®. As Sanden says, “ With .realtor ™, not anyone can have it, and you have to have your credentials checked out to make sure you are who you say you are.” “ We’re the National Association of REALTORS ®,” adds Bryant. “It’s like wearing the REALTOR ® pin. Every time I send an email, every time I refer someone to my website, they see that I’m a REALTOR®.”

https:// mountain homes .realestate

A Powerful Combination .realtor and .realestate ™

With the introduction of the .realestate domain, brokerages and individual REALTORS ® can take their marketing strategies to new heights by utilizing both domains in a dualpronged approach. While .realtor™ will focus on you and your group, .realestate will help define what your business does, your areas of expertise and the services you offer.

Broker + Agent Domains

Company Internal Domains

Descriptive Domains

Advantages

Advantages

Advantages

Create an exclusive brand identity with your firm website. Agents get a .realtor™ address to redirect to their profile page.

Great for social media, marketing and services.

Markets to consumer interests. Promotes areas of expertise or geographies.

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Broker Examples househunters.realtor irealestate.realtor realsharprealty.realtor

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Agent Examples anne414.realtor kathleenfreeman.realtor chicagojake.realtor

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Internal Examples soldmonthly.realestate clientfirst.realestate join.realestate

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Examples littlerock.realestate vacationhomes.realestate openhouses.realestate

What web addresses would make a difference for your business?

Start planning today.

https://singlefamilyhome.realestate

Exclusive REALTOR Access to .realestate Domains ®

As the .realestate domain will be available to a far more expansive audience worldwide than those that have access to a .realtor™, REALTORS ® need to act fast and lock-in their .realestate domain—and NAR is helping them do just that.

During a special 60 -day member pre-sale from Sept. 18 at 11:00 a.m. through Nov. 16 at 11:59 p.m. EST, NAR and Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) members with active .realtor™ domains will be eligible to receive a .realestate domain before it becomes available to the general public on Nov. 26. Individual REALTORS ® who do 6

not have a .realtor™ domain can get their first .realtor™ free for the first year.

Don’t miss this opportunity to stake your claim and be on the leading edge of digital marketing’s future.

As the word spreads about the availability of .realestate, and awareness of the marketing power of TLDs grows, the demand for the domain will increase rapidly, and .realestate domains are sure to be claimed.

Be sure to take advantage of the special REALTOR ® pre-sale beginning on Sept. 18, 2018 and secure your .realestate domain!

.realestate

60‑Day Member Pre‑sale Sept. 18, 11:00 a.m. – Nov. 16, 11:59 p.m. EST Must have an active .realtor ™ domain for pre‑sale access.

Visit www.get.realestate/ris to make sure you’re ready for the pre-sale.

Our .realestate Domain Checklist Will Get You Ready For September https://vacationhomes.realestate

Visit www.get.realtor today to claim your FREE* .realtor domain.

Already have a .realtor address? Log-in and make sure your domain is still active. ™

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Build a list of .realestate domains you want to secure.

Mark your calendar for Sept. 18 at 11:00 a.m.

EST. to claim your domains at www.get.realestate/ris

Be first in line to claim your .realestate domains before the rest of the world. *Free

for the first year, one per individual REALTOR® member.

https://soho.realestate

https://developnyc.realestate

https://fifthavenue.realestate

The real estate market is full of opportunities.

One web address can’t tell the whole story.

This September, the National Association of REALTORS ®, in partnership with Second Generation, Ltd., is bringing you .realestate—the newest unrestricted top-level domain created specifically for the real estate industry. Having an active .realtor ™ web address qualifies you for the .realestate member pre-sale. Are you ready?

Act fast! Visit www.get.realestate/ris today to learn more about what you need to do to secure your exclusive pre-sale access.