The National Association of REALTORS® has been granted the rights to manage the new “.realestate” top-level domain. Alongside its recently acquired “.REALTOR” domain, the association intends to carve out a central spot for real estate information on the Internet.

While the .REALTOR domain will remain exclusive to NAR members and affiliated NAR business partners, .realestate will likely have wider business applications, according to the association.

“As the ‘The Voice for Real Estate,’ and a leader in the real estate industry and a pioneer for new technology in the digital space, NAR intends to use the .realestate domain in conjunction with the .REALTOR domain to build an online space where home buyers, sellers, and investors can find credible and professional real estate resources and services,” says NAR President Steve Brown.

The launch date of .realestate will likely be late in 2015. More details of the business rules, pricing, and exact launch will be announced during the second quarter of 2015. More information will be available at NAR’s top-level domain topic page.

NAR, working closely with Second Generation Ltd., applied for the top-level domains through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is the organization that coordinates domains and IP addresses for the Internet.

“Obtaining this top-level domain along with .REALTOR will solidify NAR and our members’ standing as ground-breakers in the rapidly changing real estate environment and how the Internet is used to educate and connect with consumers not only today, but in the future,” says Bob Goldberg, NAR’s senior vice president of marketing.

NAR continues to urge its members to secure a .REALTOR domain for the Oct. 23 launch. The first 500,000 members who register will be awarded a free one-year domain license. Members can claim as many .REALTOR domains as they wish for their personal branding needs.

Source: National Association of REALTORS® DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2014