Choosing The Perfect Real Estate Investing Company Name

Many investors spend a lot of time coming up with a name for their real estate investing company that would best suit their goals, and no wonder! The company name plays a big role in shaping people’s perception – motivated sellers and colleagues in the industry alike – about the real estate investor. The name appears in all marketing materials and campaigns, on both traditional and online channels, and is the first thing a potential client sees.

To help you out in this endeavor, in this article, we will review some of the best practices for naming a real estate investing company.

How Important Is the Name of Your Real Estate Investing Company?

When you set up a new real estate investing company, only two things are more important than the name itself: the business plan and the marketing plan. And while these documents define your business operations, the name helps you achieve them since the name allows you to build a brand.

So, give it some thought, but don’t overthink it. Real estate investors are not created equal – some will come up with a company name right away, other will spend weeks before they single out the best option.

Whatever your actual choice, try to avoid the typical mistakes real estate investors make with company names.

Common Mistakes When Choosing a Real Estate Investing Company Name

There are three unwritten rules for naming a real estate investing company and they are all about not limiting the scope of the company in the long run. Let’s take a look at them.

• Do not use a specific geographical area in the company name – or if you have to, go for the most expansive territory: the whole county, the whole state, or something along those lines. Adding a city to the name will create confusion if (or when) you decide to expand to other real estate markets. Last thing you want is leads to wonder whether they are contacting the right company or not.
• Do not describe your business operations in the company name – i.e. avoid using “Investing” or “Investor” in the name. Over time you might need to expand the business to include other services on top of the primary service (for instance, offering property management for other owners besides real estate investing for yourself) and the name should be generic enough to allow you to expand business operations.
• Do not tie your personal name to the business – it’s not recommended to use your first name or last name as a company name. Many investors go after these names (“Jack Buys Houses”), however, this creates expectation in people that Jack will personally deal with their property. As a solopreneur this is great for your company, but when you scale up the business, including your name in the company name will work against you.

So if these are company names you better avoid, what would be an example of a good name for a real estate business? Maybe you haven’t heard of it until now, but there are real estate business name generators who allow you to create hundreds of company names. This tools let you choose the format, usually along the following lines:

• Adjective + Nature & Architectural + Real Estate
• Adjective + Real Estate
• Nature + Real Estate

but you can use their approach to generating company names to come up with a unique name. Just make sure that the name you end up using:

• doesn’t carry a double meaning;
• is memorable; and
• it’s easy to pronounce and note down (even as you talk over the phone).

Let’s turn to real estate company names and marketing now.

Choosing a Real Estate Investing Company Name That Is Great for Marketing

The company name is how people refer to your business (the brand) in their minds, so it appears front, left, and center in your marketing. In traditional lead generation campaigns, the company name is what is included in all promo materials (except maybe bandit signs). In online marketing, the company name plays a role in sourcing leads from free traffic and from social media channels.

Domain Name VS Company Name in REI Marketing

The domain name of your website doesn’t have to be the same as your company name. Suppose your company name is “Golden Properties” and the domain for your website is “webuyhousesmidwest.com” – there is nothing wrong with this. However, you have to determine how important is the domain name for your marketing plan before you set out to obtain a domain. The domain name might be already taken and you should have a strategy in place: do you buy it if it’s at a premium, and at what cost?

Let’s check how one of the guests on our REI Marketing Nerds podcast, Todd Stelnick, decided to go after a specific domain name (WeBuyHousesLosAngeles.com):

… I bought it off of somebody off of GoDaddy.com actually that basically buys a lot of different types of WeBuyHouses investing domain name websites and so that is how I came across WeBuyHousesLosAngeles.com website. ..One of my colleagues one day has a WeBuyHouse in their city website so he says to me when I was talking to him about what is a good name. He says get WeBuyHouseLosAngeles website because all of those signs that are on those flagpoles are doing free advertising for myself because somebody goes by that lamppost or flagpole sees the WeBuyHouse sign doesn’t get the phone number but types WeBuyHouses in the website on Google and then my site pops up.

A killer domain like this is good in order to rank high on organic search results, but it’s not the only factor. Many other factors, like content, backlinks, and tags, affect the success of your search engine optimization efforts, so our general advice would be to pursue relevant domain name, but not at all cost.

Real Estate Investing Company Name and Social Media Marketing

A lot of what was said about domain name applies to social media profiles as well. Social media platforms allow you to generate leads, and the way you present your company on these platforms is instrumental in securing leads.

When you choose a name for your real estate investing company, you can stop for a moment to consider how that name would appear on social media, but don’t base your decision on this aspect. The most valuable advice when it comes to building brand awareness on social media is to create a profile on each platform as soon as you select a company name. If someone else has a social media presence through an account that has a name similar to the name of your company, you might be wasting your ad spend on directing house sellers toward someone else’s lead stream. Make sure you avoid this scenario.

Move Forward Even if Your Company Name Isn’t Perfect

Most of us would prefer everything to be lined up according to our mental models and foolproof plans before we can take action. In reality, this is simply not possible. You’ll never be 100% ready, nor will you be able to choose the perfect name for your real estate investing company.

We’ve discussed this in the past, and we’ll reiterate it here because it’s crucial: imperfect action is always better than contemplating optimal circumstances and doing nothing. If entrepreneurs wait for everything to be in line, they won’t get anything done.

So, jump and go ahead with whatever company name you have available for your real estate investing business. While the name plays a role in brand building, a host of other factors determine your success in real estate investing. Don’t let an imperfect company name hold you down from achieving the goals in your business plan.