For a lot of brokerages out there, branding and naming your real estate seems like an afterthought finished in the car in between appointments and designed to be as bland and generic as possible… Another boring task to just get out of the way so you can get back to selling real estate.
That’s all fine and well, but there’s a problem. Your competition is fiercer than ever and it’s coming from places that didn’t even exist just a few short years ago. So before you name your real estate company Superior Realty or Elm Street Properties, check out our 89 examples, branding experts’ rules for naming your company.
1. Avoid Puns, Pop Culture References & Cliches
There’s a real estate company here in Brooklyn that for some inexplicable reason decided to name themselves after a world changing, but now defunct social media platform. I won’t name names, but let’s just say it rhymed with pie face …
Keep in mind this was just after the platforms long slow decline, and sure, it has a second meaning that works for real estate. OK, clever enough.
Here’s the problem though. I genuinely don’t think they ever thought they would be as successful as they are today. Seeing their name on a massive banner on exclusive new developments is more than a little odd. The cognitive dissonance makes most people pause for a second before asking something like, “You mean like the website?”
Even worse, while you and your friends might think your pun is hilarious (and as pun aficionados we’d likely agree) but will everyone find it clever? The answer of course is no. Many, many people, especially those who can make or break you with one deal, might find it cloying and unprofessional.
2. Claim Your Social Media Accounts, Buy Your Domain & Build Your Website ASAP
Of course, as you might have already guessed, competition for online real estate is fiercer than the hottest seller’s market. That means you need to pull the trigger and get your social media accounts, domain, and website as fast as humanly possible.
For your website, you can even buy a domain and hosting and throw up a placeholder “Coming Soon” page in less than five minutes.
For an extra couple of bucks, it makes sense to try and get domain names that are similar in spelling to what you chose and then point those back to your domain.
GoDaddy is likely your best bet: https://godaddy.com
3. Pay Attention to How Your Name Sounds & The Acronym it Makes
One of the most important elements of the best real estate names is how they sound in the real world. It may look great on paper, but how will it sound when a former client is talking about your company over lunch with a friend? Will it be easy to pronounce and understand? Will it sound strong or weak? Professional or unprofessional?
One of the best ways to do this is to write down your name on a card and see if your friends, co-workers, and even strangers can pronounce it quickly and easily. Ask them if they like it or what it makes them think of without telling them it’s a real estate company.
4. Acronyms Matter, Especially for Longer Names
Using an acronym as a stand in for your name can be surprisingly useful. Which company sounds like they make cool laptops, IBM or International Business Machines? Which company offers you great food besides chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC?
If you go with your own name or a name combo for your team, then an acronym can be a great stand in that’s easy to remember and spell. You can also use acronyms for other branding uses (assuming you keep the same font/color and style) you use it for a brand mark, or for a domain name.
Even if you don’t plan to use an acronym for your real estate name, make sure yours doesn’t connote anything lewd or tasteless. Ferguson, Upland, Clark, and Kinsey might sound very stately and old money outside your law office, but uh …
5. Keep Your Geographic Farm in Mind …
Real estate company names that work, work for the people you want to sell real estate to. It’s that simple. What good is an amazing name (The Dandy Warhols) if your clients don’t like it?
That means sitting down and figuring who your target clients are and what they need, want, and like, is crucial to coming up with name they will respond to or even tolerate.
Are you working in retirement communities in Boca Raton or selling old warehouse spaces to hipsters in LA’s Arts District? As you can imagine, those two companies should have two very different names if they want to reach the right audience.
6. But, Remember to Make Sure Your Name Can Scale
The difficulty of course is that you may not want or need to sell real estate to your current geographic farm area. That means the demographic your name needs to appeal to will be larger than you think.
Try and come up with a name that has appeal to as many people as you can. You can even ask yourself, What would Uncle Phil think of this name? What would that hipster web developer I see at the coffee shop every morning think?
7. Make Sure You Can Get a Good Domain Name & Social Media Accounts
Once you do come up with that perfect name, don’t get too excited. You still have a lot of work to do, starting with hanging your shingle online. After all, even the best name on the planet isn’t going to do you much good if you can’t brand yourself online with it.
At a bare minimum you’re going to want to make sure you can get a good domain name, preferably one that ends in .com, and preferably one that doesn’t require you to add 77777 at the end of it.
While this might sound easy, remember that there are close to 900 million websites online today, so unless you literally invent a word, finding that perfect domain might be a challenge. This is why going with the classic last name + real estate name can work well if you have a unique name. If not, or if you want to go with something more evocative, then try adding your city’s abbreviation to the end, like “ShadyelmrealtyNYC.com” or even experiment with abbreviating “real estate” or trying a new TLD like .io.
For social media, it may be trickier, but luckily it’s less important. Just try and work your name in there somewhere and keep it short and easy to remember.
8. Come up With as Many Names as You Can … Then Come up With Some More
One of the least understood but most recognized aspects of the creative process is that the good stuff will likely kind of sneak up on you. You could struggle for days and days locked in a room with your co- founders and come up with nothing but crap, only to have the perfect name pop into your head in the shower. Welcome to the life of a creative!
According to the latest neuroscientific research into creativity, this idea actually has some merit. They’ll tell that you need three elements to come together for creative thinking: a relaxed state of mind, an excess of dopamine, and in a position to be easily distracted.
While this might lead some to believe they need to be in a warm bath with a glass of chardonnay to come up with a great real estate name, the reality is a bit trickier.
Before you get the gold you have to get the bronze and silver out of your brain and up on the whiteboard. Only then will you be in a place where the good stuff just comes to you.
Yes, this means more gnashing of teeth and more brainstorming sessions that only produce fluff and boredom, but whatever you do, don’t skip the ideation process! It’s a crucial step down the road to success.
9. Shorter is (Probably) Better
Apple. Google. Chase. Ford. Shenyang Hanking hotel management company limited. While all five of these are indeed real company names, it should be fairly obvious if not intuitive, which ones work better. That’s because generally speaking, when it comes to branding, shorter is better.
Now you might be sitting there and wondering why, but you really shouldn’t. After all, there are better and more interesting branding puzzles out there for you to solve. Just trust your gut here, and try to keep your real estate company name as short as you can while still remaining unique.
As a general rule of thumb, any name over three words and 10 syllables starts to sound a little bit off. Of course what you name your business is entirely up to you, just don’t be surprised when your agents and customers come up with a nickname for your too long company name. Because pretty much no one says they just bought a new MacBook from Apple Computer Incorporated. It’s just way easier to say “Apple” which is why Apple shortened their name to just Apple Inc. in 2007.
