For Sale: the Empire State Building
By: David Gibbons, Director of Community Relations | September 29, 2006
New York’s famous landmark, the Empire State Building, is for sale … for $1,000. Or, more accurately, virtual ownership of the building is for sale at a new website called Weblo, which launched on Wednesday.
If Weblo succeeds, it could rewrite economics textbooks, but that’s a big "if". The company’s audacious business plan depends on the virtual sale of real assets, like the Empire State Building and California (sold), to get the online community started.
While virtual assets have gained real value in online game communities like Second Life, Weblo is the first I’ve heard of to test demand for virtual ownership of real assets. The site’s virtual real estate investors can buy properties from buildings to cities (and even states). Also for sale are virtual ownership of domain names and celebrity brands — management of Angelina Jolie is not for sale according to current owner, TRUMP$, whose status on the site is "Governor, Mayor, Airport Owner". TRUMP$ also owns www.donaldtrump.com.
Should it work, the motives to participate in Weblo are not that dissimilar from those of "real" real estate investors: owners can earn both equity appreciation and an income. Income is earned by attracting an audience to Web sites dedicated to each of your assets. Weblo supplies Web site building tools and adds adverts to the owners’ pages. Owners contribute content and do their own marketing. Some of the ad revenue is paid to the owners and this income will surely factor into any future resale value of the Weblo assets. Just like "real" real estate investing, making money on Weblo will take hard work and require the investor to take on some risk. Unlike "real" real estate, you won’t get a great 30 year loan for a Weblo property.
Full disclosure: I own no assets on Weblo; the Empire State Building is all yours. Hat Tip to Drew Meyers.
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- Categories: Friday Fun, Real Estate Oddities, Zillow
Comments
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mary scarfi on September 30, 2006 4:49 am
My condo unit has two full bathrooms not one and a half as stated. The condo is 351 pemberwick rd. No. 901-Greenwich, Ct 06831
David G from Zillow.com on September 30, 2006 11:53 am
Hi Mary -
We’ve got you covered - to edit your home facts on Zillow, just click on the button that says “edit home facts” on your home’s details page (click on your address after searching for your house). When you edit your facts, we’ll step you through the process of publishing the correct facts for your house.
Note that you will first claim your house on Zillow by verifying ownership - we will also take you through that process when you edit your home facts.
To make a change to the public records for your house, you will need to contact the Fairfield county appraiser’s office - please note that changes you make at the county can take some time to be reflected on Zillow.com.
If the updated information should increase the value estimate for your house, please also consider publishing your own estimate - to do so, just click on “create an estimate” and choose to publish it in the last step of that process.
Maria Sharapova on October 3, 2006 2:01 pm
Management Rights of Maria Sharapova for sale at $50,000
Weblo David on October 11, 2006 11:57 am
I have several top level Weblo domains, a couple of cities, and am managing a lady who will probably run for president in the next couple of years. I am enjoying the Weblo Life so far. A few glitches which are being addressed as this community grows are the only downside so far. Where will it go? Ask me in about 6 months.
David