Real estate boom transfers to the Internet

Daniel Nussbaum is making what seems to be a painless transition from the real estate boom into what he hopes will be the next Internet boom.

The former dentist, who grew up in Long Beach, N.Y., has spent the last four years buying up Web domain names by the virtual truckload.

He purchased: www.LongBeachCA-Realty.com, www.WestLosAngelesRealty.com, www.CarmelMontereyRealty.com, www.SanFranciscoBayRealty.com and www.WoodlandHillsRealty.com Ö to name a few.

Under his company, TheUSARealty.com, he has access to 165 markets in 29 states.

``I started buying hundreds of realty.com domain names about four years ago,'' said Nussbaum, who operates his business out of Calabasas.

Today the 54-year-old plans to launch an aggressive campaign to further fund and grow the endeavour through the help of venture capitalists.

The Web site accesses numerous public Multiple
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Listing Services and Realtors, and visitors don't have to fill out a registration form to access the site's search engine.

He hopes to continue to grow the site at a rapid pace.

Visitors to the site can type in a town, city or ZIP code and they are taken to one of their affiliated Web sites in that specific area.

Once there, visitors can search the local MLS as well as gather local or market-specific information, like information on schools, institutions, transportation and parks.

The site allows visitors to search listings by type, square footage, areas, features and price.

The company makes its money by charging real estate agents a referral fee after a transaction closes.

Nussbaum signed agreements with real estate brokers to run the individual domains, with the exception of a handful, which he runs with his wife, Rachel. These include: www.WestLosAngelesRealty.com, www.SanFernandoValleyRealty.com, www.HermosaBeach-realty.com, www.VenturaBeachRealty.com and www.SantaClaritaValley-realty.com. The couple also plans to eventually operate www.PasadenaCa.realty.com.

``I've created a real estate portal with TheUSARealty.com just to direct traffic to these sites,'' he said.

The LongBeachCA-Realty.com Web site is operated by Ron Levengood with Prudential California Realty.

And that's one of the differences between his site and other similar sites, which some believe encourage home buyers and sellers to conduct transactions without the help of an agent.

``I think it's a mistake to do that without a Realtor,'' Nussbaum said.

Before launching the company, he was a dentist for 22 years.

Rachel had been selling homes for about 25 years in the Philadelphia area when they decided to move to the Los Angeles area in 1999.

Nussbaum debuted TheUSARealty.com in November at the National Association of Realtors Conference in New Orleans.

Since then, the company has expanded into 32 new regional markets.