Connecting your own domain to your roomvu website unlocks features like IDX property search and gives your brand a professional address like janesmith.com instead of a shared platform link. If you've never bought a domain before, good news: it's one of the easiest and cheapest investments you'll make in your business. Here's everything you need to know.
What Is a Domain, Exactly?
A domain is your address on the internet, the thing people type to reach your website. You don't buy it outright; you register it for a period of time (like a lease), and as long as you keep renewing, it's yours. Nobody else can use it while you hold the registration.
Where to Buy One
Domains are sold by companies called registrars. All of them sell the same domains; they differ mainly on price and interface. The most popular options:
GoDaddy: the biggest and most familiar name, frequent first-year promotions
Namecheap: consistently low prices and free privacy protection
Squarespace Domains: clean interface, absorbed Google Domains
Cloudflare: sells domains at wholesale cost with no markup, cheapest renewals
roomvu's domain setup supports all major providers with step-by-step DNS instructions built into the setup flow.
What It Costs
Domain pricing is refreshingly low compared to almost any other marketing expense:
Item | Typical Cost |
.com domain, first year | $10 to $15 (promos as low as $1 to $3) |
.com renewal, per year | $15 to $20 |
Privacy protection (WHOIS) | Free at most registrars today |
A few pricing notes worth knowing:
Watch the renewal price, not the promo price. Registrars often advertise a very cheap first year, with the real annual price kicking in at renewal. Check both numbers before buying.
Your name is usually cheap. A domain like yournamehomes.com or yournamerealty.com is almost always available at standard pricing. Short, generic domains (like homes.com) are premium domains that cost thousands, but you don't need one.
Privacy protection matters. Without it, your name, address, and phone number are publicly visible in the WHOIS database. Most major registrars now include it free; confirm before checkout.
How Long Do You Own It?
You register a domain for 1 to 10 years at a time (10 is the maximum allowed per registration). Most people register for 1 or 2 years with auto-renew turned on.
Turn on auto-renew. The single most common way agents lose their domain is forgetting to renew it. If your domain expires, your website goes down, and after a grace period, the domain can be bought by someone else.
Registering for multiple years locks in the current price and removes the renewal risk. If you're committed to your brand name, 2 to 5 years is a sensible choice.
How Easy Is It, Really?
Very. The entire purchase takes about 5 minutes:
Go to a registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
Search for the domain you want, for example, yournamerealestate.com
If it's available, add it to your cart. If not, try a variation
Confirm privacy protection is included, check the renewal price, and check out
Turn on auto-renew in your account settings
No technical skills required. The only mildly technical step comes afterward, pointing the domain to your roomvu website, and roomvu walks you through that with provider-specific DNS instructions right inside your website settings. Full details in our guide: How to Set Up Your Website on roomvu.
Tips for Picking a Good Domain Name
Keep it short, easy to spell, and easy to say out loud
Your name plus your niche works great: smithsellsaustin.com, janedoehomes.com
.com is the safest choice since it's what people type by default
Avoid hyphens and numbers, they're easy to mistype and hard to say on the phone
Need Help?
Once you've bought your domain, connecting it to your roomvu website takes just a few minutes. If you get stuck at any step, send us an email at info@roomvu.com or book a group support session with our team here: Book a Support Session