Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

The entrepreneurial spirit of Nick Spanos, a respectable Real Estate broker from Manhattan, NY and owner of bApple.com, led him to new ventures in the 1990′s. His vacation rental business was thriving and so was his portfolio of domain names. Nick’s business expanded on the Web to promote these vacation rental properties, through the simple philosophy outlined below:

In the past, the popularity of hotels was primarily due to the accessibility. You knew that if you went to the center of NY City there would be a hotel that might be able to accommodate you. Now, through the NoMoreHotels.com network, thousands of available rooms, villas, condos, estates, beachfront rentals, and apartments are for rent by owners and are accessible at the click of a mouse.

Nick’s an ever-busy mind, he programs his own applications, structures his own databases and runs his own hosting servers. This multiplicity of skills has allowed him to overcome tough times in life.

When the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center took America’s society by surprise, Nick went to ground zero to help with the rescue efforts as a volunteer. At that time, all travel stopped, tourism dropped to zero and his vacation rental business tanked, with the Bank taking 100% of the bookings. In his own words, Nick lost his shirt in the aftermath of 9-11.

As a domainer, Nick Spanos is fond of  establishing domain verticals for his business and at the peak of his NoMoreHotels venture he also registered NoHotel.com and NoHotels.com, figuring that it’d be easier for non-Americans to remember. This foresight proved extremely worthy 10 years later.

Right after Christmas of 2008, Nick received a $1,000 offer via Sedo, for the domain NoHotels.com to which he countered with a whopping $100,000 ticket. During the course of the following weeks, Nick negotiated aggressively with what appeared to be an increasingly impatient buyer, who jumped from his original offer to $8,000 – then $15,000 and $16,000 – before showing his true financial colors by raising the offer to $55,000.

At that point, Nick’s asking price was $70,000 and he was soon contacted by a Sedo broker on behalf of the buyer. The deal was closed at $60,000 for both NoHotel.com and NoHotels.com – a move showing that the Norwegian buyer fully intends to capitalize on the brand: “No” is the ISO country code for Norway.

Nick Spanos could not be happier; a great domain sale that successfully closed the link to the past business and emphasizes the importance of negotiation: go with your gut feeling – if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Real estate recession? Gasoline prices above $4 a gallon? Election year madness?

It can only happen in the United States of America, which is about to celebrate its two-hundred and thirty-second anniversary of independence, on July 4th.

Americans are a nation of hard-working, ingenious people that maintain one element unique around the world: united, they are able to share, create and prosper in any kind of weather, under the protective shield of the All-American Dream.

Simple ideas become entrepreneurial forces that catapult individuals and companies to the top of their industry; combined with the ingenuity possessed by people that are given the opportunity to prosper, it’s an unstoppable force.

Enter Nick Spanos, NYC real estate broker who also happens to be a 3rd generation Greek. Nick owns bAPPLE.com – short for “Big Apple” – a company that deals in premium, multi-million dollar real estate based off SoHo, NY.

I met Nick at TRAFFIC / Orlando in May; he’s the type of guy that looks at you in the eyes and can tell whether you are a bullshitter or not. In the late 70′s, Nick had a prolific encounter with Steve Jobs at the Homebrew Computer Club. Apparently, Apple eventually used one of Nick’s sinus plotting functions in their range of computers; Nick’s affection of geometry led him to create his own computer board. Later on, in the 90′s, Nick began investing in virtual real estate – domain names – and his current 10,000-strong portfolio contains both generics and traffic names, which Nick monetizes using software that he created.

But Nick Spanos is a strong player in the non-virtual real estate field as well. Nick’s ambitious expansion from his Union Square offices to the bAPPLE, Inc. headquarters in SoHo – the premium location in the heart of Manhattan next to world-famous luxury stores – is only an illustration of his commitment to meet the demands of his extensive clientèle, which includes real estate brokerage in Florida, Panama and Greece.

While the US remains in recession, Nick turned his focus to the market that presents increased opportunities: European buyers. With the Euro currently trading at $1.57, cash-laden investors that visit the US and its metropolitan center, New York City, are able to get more premium real estate for their money. In fact, most of bAPPLE’s buyers pay hard cash, something unheard of for the mortgage-driven Americans. And that’s great news for Nick Spanos, who was invited by CNBC to present his successful story this morning, to viewers around the globe.

Click here to view Nick Spanos on CNBC

So what is it going to be, real estate or virtual real estate? Land that we can walk onto and live on, or domain names that we cannot touch but we can equally develop, monetize and resell? In today’s economy, diversification is the key, and Nick seems to have discovered the best combination, successfully delving in both!