'Real' Estate Sale

Fantasy Properties Can Get You Actual Money on Weblo

The mayor of Washington has put a For Sale sign on the nation's capital -- and he claims one of the 2008 presidential candidates is negotiating to buy the place for a fraction of what a Georgetown rowhouse might cost.

This isn't the real Washington, of course, but a virtual version of the city on Weblo, a new Internet site that is offering online versions of every piece of property on the planet and a real-money transaction system to go with them.

It all works like an online version of Monopoly, but aims for the appeal of fantasy video games such as World of Warcraft and social networking sites such as MySpace.

In this online frontier, users are betting that a growing number of people will engage in real-estate speculation. Using real money, Weblo members purchase virtual properties -- cities, states or physical addresses -- around the globe and customize Web pages that correspond to those locations. Properties -- the White House, New York City, the state of Virginia -- are initially auctioned, and then can be resold. So far, 10 percent of the virtual globe has been sold.

There are a number of ways to make money on Weblo: Those who own the rights to cities or states collect transaction fees from members who buy virtual properties in their jurisdictions. Members can personalize Web pages associated with their properties and make money from advertising sold on those sites. Eventually, Montreal-based Weblo also plans to offer e-commerce so that people can add visual storefronts and sell real objects on their pages.

Weblo, launched last September, was the brainchild of Rocky Mirza, an Internet entrepreneur who has run online auction companies. Mirza started an international software development company to fund his new idea, and last month the site secured $3.2 million in additional funding from VantagePoint Venture Partners.

One of Weblo's 44,000 members is Mike Jameson, a Connecticut real estate agent who so far has paid more than $15,000 for 700 properties on Weblo, including Andrews Air Force Base, Walt Disney World, Newark and Arlington. His original plan: Showcase actual properties for sale in the counterpart of his virtual city and collect referral fees when the listing leads to a real sale.

But Jameson also saw Weblo's own real estate potential: Just a few months ago, he paid $95 for Washington, a transaction that earned him the title of mayor of the virtual city. "D.C. was one of the first cities I bought," he said. "That was a gold mine."

Today, his minimum asking price for Washington is $99,000, and he said someone from one of the presidential campaigns contacted him as an interested buyer.

"Only because the election is coming up does this seem like a good move," said Jameson, who wouldn't name the candidate because the deal has not been finalized.

There's nothing fancy about Weblo properties, which appear to be little more than simple two-dimensional Web pages. Jameson's Washington, for example, consists of little more than a description of the city, some pictures of the monuments and memorials around town and links to his other Weblo properties.

But if the Weblo community grows and members start to invest more time and energy into sprucing up their online properties -- just as millions of MySpace members have invested hours designing their profile pages to reflect their personalities and attract visitors -- there is potential for more traffic and greater revenue.