Paul & Erik
A good domain name is important. Unfortunately, finding the domain name of your dreams is getting harder and more expensive. There are thousands of investors (domainers) working hard to register all the names they can think of for later resale. You are unlikely to find the short, targeted, dot com domain of you dreams still available for registration. You are almost certain to have to settle for a less desirable name or pay a lot of money to buy the one you really want.
Paul and Erik have accumulated several hundred domain names for future use by our customers. We watch several "Drop" lists where names that have expired come up for re-registration and register all we can afford. If we know a customer is looking for a particular name we can search the larger domain sales sites to see if it is available.
You do NOT need to build a website to register a domain. You should register domains you might want to use as soon as you see they are available. It costs less than $10/year and then you can be certain the name is available when you need it. If you wait to register until you are ready to build a website, the name may have been registered by someone else.