Finalizing the Domain Purchase

When you and the owner have agreed upon a price, you need to finalize the sale. Both the buyer and the seller have a certain risk in this. It’s kind of like a bad thriller in which the villain holds a child kidnap for ransom. How do you know that your child will be returned when you give the bad guy the money? How does the bad guy know that he’ll get away with the money if he gives you the child? In the end, someone usually gets shot.

Thank goodness domain names are business deals and not ransoms! In the business world, contracts legally protect us. If the deal for the domain name is big—we’re talking a few thousand dollars at least—then you will probably be asked to sign some kind of contract saying that you will, in fact, buy the domain name. After all, if you don’t buy it, there are probably ten other people in line to do so. If you back out at the last minute, you’ll have wasted the seller’s time, and believe me, the seller will not be happy. Not at all. In any case, if you decide not to purchase a name after you’ve begun negotiations, for whatever reason, make sure that the seller is the first person to know.

Once you’ve chosen a price for the name, the owner will release it so that it can be registered in your name. There are services that can do this without releasing the name completely to the public so that it can’t be grabbed in a free for all the second the name’s owner drops the name. In addition, I also recommend working with an escrow service.

And escrow service will make sure that the seller and buyer both get exactly what the sale demands. You give this third party the money, and the seller will give this third part the title for the domain name. The escrow service will then hand off the items to the correct parties. Usually, it is good manners to split the cost of the escrow service, although this might be a negotiation point in the deal. Make sure that you’re working with an escrow service that’s been around for a while and has a good reputation so that you will both be treated fairly. Many auction sites offer an escrow service when a sale is made for your convenience.

Tags: domain purchase