How to purchase a domain name safely from another individual?

Division

The domain I want is registered by someone else and I contacted them through their email address I got on who.is

We agreed a price of GBP £5,000.

I live in a different country than the current owner.

How do you recommend I proceed with buying this domain to minimize the risk that I get scammed?

Thank You.

jus_tin4

Is that exact domain name worth the 5K to start with? Would it not make more financial sense to alter the domain name slightly to avoid this cost and risk?

dazberry

I've never had to do it myself - and unfortunately no one ever offered me any money for mine - but look up domain escrow services.

D.

PropJoe10

That seems a very high price for a domain name, not to mention that it's very risky to hand over that sort of cash to someone you know nothing about. If it's a .com name, for example, why not just buy a .org or .net or something for a fraction of the cost?

Graham

Domain name escrow.

Pick one of the reputable companies and they will hold the domain/cash until the transaction/transfer is completed.

Sedo are one of the largest domain sale companies. I've used them for domain acquisitions without issue:

https://sedo.com/us/services/domain-transfer-service/

Division

jus_tin4 wrote: »

Is that exact domain name worth the 5K to start with? Would it not make more financial sense to alter the domain name slightly to avoid this cost and risk?

Branding would the main reason I would be willing to pay this much.

SEO would be another big factor with this domain.

It would have a good bit of resale value also so I could recoup most of this cost if necessary.

kupus

You can go with escrow.com they do domain names to cars.
They are the ones that verify everything and you are all the safer for it.

mneylon

Buying via Sedo or Escrow.com is safe.
Paying £5k for a good domain is probably about the average price you'd pay and is pretty low in the grand scheme of things:
http://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm

Trojan

I've used Sedo for purchases up to €10k, I haven't bought anything more expensive than that. Fees were about 15%.

I was going to use escrow.com for a $3k purchase, fees were going to be about $100. But the seller had some trouble with their account so asked me to pay by Paypal after they'd updated domain info to my ownership on trust that I'd pay (I did).

kupus

Trojan wrote: »

I've used Sedo for purchases up to €10k, I haven't bought anything more expensive than that. Fees were about 15%.

I was going to use escrow.com for a $3k purchase, fees were going to be about $100. But the seller had some trouble with their account so asked me to pay by Paypal after they'd updated domain info to my ownership on trust that I'd pay (I did).

BE very careful using paypal, they can just turn around after a month or so and say goods not as described.

You lose domain and you lose money.

Trojan

kupus wrote: »

BE very careful using paypal, they can just turn around after a month or so and say goods not as described.

You lose domain and you lose money.

It's a possibility, but very much dependent on the situation.

In my case the seller had already changed the domain registrant information, so there was nothing Paypal or the seller could do to get it back without my permission - they'd have to go legal or appeal to the registrar.

On the other hand, as the buyer I might be able to convince Paypal to refund me, that would totally unethical but could work.