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Best way to buy a domain from another Person
Hey guys,
Just wondering if anyone knows a good easy/safe way to buy a domain name from a person. say i want abc.com and bob (who is unknown to me but are in contact with me) who owns it is willing to sell it for an agreed amount of money. Whats the best way to proceed?
Obviously i can pay him first, and then he can transfer the domain to me. But that leaves him with the ability to take the money and keep the domain. Is there a better way?
Cheers,
Comments
Depend from value of domain. In case domain is more valuable, you can check some domain escrow service, but that's usually not cheap. Few examples:
https://escrow.com/services/domain-and-website-escrow/how-domain-escrow-works.aspx
https://sedo.com/us/services/domain-escrow/
https://www.agreed.com/faq/how-does-an-escrow-service-work
http://domainnamewire.com/2014/01/21/domain-escrow-price-comparison/
Some people at namepros board recommend relatively unknown https://www.ecop.com/ for smaller sales. Seems cheaper than bigger escrow services. I am not familiar with them, but you can read about ecop service here: https://www.namepros.com/threads/ecop-com-please-report-any-experiences.738010/
Pay with paypal, don't say anything stupid in the payment comments, everything should be fine. If it's a valuable domain, go with escrow.
its not that valuable, just couple of hundred at max.
I would say escrow is worth it. I think it's like $25?
Escrow is pretty much the only way to guarantee that everyone gets what they want. But you have to make sure that whichever escrow agent you use takes control of the domain name. If they don't do that they have no way of knowing who owns the domain at any point in time. For example the seller can change the whois details so that it looks like the domain has been taken over by the buyer even though it hasn't and the buyer can retain the seller's whois details even though he has taken control over the domain. How will the escrow agent know who is telling the truth?
The safest way is to ask the seller list the domain for sale on the current registrar (Godaddy is simplest), then send the link to you. After payment, the Registrar will do the rest, and you don't have to worry about anything.
Or:
If it's < 500$, Paypal is fine. You should capture video, image about your emails, or your chat with the seller.
If it's > 500$, go with Escrow.
I have used escrow before, worked out fine. As the amount was around $400 I was dubious about the amount of money for the fee, in the end the seller and I split it.
Use Sedo, they will only take 10% of the money. I have sold a few with them. Buyers trust their service.
Paypal because if ever something went wrong, you can dispute your payment. The escrow thing sounds good too but haven't used it
since when PP allows disputes about domains?
Haven't experienced disputing purchase of domains but all I know is whenever you pay something via Paypal and you experience problem with your purchase you can dispute it and it's up to Paypal to decide. I stand corrected though if they don't allow dispute about domains.
No disputes on digitalgoods thru paypal.
The best way to use is escrow.
they will refund you SOME virtual goods (for example hosting), but it has to go through proper channels (i.e. ebay), they won't touch stuff when all you have is few PMs on a computer forum
Depend on domain price for under $1000 (not check for long time but that was the condition) just create an a godaddy auction listing with fixed price and godaddy can automate the deal and secure payment process