Tips for Buying Domains on the Aftermarket

[Jeff]

I thought that this was a very helpful article about buying domains on the aftermarket:

I especially like his discussion about negotiation:

Here are the typical negotiation responses after you get in contact with the owner:

a. ?I will sell it to you for $800,000? When you get ridiculous offers, I typically go back with what I think they are worth, so for Bulk.com they asked for 800k and I went back at 35k. The owner declined the offer. I could not justify a higher price for that name so I moved on.

b. ?I don?t know, what do you think?. This person wants to sell. They are going to negotiate you up for sure. Typically I would go in at 20-30% below my bottom range of my budget. A note of caution here: If you write back that you will buy it for $5,000, just realize that it is a contract that could be enforceable in court. This actually happened to me with a domain called KisKis.com. Always put some language like, ?I will buy it for $5,000 pending all terms are agreeable.?

c. ?$500? (when you think it is worth $5,000) Ok, great you have a price. Be careful though, if you just say ?yes?, you might spook the seller, as they will think they underpriced their domain. This happened to me with Grid.com. In the end, I had to sue the owner to enforce the contract (settled out of court before trial). If the domain in question is just decent and you don?t care if you lose it, then either say ?yes? or negotiate down a bit. [Tim: I prefer the latter to avoid seller's remorse and rescinding o offers.]

d. ?$5,000? (when you think it is worth $5,000) Use the info from point C above, but you do not have to be as cautious because you are close to market.

Also, there is an interesting comment from Adam of DNN.com:

James, Generally speaking good stuff and good advice I would add a few things though in the typical responses area (as I?ve been on both sides of the fence . . . I sold you phonetag.com

D. I?m not really interested in selling it or NO it is not for sale. This typically means the owner is content with keeping the domain name and that you are going to have to make the first move in an attempt to loosen the grip. There?s a high likelihood that they are earning on the domain and really do have no desire to sell the domain. I would not advise playing around with domain owners in this scenario . Make a solid offer that gets their attention and is closer to your Final offer.

E. No response. You?ll start seeing this more and more I?m afraid as domains fall in to the hands of people who ?don?t need to sell?
Keep in mind that the owners of most good domains have probably had the name for awhile and have received countless emails just like yours. Make it stand out and make them want to sell it to you.
Also, a good domain broker can break the ice with domain investors that are in his or her network that might not even respond. If you need one, feel free to hit me up any time. [Comment moderator: click on name for URL, then "contact" page]

One last thing it wasn?t too kind to refer to me as a squatter. . . really? Did you refer to me as a squatter because I owned something you wanted or because I ?wasn?t using it?? Neither is not squatting. I actually bought the domain name for a mobile project that never got off the ground and I really don?t appreciate that label in any use regardless of my intent for owning a domain. Squatting is claiming ownership on something that you shouldn?t be isn?t it ? Typically domain squatters are the ones registering domains similar to trademarked domains. . . .not the same but I?ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you were just generalizing.

 

[RaghavK]

helpful..thanks