During the course of the past three years, I’ve sold several domain names to real estate agents and companies in the real estate business, and I’ve also unsuccessfully negotiated with them as well. I want to share a bit of insight I have gleaned from my experience.

When I price my domain names, more often than not the price I give is at optimistic end of where I would like to sell a domain name. Obviously if I think a domain name has a market value of $25,000, I am going to ask for $25,000 when I am asked for a price. As is the case with most negotiations, the buyer generally wants to pay less than the asking price, and the negotiation determines where you end up.

Dealing with real estate professionals can be a bit different. Most real estate professionals deal with homes and properties where the final sale price is somewhat close to the asking price. On occasion, they might end up negotiating a deal that is 20% more or less than the ask, but most of the time, they are dealing within a fairly tight range.

When it comes to domain names, that might not

I was evaluating a domain name today, and I searched my email archive because it seemed familiar. The first email that mentioned it was from the owner who was asking if I’d broker his domain name and he provided his asking price because I was interested in buying it. I directed him to a domain broker since I don’t broker names, and two emails later in my archive (about a year in between emails), I saw the name listed as sold for about a quarter of the asking price. It’s too bad he didn’t tell me about the price drop!

If you are contemplating reducing the price of a domain name, it’s important to reach back to anyone who expressed an interest in the domain name, even if you think it’s a longshot. People’s circumstances change, as does the market, and someone who may not have wanted to make a lowball offer may see your new price and be interested in working out a deal at a later date.

One thing that I really like about

I’ve seen a variety of “for sale” messages on the top of parked landing pages that use DomainNameSales.com, Voodoo, Sedo, and other parking platforms. Some people use the standard message provided by the platform, while others use different versions they create on their own.

I prefer to use whatever is standard because I assume the messages have been tested by the platform. On DNS, I know that Frank Schilling’s company has hundreds of thousands of parked domain names, and it is my assumption that the message being displayed has worked for Frank’s domain names, and I am comfortable using what seems to induce inquiries.

I have landed on other pages where domain owners are using