Buying Domain Names

Sometimes the best names you are able to buy are the ones that are the hardest to buy. If you go the extra mile to track an owner down, it can pay off very nicely.

A few months ago, I tried to buy a great descriptive domain name.  I emailed the registrant whose email address was his name @ the domain name, and it bounced. I called the phone number of the Whois, and I learned the registrant had sold off his company but retained the domain name.

I thought I hit a dead end when more research led me to a disconnected phone number, and I couldn’t find any good references for the domain owner in Google.

Further research enabled me to find out the guy’s nickname, which is the name he went by, despite having a different first name listed in the Whois. Even more research led me to a long lost comment he once posted on a website asking the author to get in touch, leaving a personal email address and phone number.

I called the number and left a voicemail and followed up with an email inquiring about the domain name. No response. I called back a month later, and again, I received no response.

Last week, around 2.5 months after reaching out, I received an email from the guy, thanking me for getting in touch with him.  He informed me that he is now semi-retired and moved out of the country but would consider selling his domain name. After a few more days and a couple of emails, we were able to strike a deal.

Persistence pays off. Most people would stop after a couple of attempts. Knowing what the name is, I can assure you that many people probably did stop because I got a reasonable price for the domain name. Ordinarily, I would be a bit leery of something like this, worrying that someone hacked his email account. However, his mentioning my voice message was reassuring.

The domain name I am buying is not important for this post, and I will probably end up flipping it in private. The lesson is very important and something you should consider the next time your email bounces or the phone is disconnected.

Here’s a tip for you when you’re in the process of buying domain names, no matter if you’re buying to re-sell, park, or develop. Don’t use an email address that alludes to the fact that you’re a domain name buyer.

This might seem like a rather obvious tip, but I use one, and it’s backfired on me more than once. In fact, this is a reply to a domain inquiry I received just a couple of days ago: “What would you use it for? I see you handle domains by your email address.”

Every domain investor should do some due diligence when purchasing a domain name. Generally, this entails a Whois lookup at a site like DomainTools, and it should also involve a Whois History search. If something looks funky in the Whois records, there may be reason to investigate further.

One of the best ways to do due diligence on important domain names is to contact the previous owner. You can easily find out his or her information in the Whois History too. You’ll want to let the person know that you’re calling to do due diligence and you just want to confirm that he or she did in fact sell the domain name to the current owner.

If you really want to pry, you can even ask the price, but most people will find this question inappropriate. You also may not want to know how much more you are spending than when the domain name was previously sold.

Like purchasing art, a domain name’s provenance is important to know. Generally, a domain name will not become more valuable because a particular person or company owned it, but you should know that all previous transfers were legitimate.