After a long and sometimes contentious negotiation to sell a domain name via Dan.com, it can be a bit of relief to receive the “Counter offer accepted” email. This email indicates that the buyer accepted the counter offer price, and the domain name is now pending sale. It’s not yet time to open the champagne and light a cigar though.
Getting a buyer to follow through with the deal and pay for a domain name is an important next step that can be stressful. It can take some time for a buyer to submit payment, particularly for a large amount of money or if the buyer is from a large company that has some internal red tape for payment submission. it can also take some time for Dan.com to process a payment, particularly if a wire transfer payment is originated from a foreign bank.
One thing I do to track if a buyer has taken the next step in paying is looking at the Buyer invoice. This can be found under the “Invoices” tab at the top of the negotiation window. When the buyer has agreed to buy a domain name but not yet taken steps to complete the purchase, the buyer’s address field on the buyer’s invoice is blank. This is the case with the six figure deal I agreed to where the buyer is trying to back out citing the dropping value of Bitcoin. It is also the case with a smaller deal I just accepted and am awaiting payment.
After an agreement is reached between buyer and seller, Dan.com directs the buyer to a page to collect additional information and facilitate payment. On this page, the buyer inputs address information and then either pays via credit card or arranges for a wire transfer. As far as I know, if the invoice has the buyer’s address, it means the buyer has taken the next step to purchase the domain name. It is a good indicator that the buyer will follow through with the purchase.
There is a caveat to this. In March, I agreed to sell a domain name on Dan.com for quite a lot of money. I could tell who the buyer was based on the domain name and the name of the buyer. The company that was going to buy the domain name was confirmed when the buyer’s address information was input. However, the buyer later told Dan.com the price was too high and did not pay. This was a bit upsetting to me, but I like my chances of selling the domain name for more money in the future and I did not pursue it further.
Once Dan.com has received and processed the payment, the seller will receive an email indicating that. Another email will be sent with instructions on transferring ownership to Dan.com. These emails are the only way to know for certain that the buyer paid.
In any case, obviously this is not a foolproof way of seeing if the buyer paid or is going to pay. However, I think it can be a good indicator of whether a buyer intends to complete a deal and can give some reassurance that a deal will be completed.
Thank you Elliot,didn’t even know about this but would check on it after reading your article
Thanks for sharing Elliot.
I have noted this in the past, but I have had numerous instances on Dan where a buyer will accept my counter, but end up not paying. I’ve also had instances where a person has clicked buy it now and hasn’t followed through. I’m saying this only as constructive feedback because I truly enjoy Dan.com and the experience they provide, but for the buying part it seems necessary to setup a vetting process especially for domains over a certain value to where buyers funds could be verified earlier on in the process. Another possible way would be to have a payment method on file for transactions between certain values like Sav offers. Probably a lot of different possibilities and solutions could be implemented here, but it’s something that needs to be addressed because as of now anyone can click the button and agree to buy regardless of if they can afford it or even really intend to buy the domain.
Dan.com took away this feature, so now I can’t see if a buyer filled out the payment information.