Use Escrow for a Deal Closing in the Future

It is important to use an escrow service when transacting on a domain name acquisition or sale. I think almost everyone in the domain investment space knows this or should know this by now.

If you reach an agreement to sell a domain name that won’t close until a date in the future, it may be a good idea to set up escrow when the agreement is signed, even though the deal won’t close right away.

Let’s say you are selling a domain name that you are using for a website. Once you reach a deal to sell the domain name and the purchase agreement is signed, the buyer should remit the payment to an escrow service and the seller should push the domain name to the control of the escrow service. The seller can notify advertisers and visitors about the sale of the domain name, and the domain name can be used to inform visitors of the pending sale. Once the transaction time comes, the buyer will receive the domain name and the seller will receive the funds.

This is important for two reasons. First, it is always wise to use an escrow service as an intermediary. Second, if the buyer has some sort of financial issues, the funds will be protected. Nobody would want to notify advertisers (to cancel contracts) and inform visitors the website will be moved or taken down if something happens with the buyer’s ability to submit payment. If the domain owner is informing customers or visitors about a change of domain name or closing, I think the money should already be in escrow.

I am pretty confident Payoneer Escrow, Escrow.com, and Escrow.Domains can all set up a transaction that collects funds and the domain name with a future sale date. You would likely need to contact Brandon (Payoneer), Jackson (Escrow.com), or Stevan (Escrow.Domains) in order to discuss pricing and set up a specialized transaction like this one.

Even if you’re doing a deal in the future, I think it is a good idea for the funds to be secured as soon as the agreement is signed.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

8 COMMENTS

    • If you have advertising deals that expire in a few months or want to inform visitors of a change in URL that will be happening. Those two things would take some time. You wouldn’t want the buyer to fbr able to back out after making these announcements.

  1. Was this from a recent experience? Seems to benefit the seller, why would the buyer care about having their funds tied up early in the process if they have the agreement in place?

  2. If a buyer submits funds they would normally want the domain right away. If they want to keep the domain acquisition private there are ways to do that. If the seller wants to complete the sale later then that is a risk they are taking.

    • I would add that as a contingency and if the buyer isn’t okay with it, I wouldn’t do a deal. There’s no way I would cancel advertising agreements and inform users the site is being discontinued if the funds weren’t escrowed.

      Keep in mind that the buyer is also protected because the domain name is also escrowed.

    • There are also a few new btc escrow services as well. Never used them. Just traded in forums on reputation score and volume. 100% only traders with lots of transactions.

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