Reaching an agreement to buy a site?

I appologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question. Feel free to move it, but hopefully it will help everyone


What do people do when they reach an agreement to buy a site that is of high value?

I have a site I am interested in and the price is 50K. I am wondering how to go about doing this. Eg: transfer of money, domain registration etc. Technically when the money is paid the person could just keep the whole site????

Is there a way to go about this so both parties can be trusted?

Also...has anyone ever heard about financing a site or leasing to own? 50K is alot of money but the owner just simply doesn't have the time to put into it and I can't afford 50K upfront. I have the time to put into it and the owner wants to help me out because it will benefit him too.

Is it possible to somehow make payments of 5k a month for 10 months to a 3rd party until the debt is retired while I still maintain ownership?

I hope people understand where I am coming from here. Sorta a complicated situation. Its not like buying a car from someone.

 

For a site this large in value you'd be wise to find an escrow service that you and the other party can agree on ... and also determine prior to who will cover or bear what share of costs for the service.

 

Be careful of who you use for escrow.

Making and getting payment for websites safely. That should answer your questions.

 

Thats a start. Has anyone done this before? Is there possibility of financing some sites?

 

Try getting a business loan or a personal line of credit. If your credit is exceptional high 700s - low 800s you shoudn't have a problem with that amount. Otherwise I really don't think anyone will finance you to purchase a website. Very risky as the loan isn't very secure, especially to a bank or creditor. For example when you purchase a Lexus the loan is secured by the automobile itself.
I am not sure what the situation is or your relationship with the seller, is he/she a friend? I so you may negotiate a deal with the seller with a contract your attorney produced to pay in installments or you may want to try that rich relative. Or lastly if you have high limit credit cards ie a couple with $25K limits, obtain convenience checks and finance the site on 2 cards. Interest will range from 0% to 20's% again depending on your credit score. But if you do have credit cards with high limits, your credit should be really good and your interest can be negotiable with the creditor.

IMHO, by the type of questions you are asking, about domain registration, moving the site etc, it seems you are a novice in the "webmaster" field and may be getting in a little over your head. My advice is to pass on this and work on smaller more obtainable sites and try to get some more experience. Then perhaps in a year, look into a bigger site. There are always opportunities.

(I have 7 years banking experience in commercial, real estate, personal loans etc.)

 

There is a company out there now at www.DomainCapital.com that is dedicated to domain name and website financing. I do not know anything about them or how it works but it might be worth a click.

 

Those are great pieces of advice from both Doozyj and bmac.

I hope others can use this thread if they need it because I don't see any others in the same situation I am in.

Thx Guys

 

This is the situation. In one of the industries I am in, there is another site that is huge. 500000 pages but has lots of broken elements. It is a PR 6 in Google. The revenue on it is about a couple hundred a month.

The owner wants to get rid of it because he had a kid and has no time and it was a hobby site on something that interested him. Although he has an idea of how much it is worth, he doesn't have any revenue sources for it. Going by the figure of 10 months X profit would be around $4000. But we both know its potential as it is quite obvious that the number is very very low.

I feel based on similar sites that I own that revenue would be around 100K a year with about 2 months of solid work getting in back to the time he quit working on it.

So....I think if I come in at an offer in the 50K range he will sell it. But....I need to get the money together somehow. Yes, I could lease it from him but if I put all the work in for a year he could simply steal all the work and revenue sources I created.

So....it is high risk and based on alot of speculation on both our parts. I am confident that I can make it work and make him happy as well.

just don't know how to handle it.

If I had the balls, I should easily give him the money and take it over, but sooo much is based on speculation.

Its a tough call what to do. I am drooling over this site as it is the type of site that can pay all the bills in my life forever. What to do, What to do???

 

Hmmm. So, let me see. Being a high risk transaction any money invested in it could be completely lost?

I noticed you're not looking for an equity partner but for a lender, someone who'll lend unsecured. If you've identified it as high risk how do you propose making loan repayments in case the business flops? Or is that something you didn't think you'd have to pay back if your speculation didn't work out?

Christ! Why don't they teach kids some business sense in school these days? If something is high risk and you don't have the money you can afford to lose then the sensible thing is for you to walk away. Or look for an equity partner - not an unsecured loan! Do you think idiots are queuing up to give you money? What's in it for them? The slim chance of 6% interest, and the almost certain loss of $50K? (Unless a completely inexperienced, out of his depth kid suddenly discovers he knows how to achieve business nirvana?)

:shaking head:

 

I have sold similar sites, one for $18K, another for $35K uaing www.escrow.com, everything was great with them.

 

He is looking for financing, not an escrow service.

Again as I mentioned. Walk away from this. Speculating a site is worth $50K and the prior owner makes a couple hundred a month. Sorry I don't there is no way in hell you can turn this site into making a $100K a year. First you need to borrow $50K just to buy the site, then what about funds to promote the site etc?