Would you buy a high ranking site if you have to use the site's original hosting?

I wanted to start this thread to get everyone's thoughts. I have the majority of my sites listed in a hosting service, and I'm worried one day if I want to sell some of them I won't be able to transfer them out.

The question is. Would you buy, say, a PR 6 site which gets hundreds of visitors a day even if after buying the site you would have to use the hosting/software that was originally used to build the site, and pay a monthly fee for hosting?

It doesn't seem to me that it would be a problem, but I just want to get everyones thoughts.

 

Tesla - It would depend completely on that company and as long as you were up front at the time fo the sale, it probably won't be a problem.

However, if its a company like Hom*stead (which I think yours are) it could definately drive down the price you get as they don't have the best of reputations.

If I was in your position I would have someone convert the sites for you aas they are most likely just simple HTML anyway. It wouldn't cost much and would allow you to sell the sites free and clear.

 

I'm with Shannon, I don't want to be forced to use your host.

 

If you like the price of the hosting , and the options and the stability of the website, why not ?

 

I dont really see why you would want to keep it on your server.

The only complicated part is transferring the domain, but you can probably get the buyer to sign up to the same registrar anyway and transfer it.

If it was me...I have two dedicated hosts and I most definately want to have the new site on my host.

 

Because some of these sites are very difficult for you to transfer off of and if you end up being in a disaster situation, you could lose a lot of indexed pages and therefore value.

 

Maybe I'm having a dense moment (late night Super Bowl party induced) but why would there be a problem moving the site upon a sale in the first place that you would consider placing such a stipulation?

Is it a question of special server-side software that's required for the sites, or a situation where you think the current hosting service might try to block a move or something?

I'm just not understanding the problem, and it's probably me just not reading the post correctly so please forgive me if I'm missing something obvious here.

Scott

 

I would not buy a site that I could not move if I wanted to. What, their gonna hold your files and database hostage and now allow you access to it or something?

 

No. If you can't move the site around like you want you can be held hostage by the hosting company, registar or whoever. Not a chance.

 

Well, I use Homestead and I called them today and they tell me if I sell a site they cannot directly transfer it from my hosting account to a hosting account with another company.

They told me whoever buys the site from me will have to open a hosting account with them in order to gain access to the site. It sounds like BS and homestead is trying to hold their business.

However, if I can transfer the site into html that would be easier.

Yes, I'm afraid so. I purchased a site from a guy here at DP who has a homestead account about a year ago, and even though he gave me his password to access his account, Homestead still has not transferred my site over to me.

I called them this morning and talked about it. They say they're going to get it done in 24hrs. We'll see..........

 

I see, so I'm assuming Homestead uses/offers some sort of proprietary site building software then? I don't know anything about their backend for clients, that's just my take based on your reply and their main page.

I couldn't check out their demo because they don't seem to support *nix browsers.

Sounds like you're in for a nightmare there, because I doubt you'll ever get the full value for a site sale unless you can move it away easily.

Good luck,
Scott

 

But i will NOT transfer them. This is what i'm saying.

 

I've never tried it. How does it work? To be honest, though I've considered switching hosting companies, I'm inclined to build more sites through homestead.

The reason for this is because Homestead only charges 2 bucks extra per month for each domain you register. The other hosting companies I've talked to want 30 bucks to transfer over my blog from blogger.com and 60 bucks to start building a site.

If I can figure out a way to get my sites out of homestead once I've had them for a few years, I don't mind staying with them.

 

Maybe homestead is nice and easy right now. But you really might regret it if you want to do more. Things like transfering your domains, some hosters delay and try to stop you transfering your domain. I have no evidence homestead does this, but it really is a name I try to avoid.

Paying less isn't always cheaper.

 

I'm not speaking against Homestead's service in any way, I know nothing about them really other than comments I've seen here, and if you're happy overall with their service and policies then by all means I'd say you should stay and grow your business with them. A trusting relationship with your service provider--whomever it is--is worth far more than you'll ever pay in monthly fees.

That said, I thought I'd point out that most hosting providers offer what's called 'reseller' accounts. These are typically larger allocation accounts that enable you to host numerous sites from one package. Designers often use these and then 'resell' the extra hosting to their clients as a value added service, hence the name, but these accounts are also great for webmasters running multiple sites too. Plus, since you're limited with a reseller account only by disk space and bandwidth levels, you could run dozens of sites on an account that costs between $15 and $25 dollars depending on the resources you needed.

Again, I'm not trying to sway you on leaving Homestead at all, and I would suggest staying if you're comfortable with them. I'm simply pointing out one option for you to look at that exists. It may or may not be beneficial to your situation, you would have to determine that for yourself.

HTH and Good luck,
Scott

Edit note: I believe that WordPress has a built-in import function that allows you to import your blogger.com data to a new host. You just setup WordPress (open source) and then run the import. I haven't used it myself but I understand it's pretty straightforward. Maybe others here have done this and can add their experience? That would be an option to paying someone to transfer it for you.

 

Hello,
What do you want to "MOVE" ?
Is it the html php files ? Cause I can help there .
Or is it the domain you want to transfer ?

You have mentioned a "Hosting software" . Can you show what exactly you are talking about ? I am getting a feeling that it is some sort of online site builder kind of a thing where you choose a templet , add your text and design etc. and save .
Even in those finally a HTML page is made so it can be moved ...
Or do you have Dynamic content to create which a script is installed by the hosting provider ? This one is out of my reach.

If you have the html files then when selling you can provide the files and point the domain to another servers .The buyer can later transfer the domain to another domain registrar.
Is your host not allowing the domain transfer? Or is it about moving files?
Let me know which is the case and may be I can do something here .
Send a PM .
Regards

 

I just have one more question for you guys who said you wouldn't buy a site if you couldn't move it. Would you buy the site if I converted it into html and then paid a designer to redesign it, allowing me to get the site intact off the server?

 

Why redesign it? That may change the rankings etc so it is much better to do a straight conversion (very easy) and then sell it. That way all the pages (urls) are exactly the same.

To 99% of people and more importantly Google, it would be the same site