Any opinions on this as a service?

[grcorp]

As I have some experience selling to end-users but lack the good inventory to continually profit from my experience, I thought I could try my hand at being a domain name broker.

There's a saturation of those who take a percent of "whatever it sells for", and paying up-front with no guarantees is always a gamble; one which not every domainer is willing to risk.

So, the idea struck me the other day... why not offer a flat fee service, payable only if the domain name sells?

I.e. on a $99 brokerage fee - you assign a name to me and I secure an end-user sale. Said end user is willing to pay $350. As the name sold, you net $249, less payment transfer fees. Should the name not have sold, I am owed nothing, and you may do as you wish with the domain.

Seem like a good idea? Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated. I can't start with this right now, as I'm quite busy... but might want to try this out on a few names come early November.

 

[Melly]

Well I guess its not a bad idea but really no different that working for a flat percentage of 10% which is the average of what most individual brokers charge. Things to think about is how much is your time worth to you. What if you spent two weeks selling a $30,000 domain. Would you be happy with $99 for your time when you could have profited $3000.

I guess my opinion would be if you were going to do flat rates they should be different for different price ranges. $99 for anything under $1000. $250 for anything over 1k up to 5000, $500 for $5000 - $1000. I think you get what I mean. There is no way I would put days of researching and contacting for $99. IMO

 

[katherine]

Agree, it's not worthwhile to put a lot of efforts for $99.
Personally I would charge 10% with a minimum of $500 for example. Which means the names should be worth at least mid-$$$$.
I don't believe in brokerage for low value domains.

You can still list them on multiple sites and do nothing: sit and wait approach

 

[grcorp]

Thanks for the responses.

I was intending to target mid-$xxx sales, as those are often the names that just sit there (adding cost to the sit and wait approach), and many of their holders paid reg fee. I've handregged domains and sold them for $xxx before, once within the same hour.

The reason I'm targeting that range is because a really good name worth $x,xxx+ sells itself, while names which are not as good take a little more effort. I've made a career out of cold calling, and am not afraid to hustle a potential buyer over the phone.

Melly, that's very good thinking about having different price ranges.

Again, while I would be targeting mid-$xxx domains, if presented with a true $x,xxx or $xx,xxx name, I'd have to raise the numbers a little bit... but considering that such names are in the minority of those registered, I could handle those on a case-by-case basis.

 

[Biggie]

As I have some experience selling to end-users but lack the good inventory to continually profit from my experience,

if you've got experience, had success and have been making profits, then why haven't you been re-investing to buy more domains... ala more inventory?

and if the average sales to end-users has been in the low to mid $$$, why even try to broker for those prices when you could just keep doing what you're doing and keep a bigger slice of the sales pie?

not doubting your statements or claims, but it's easy for one to just make a post and say...

"I wanna be a domain name broker, let me help you sell your domains"




what i really like to see from all potential brokers or "claimers to that title" is:

is a list of past clients, your specialty if any (niche markets), domains sold, methods of contact, percentage rate of success/failure and maybe even some detailed dialogue that took place to complete those sales which make up your experience and will verify your accomplishments.


for those who can fill in the blanks, it will help establish them from the rest in a presentation.


imo...