Legit/Safe/Protected way to Transfer after shaking on a deal???

Escrow.com is one of the most-used financial escrow services for domains. However they don't hold your domains and they don't get involved in the transfer itself; they act as the 3rd party to hold funds until a domain transfer takes place.

Sedo.com offers many more services, including registration for domains worldwide, domain escrow & transfer, parking, etc. They charge a hefty commission when they act as the escrow service for a sale.

Until you have researched much more on your own, I wouldn't recommend selling your domains. If you get a great offer, you might consider playing it safe and asking a broker to handle it for you, because an offer is only good if the person will actually pay it and not rip you off by rescinding the Paypal fee or something. Many domainers will accept a Paypal payment only from people they know.

But then you also need to know what brokers are reliable ... and you should do your own research. Word of mouth among domainers, of course, is one good indicator. But just one.

In other words, you need to learn a good bit in order to know what you're doing.

How much was the sale for? How did the buyer find you? Generally for smaller amounts PayPal is ok, but there is always a fear of chargebacks.

Escrow.com isn't exactly an escrow transaction, but using them usually takes care of chargebacks. Escrow.com takes the burden.

Although Sedo has an escrow service, I don't recommend them, because the process is mostly never quick, unlike Escrow.com.

Moniker has an escrow service, but the domain has to be transferred to Moniker, and there are plenty of comments on NP that their support and service is deteriorating.

Afternic have an escrow service. I've had ok results with them for the very few times I've used them, and, Afternic's response to service requests are usually faster than Sedo's, imho.

If your domains are at GoDaddy, you could use their sales services. I have no experience selling thru GoDaddy.

Personally I use Escrow.com for most of my sales transactions. I usually get paid into my bank account in less than a week. It's easy and quick. I've never had it happen to me, but the only danger is you push the domain to the buyer and he claims he never received it, you can get scammed by the buyer. Because they are not a pure escrow company.

For pure escrow, use Sedo, Moniker, Afternic. But be aware that the process is reasonably lengthy. About 2-4 weeks until you receive the funds would be considered normal.

Escrow.com is the clear choice for selling websites and domains. I have only had good experience with them. If you don't use an escrow service you run a high risk of losing your domain, website and/or money.