Hi
@Kate and
@promo i would like to share some info regarding the .es topic.
From what you are describing it seem's basically identical to .pt (Portugal) domains and since they are country neighbors it's likely the same method.
I never reg .es domains but i believe it's the same has .pt
Kate your right on when you said "That can be a hassle when none of the parties involved is familiar with the procedure. "
When i first started to go into .pt it was a bit of a headache to figure how to transfer the domain ownership but when i finally decided to phone the registry support they explain to me easily how to do it and after that it was fast and easy to do.
If you buy a .pt domain at dns.pt ( the registry for .pt) you have to ask for what we Portuguese call "minuta de cedência de domínio" it's a legal paper stating you owner of domain.pt (example) transfer it's ownership to Tom (example), they will email to you the legal document template.
After you have the document you just need to fill it with yours and the buyers name and taxpayer number (the taxpayer number is the situation where i think it's a downer for the buyer because i will have to ask for is taxpayer number and some people aren't comfortable giving this info) then you need to send the document sign by the domain owner (me) and a copy of my id.
It's done and i guaranty the seller will have complete ownership of the domain.
In the the matter of buying from a .pt registrar i don't know about godaddy but if you search for a accredit registrar of .pt in the case i will use the registrar dominios.pt has a example, when you create a account with them they will ask for your taxpayer number, after you created a account and you want to transfer a .pt domain to the buyer account (you can push to the buyer's dominios.pt account or to a different registrar account) they will do all the work and transfer complete ownership of the domain. Here is where it gets a bit confusing and most people don't know this info, you can't just have a account at the registrar (dominios.pt) you will also need one at .pt registry (dns.pt) because when you transfer or reg .pt domain at the registrar (dominios.pt) the way their system works is they use your name and taxpayer number to transfer or reg the .pt domain in their platform but your domain all so be reg or transfer at the registry (dns.pt) because every .pt domain has to be at the registry (dns.pt) it's a requirement.
So basically every .pt registrar in this case dominios.pt don't really have the .pt domains on their platform they only have access to manage the domains (change nameservers, transfer etc..) the .pt domains really are at the registry (dns.pt).
So this is a answer why
@promo .es domains are still showing the old owners info on whois.
I say this because it happen to me on one of my .pt i bought the domain from a seller that had a account at dominios.pt so i also created a dominios.pt account and he pushed the domain to my account, the deal was done and every thing looked ok i could change nameservers etc... until a couple of days after i bought the domain the seller contacted me asking if i had a dns.pt (registry) account because the whois still shows is info and he was right. After that i just had to create a account at dns.pt and the seller transfer the domain via dns.pt platform and the whois updated.
My point is maybe the same can apply to the .es domains. Example: if
@promo had a account at .es registry (i think it's dominios.es) when the seller pushed the .es domains to him then the whois would show is info because the domains would also be pushed to his registry (dominios.es) account.
So if there's no account at the registry then they can never transfer ownership of the domain, he will only have access to manage te .es domains.
Note: I'm not sure if this also apply's to .es domains, i'm just sharing my similar experience.
Sorry for the giant text didn't know how to explain it shorter.
Best Regards