advice Domain Leasing Pitfalls?

[Toni]

Hi there,

I am interested in leasing a domain (with fixed buy out price if ever I decide to own it) and I have never done this before but it seems to just make sense since I am not a 100% sure how dedicated I will be to the project I am going to put on this domain and it's sadly the only "available" and reasonable priced domain that makes perfect sense for what I am trying to do.

So I was wondering how safe leasing domains really is? It would be thru a domain martketplace that offers the domain leasing but the domain is owned by an individual. Anyone experience with this?

Thanks

 

[hxp]

I have no experience in this area but, I'll say this: If you keep your end of the deal, you should see no problems.

You've been here longer than me, so, you know that domineers only really have 3 options; Sell, Park, Develop.

So, If you pay the price, I don't see what a domain owner would gain from screwing you over. Maybe he'll get an irrefutable offer ofc, but, that's fairly unlikely. I'm sure he'd notify you in such a situation as well.

Since you said the marketplace offers leasing, I'm sure they'll have some sort of legally binding evidence for you as well. In case things do go sour.

Good luck! I hope you go forward with it, I'd love to see leasing become more popular.

 

[Toni]

Thank you

 

[cmdomains]

Would like to know about this as well. I'm looking into leasing out my domains in the future after I get some more perspectives.

I tried to contact someone from Goforthe.com but unfortunately they're not accepting any more contracts and suggested Escrow instead as they also help with leasing option (what I was told). I haven't made any contact with Escrow about this.

Curiously, I thought they're affiliated with each other, apparently not anymore.

 

[cocaseco]

I think as long as the domain owner is reputable, you are fine. How long have they been in business? How long have they owned the site? How many other sites do they hold? Do they have a LinkedIn profile? Do they have references of other leasing companies? If you have ever leased anything before, how does their agreement differ in comparison?

In the end you own the content and if he sells it you lose all the Goodwill you created with the site, a substantial loss, but not unrecoverable. What are the end of lease terms? Those should be spelled out clearly in the documentation. Also realize that leases typically can't be paid off early should you become very successful. Well you can pay off early, but it will cost the same as if you made the payments, no fiscal advantage.

 

[NameFit]

Reputed company should be fine. Nokta domains also provides this service - for the names they do not own, I am not sure.

 

[Cal2]

Don't know really anything about it, but the one thought that comes to mind is Escrow's holding service, if that might work: https://escrow.com/services/domain-name-holding-escrow.aspx

 

[NameFit]

Escrow service is more of a domain holding service (payment plan) - leasing options are you pay monthly fees and you have option to buy it at the pre-negotiated price. As with Nokta domains, they told me that 15% of the lease fees go towards final pre-negotiated buy price. In case of escrow, you decide payments but technically you are bound to buy the name, well you can turn into a lease if you do not buy but you lose everything. After the terms with escrow.com are over, you are supposed to pay the balance and buy the name.

 

[Toni]

I ended up buying the domain for a pretty good price Thanks for your replies!

 

[biggie]

I ended up buying the domain for a pretty good price Thanks for your replies!

cool


for future reference:


there are "open end leases" and "lease to own"

the owner typically draws the agreement, though you should have input

open end leases can be for a specified duration or unspecified length of time.

lease to own, are typically for a specified length of time, and when final payment is made, the domain is transferred to new owner.

price and length of lease can be negotiated between parties.

i've leased a few domains to previously unknown parties and "how safe the process is" has never come up.

as in majority of situations, the buyer approaches you.

and they are more likely to default on the lease than the seller is likely to defraud the buyer.


imo...

 

[Toni]

Thank you Biggie