How do you Brokers protect your Customers?

[GiftedDomains]

Assume you agreed with someone to sell his domain and you found a customer for someone elses Domain and you want to broker the Domain.

How do you protect your customer(s)?

The potential customer could simply contact the owner (by looking up whois) and simply pass over you, once you have listed the domain somewhere or contacted someone specific and told him about a specific domain and your price.

 

[Kate]

You set up a contract, that grants you exclusivity for a set period.

That means the owner may not sell the domain on his own during that period, and should direct all inquiries to you the broker.

 

[GiftedDomains]

Thanks.
I did that for other products i sold in Middle East. So i know what you mean. But i don't think many Domain Owners will accept that. And i also suspect that many will simply sell the domain if they receive direkt contact and simply ignore me then, unless i say that i will take legal actions.

 

[Kate]

Exclusivity is a standard requirement. Maybe some brokers do not insist on it, but they don't like to work for free.

For the big ticket domains: you take custody of the domain and place it in an escrow account. Actually, you don't. You appoint a lawyer to do that. The lawyer also drafts the contract and ensures that both parties fulfill their obligations.
When a lawyer is involved I don't think the seller will want to walk out of the deal

 

[richrf]

Every broker that I've talked to uses an exclusive contract, which is usually most favorable to the broker and has to be negotiated. If the contract is too complicated, I don't proceed since it costs quite a bit of money to higher an attorney to negotiate a contract with no assurance that there will even be mutual agreement at the end. I have yet to reach the point where I have successfully negotiated a contract. The problem is that most contracts protect the broker and the buyer but leave the seller with very little protection. The biggest issue is that the broker and buyer know everything throughout the negotiation process and the seller is left pretty much in the dark other than receiving the offers. You might say that the brokers are negotiating for the buyer and the seller is paying the commission.

 

[Domain Divestments]

I am a domain broker that sells exclusive and non-exclusive domain names.