How NOT to pay transaction fees as a seller.

Not sure it this ever happened to you but if you are dealing with an end user and not a domainer there is always this "problem" of who will pay for the transaction fees for the entire transaction from start to finish. In a perfect world you really want to walk away from a deal with the exact amount agreed upon and not have to pay the transaction fee or split it.

Here's how you word it. Seems to work.

Assuming the final agreed upon price is $2000 and the Escrow.com fee total is either $130 or $191.
Here's what you say.

"Congratulations on your purchase! You've made a great buy! I will process this order immediately and create an invoice. Escrow.com will process this transaction. To make sure this transaction is safe and no one gets cheated Escrow.com charges an unavoidable processing fee like Paypal would. Depending on your form of payment the fees will vary. If you choose to use Wire Transfer the fee will be $130. If you choose to use your credit card the fee will be $191. Unfortunately, these fees are unavoidable but are typical for such large transactions. You should be getting your invoice in your inbox in a bit. Please take your time and inspect it. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me and ask."

Of course you guys can pick and choose what to say.

Pay close attention to the wording. In no way shape or form do you give the buyer the idea that you guys can split the cost or that there is an option for the seller to shoulder the cost of the transaction fee.

Depending on the price of your domain sale you might be losing a big chunk of profit.

Chances are also your buyer had you on the ropes when they negotiated the price with you and you did not exactly get what you wanted price wise.

So why should you also pay for the Escrow transaction fees?

Of course you could always just not tell them about the fees and hope they won't complain.

SECRET!!!! THEY ALWAYS COMPLAIN!! lol

So it's best to walk them thru it so it's not a surprise.

You can even word it like.....

"Escrow.com charges the BUYER an unavoidable $130-$191 transaction fee like Paypal. It's pretty standard."

Most people are digital savvy already these days and know these fees are standard for payments. These people are pre-conditioned already to accept these fees are on them. This is why you need to be clear from the start.

The "Surprise" really just triggers them to wonder or ask questions and say "hey! What's this?! why am I paying this fee? Then they ask. Can you pay this fee?

What the buyer Doesn't KNOW is that the Seller can offer to pay these fees or the buyer can request the seller to shoulder this cost.

or that they can split it.

Again it's best to tell them about these fees in advance. So they won't get startled or surprised which almost always pisses them off or gets them annoyed and THEN they will ask YOU to either split the cost or shoulder the entire cost of the transaction.


I'll leave it up to you to come up with your own way.

and of course all the above only applies if you are dealing with someone who is not a domainer.

 

You should be including the escrow fees in your asking price and not have to deal with that at all. As far as what you are suggesting, most domainers going through Escrow are doing XXXX and up transactions and most often split the Escrow fees with the buyer or pay it from their take.

There is such a thing as being too greedy. I would not take any buyer to task over $130 when at GD, Afternic, DAN, brandable markets etc they are going to take alot more than that.

If you want to go this route you should split the fee and not try to trick the buyer that “Escrow makes the buyer pay” thats just an outright lie.

 

Ok you got me. I wrote this thread up pretty quick. Just remove BUYER. and should be alright. actually. it's not a trick it's all in the wording. I'm sure others can do better at this. like I said. wrote this really fast no proof reading.

I texted something like above (not word for word) to a recent buyer who lowballed me 80% on my asking price and I accepted just to get the deal done. (not investreit.com. he was actually a pleasure to work with.)

I sent her the Escrow invoice that said she would pay $130 or $191 on top of the $2000.

she accepted and paid the $2130 without blinking an eye because it all looked pretty standard.

This is how SMOOTH transactions should be.

If a client request you pay for the Escrow fee? then you didn't try hard enough to not mention that it's an option for you to pay the fees. All I'm saying is don't volunteer info if you don't have to.

Again it's all in the wording.

and I remember now I did not use the "“Escrow makes the buyer pay”".

That part I just added to this thread.

I need a new phone. I can't copy and paste my text to here

The deal before that one I had to do the split fees. That deal? I was negotiated down 90% of my ask. but he brought up a "lawyer" so I said to hell with this. just sell it.

That deal I made the mistake of opening my mouth and giving the full info about payment options like the fees and split options.

I think in that deal I said.

"So the total is $2000 plus the Escrow transaction fee of $130."

when you lay it out like that. 9 times outta 10 they will request you pay the fee. never fails.

All I'm saying word it right and you won't ever be asked to pay the fee.

So that guy? what did he do?? at first wanted me to pay the fee 100%. almost had to beg the guy to split it because already lost so much in this deal. so he finally agreed. why should I beg after losing 90% from my ask?

These people enjoy putting the screws to other people. They get their jollies out of it.

so as a default I just go with telling them the cost of the transaction and what the fees are and let them figure it out or make assumptions on their own. if they assume they have to pay for the fees? then hey great. Thank God.

What have you got to lose? Is it lying? not really. You don't have to VOLUNTEER to let them know that you can pay the Escrow fees or split it.

Just tell them what the fees are and add it up and give them the final number. THAT'S IT.

You can even go as far as saying (Again off the top of my head here ad libbing).

"I calculated everything and Escrow says the total is $2130 for this transaction."

they ask what that $130 just tell them it's a transaction fee like paypal.

since I've done it this way. I haven't paid a dime in Escrow fees.

I don't really feel bad when you consider again these people represent multi billion dollar companies.

As far as I'm concerned from my own experience the buyer always pays the Escrow fees. For me? It is UNUSUAL for ME to pay 100% of the Escrow fees much less split it 50/50.

Everything is true. The buy now is $2000 and the fees are $130. period. or $191 period. don't say anything extra. This is all I'm saying.

give people too many options? they will take the option that will only BENEFIT THEM NOT YOU.

9 out of 10 people will take the option that benefits them. Talk about greedy?

consider this a preemptive strike to prevent them from sticking you with the fees.

again this only applies to non-domainers.

most I assume would never question it if you laid it out plain and simple.

something like.

So we agreed on $2000. We'll use Escrow.com and the final cost is $2130. The $130 is the transaction fee like Paypal. That's it.

9 times outta 10 they will just nod their head and agree. Done and done. but you gotta say it with authority like it's a typical transaction. nothing amiss.

you start asking them. "Is this ok with you?" I can guarantee you they will make YOU pay the fees. because hey. They already brought you down from $10,000 to $2000 why not another $130?

Call me greedy? That's greedy.

But even after all the above, sticking to their true nature they will probably still stick you with the fees.

I deal with people like this on a daily weekly basis. They always play the violin like it's not in their budget or they are cash poor meanwhile a simple Google will show they work for a fortune 500 or 100 company with budgets in the billions.

You want me to feel sorry for doing this "method" to these people?

Remember one thing. These people see YOU the DOMAINER as an OBSTACLE in their way because you have what they want desperately. These are people who can't understand why they can't just walk up to Godaddy and register any domain that they want only to find out they have to pay $10,000 for it?

You assume too much my friend. You assume my "method" is screwing over nice people. I don't consider people who lie to me saying they can't afford $10,000 when clearly they have billion dollar budgets but simply their EGOS can't bring them to fork up $10,000 on a domain they could have registered for $10 in 2016.

Call me a Liar? These people come to you with a mission. To get your domain for as CLOSE to REG FEE as possible BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

If you throw at them a price that to them they can't wrap their heads around? They would rather send their lawyers over and try to scare you. (happened more than 5 times in my domaining)

Are these the kind of people you should respect? You are over here trying to put food on the table for your family and keep the lights on.

you come at these people correct. and give them the comps which should be plain black and white and should be self explanatory but in thee end they act oblivious to comps and what they mean.

This domain sold in 2015 for $15,000 yet the most they can offer is $1000. lol

they don't respect us and what we do. We're all Cybersquatters to these people not legitimate business men and women.

maybe I'm biased but moving forward I treat every buyer like they are going to try to screw me over and it begins with the first lie of "Oh we don't have a big budget."

paaaaaaleeeeeeeezzzzzz!!!

all my good domains I prequalify to make sure it has multiple endusers with deep pockets. Period. I'm not greedy. Just proactive against the bs.

I can almost set my watch to "can you pay for the fees?" I'm sick and tired of it. being lowball and you do the kind thing and give them a break against your better judgement but also because you need to keep making consistent sales no matter what AND STILL they want to stick you with the Fees?

Yea sure you can say to me. Why make a big deal over $130- $191? but what about the buyer who just got a $8,000 discount? plus they work for a multi billion dollar company but somehow doesn't have the budget of $10,000 for a domain that's an exact match for their product?

I guess I wasn't clear before. THESE are the kind of people I'd use my "Method" on.

Think of them paying these fees as payment for the aggravation they put you thru putting the screws to you.

In a room full of wolves, you need to be the clever rabbit.

 

That's a really long rant. Just factor in the fees in your price. If I am negotiating down from 10k to 2k, then the only price the buyer is getting out of me will be $2500. The 500 on top will take care of commissions and fees where applicable.

No need for elaborate schemes to 'stick' it to the buyer.

Just my opinion

 

Yeah I just pay the fees myself unless the fees were discussed and agreed upon during the negotiations. It should always be during negotiations and not after as a surprise for the buyer. That's a quick way to look dishonest or like you're conning the buyer.

 

Lol yea not all sales are $55k handreg most are like the Arab mothers who use to haggle with me at the fish market when I was a teen working there.

the rant was necessary as I felt the need to explain plus if you are dealing people who by default are going to try to bring you down in well a sneaky way then I guess sneaky for sneaky. Soon as they say they they “have a budget” I call bs. And “here we go again”. You need to proactively your best interest when the other guys is going to stick to you.

if they could get it free they would?

may recent sales kinda got on my nerves sorry to rant lol. I just wish all my domain sales went as smoothly as investreit.com.

it should be as easy as this is my price take it or leave it.

funny thing. My coinmena.com and investreit.com both buyers weren’t Fortune 500 types they are startups. Fortune 500’s always want to lowball even though they have tons of money but the guy with little budget will throw all their money into their dream.

true story

it doesn’t make sense. It should be the other way around.

agreed and if you read the OP that’s basically the gist isn’t it?

you tell them in advance not pull a fast one.

my method said nothing about tell them last minute or surprise them. I said MAKE SURE YOU TELL THEM IN ADVANCE.

it really is all in the wording.

If you word it right then 9 times outta 10 people won’t think twice about the fees. Since most people are preconditioned already to assume there will be fees.

If you forget to make it a point to let them know? 9 times outta 10 the “surprise” will trigger them to ask you to pay the fee or split it.

these are after all people “sent” to bring down the price from your ask to as close to reg fee as possible.

oh and most are brokers so of course you need to factor in greed for sure in there to cover their retainer fee.

most contact me from bogus email address trying to get me to drop my price to 80% below ask.

sick and tired of it! It’s exhausting and draining responding to bs.

“My client has tiny budget”

Yea suuuuuuure! Then why they hire you? Lol

more like my client has billions so they want to hide behind me and get this domain for as close as possible to reg fee.

my smooth sale of investreit.com just makes all the other sales standout more as aggravation.

sorry for the rant again! Lol

 

i would agree with you? Sounds simple but that $500 if you tack it on the price they will fight over that $500 and if you feel the need to “explain” forget about it! Fees are unavoidable.

actually come to think of it many said my method would be dishonest.

you are dealing with people. So you never know how people will react . Some buyers might feel pricing it with an extra $500 would look fishy or dishonest.

they WILL ask why you can’t bring the price below $2500.

to them it’s all the about the final negotiated number.

In most cases your solution would actually jeopardize my sales. Some buyers would actually threaten to walk over the $500. You won’t bring your price by.

meanwhile they are Fortune 500 buyers.

I meet all kinds of “personalities” in this racket.

 

I suggest you include the fees to your final price that you are willing to accept or simply for them. And oh, while your wording of that email is good, I would say it can easily make the same collapse. You say why? Read the part that you said "large transaction". This can make the buyer say , you know what... I was paying already too much and now I am asked for more money...well off it is then.

 

This makes it sound like you've come to a deal and then sprung the fee on them.

Further down your OP you do say not to surprise them with it so it should have been discussed before finalising the deal.

 

Thanks . "large transaction" is a relative term to many buyers I deal with. To many anything over $100 is "large" lol

Matter of fact an enduser contacted me recently for an exact match domain for the address of their development. Their offer was $100. When I said the buy now was a fair $2500 they just blocked my email address. lol like seriously? was I supposed to jump for joy like they were doing me a favor with a $100 offer? lol

Let's be honest most of the people who come knocking on our door wanting to buy our domains are always going to be a mix bag of nuts. While some are just totally nuts. It comes with the territory.

Many people really have no clue about what the prices of domains are and should be. but whatever I pointed that domain to a business with the matching keyword for the street name.

I really wish I could just copy and paste the text I had sent. I dropped my phone in a puddle and now I can't highlight and copy paste anything. I need a new phone! lol

The "method" I described in the OP was rushed and flawed. not perfect. The one I sent in the text I thought was perfect and worked.

sometimes you're in the zone and then it's gone.

I'm like a idiot savant in 10 second increments! lol hehehe