Shane Bellone Thinks It's Ok To Bypass Broker.

[talhahassan]

Hi

I sent two LLL.com domains which I was brokering to Shane Bellone in response to his thread in Domains Wanted.

He replied to me first about dropping the price.

I asked how much is his client's highest offer . To which he said how many months finance would be agreeable.

I told him owners won't agree to financing options.

He then asked me why I messaged him in the first place as his requirement was related to financing the domain and he will contact the owners now to see if they will agree.

I apologized to him for missing the financing part and asked when did it become a good business practice to bypass brokers and contact the owners directly.

His reply was " My business is to get the best price for myself and my clients. Bypassing a broker who may or may not have an exclusive contract makes sense. Saves them a commission which therefore saves me or my client money."

I am attaching the link to the screenshot as well.

imgur. com/a/l4VDz
I think it's totally unethical to bypass a broker . What are your thoughts on this?

 

[joro001]

I can understand the OP's frustrations but in truth I don't see Shane did anything wrong.
You had no exclusive brokers agreement in place (and worse still misread his wanted thread.)

IMHO he had no obligation to go direct through you.

I personally just had the pleasurable experience of someone trying to sell one of my premium domains to the owner of the .net (who happens to be a good friend of mine) with no permission at all (I don't know who this idiot is but I warned him never to do this again). There are so many scumbags in this industry that I can't blame anyone going direct to the owner, if nothing else to verify the broker is not playing games.

 

[imadoer]

Always get a brokerage agreement, also make owners put domains on privacy as well. So you don't have to go thru things like this. This is where most brokers fail they just talk to a owner and ask them a price and just start pitching it

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

In the end it's about business. If ether party finds a way to save themselves 15% on a sale, it will be done.
That's the business world.
What @Shane Bellone did is no different than someone doing a whois for someone that has a domain on godaddy and offering 20% less to go through escrow, cutting out godaddy commission.

It's not personal, it's business.

That's why we are taught business ethics before someone starts doing any business. And that seems to be missing here...

 

[JimJammy]

Your private business is private. What were you trying to achieve by posting here?

Whatever your thoughts, you shouldn't have posted publicly. You've risked losing a relationship that might have been salvaged in the future.

I tried to build a relationship with someone here once, for whatever reason they turned nasty and then finally posted a private message between us on the board here too. Result? They didn't win anything, and in fact lost a potential business relationship that could have been good.

You should never close a door on a potential business relationship, you never know what might happen in the future.

I hope you both ask for the thread to be closed or at least stop replying and move on. Good luck to you both!

 

[LaunchUp.com]

 

[Ram G.]

When a broker tries to steal the lead from another broker, its very unethical and bad for the business.

 

[B0NES]

That's why we are taught business ethics before someone starts doing any business. And that seems to be missing here...

The code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner

 

[nvdomains]

 

[Addison]

It may be unethical, but it's smart business.

I don't know anyone who wouldn't try to circumvent a marketplace and deal directly with the buyer to earn an extra 15-20% if it were possible without repercussions. That's just simple math. That's just smart business. This is the same principle.

In business, you're either the shark or the prey, as long as everything is legal. Learn from your mistake and become a better businessperson. Thank Shane for the free lesson. MBA's have to go to school for years to learn these things.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Did someone read correctly what OP said in his initial post? Let me paste it below:

Bypassing a broker who may or may not have an exclusive contract makes sense.

Really? Even if I have an exclusive contact with some broker and I still end up selling that particular domain through some other channel!! That's just disgusting. A clear cut thinking of greedy mind who is just running after money blindly.

 

[S-B]

Did someone read correctly what OP said in his initial post? Let me paste it below:

Bypassing a broker who may or may not have an exclusive contract makes sense.

Really? Even if I have an exclusive contact with some broker and I still end up selling that particular domain through some other channel!! That's just disgusting. A clear cut thinking of greedy mind who is just running after money blindly.

I hate to sound like a broken record but maybe it takes you an unusually long time to understand things... the contract is between the owner and broker not between anyone else. It would be unethical and potentially illegal for the owner to break the contract but that's their prerogative.

 

[Wisename]

Haha.. i wish i posted something like that early

 

[HUKU]

I think it's totally unethical to take 15% on every domain(or any other value)

No-one can take 15% on every domain. It only happens when you form an agreement and you can avoid it quite simply by not forming an agreement to work with a broker.

It looks like 15% is now industry standard and with good reason. It's very hard work selling domains through marketing and direct sales strategies and its very easy for a seller to simply cushion the cost of the broker by increasing their prices by half the amount of the broker commission.

If you don't want to pay a broker commission, don't work with a broker but if you don't have basic business principles, you shouldn't be in business.

 

[fitkhan]

So "Broker" has no exclusive contract with the owner of the domain..
He ignored or missed the buyer request regarding financing and "wasted" buyer's time.
So the buyer decides to contact the owner directly and said that bypassing a broker who may or may not have an exclusive contract makes sense because it saves him and his client some money.... So saving money is more important .... No business ethics .... because he doesn't care if there is any exclusive contract or there isn't any...
Now the broker is upset and uploads a screen shot of personal conversation publicly on namepros.... Money is important for him as well.. No ethics ...

Now some folks talking technically that how a deal is done and telling the broker about the "Exclusive Contract" blah blah.... But they are ignoring the fact that the buyer damn care about any contract.... Why you guys are ignoring this part and are teaching the broker that how the business should be done...... Very sad...
The broker is not innocent as well.. He shouldn't have uploaded the screen shots.... He must be well prepared and well protected....

 

[HUKU]

It may be unethical, but it's smart business.

How is this smart business? You hire a broker and they work very long hours for you for months on end, and you don't credit them with commission on a sale generated by their lead?

How is that any different from hiring a bunch of newbie domainers to work for you and refusing to pay them as promised? We know a long thread about that....

 

[trampoline]

If you don't want to pay a broker commission, don't work with a broker but if you don't have basic business principles, you shouldn't be in business.

You should see it in a whole context meaning, compared with the situation.
I am not contrary the commissions in general situations. I just stated that comparing it to this situation, is more unethical getting a profit of 10% - 15% or whatever the value may be, than bypassing the Broker.

As i said in my first post, i see the problem between the Owner and the Broker.

It's very hard work selling domains through marketing and direct sales strategies and its very easy for a seller to simply cushion the cost of the broker by increasing their prices by half the amount of the broker commission.

To tell you the truth, i am not sure on that. Its been quite a few months that i spent some time reading and focusing my mind in Domaining, and i've seen a lot of people who call themselves Brokers(i don't want to judge nobody), and they just do brokerage of LL.com LLL.com LLLL.com or oneword.com, or short numerics and so on. If you don't have one of those, your out. You cannot hire a Broker.

In my opinion, a Broker actually should be able to find the market or endusers for the vast majority of domains(whatever the price maybe XX or XX.XXX). That's his job, to find the market.

I own a few domains(150-200), but this doesn't make me a domainer. And i guess not all the Brokers can be called Brokers.

All the best

PS: i think we got a bit off topic

 

[promo]

I think that since we work in such an informal industry, ethics, morale and reliability become paramount to being successful in the long run. Especially as a broker; you burn your bridges today you wont be able to cross them tomorrow.

Even when you have an exclusive contract, you are relying on your seller to honour that and secondly on your leads to not go around you. If any of these chains fail, you wont get paid. So it becomes very important for you as a broker only to commit to trustworthy sellers and only do cooperation with trustworthy brokers and buyers. From what I am hearing here, Shane is neither. Shame shame.

I personally am appalled by @Shane Bellone behaviour in this situation and I will certainly remember this for future reference.

 

[S-B]

I personally am appalled by @Shane Bellone behaviour in this situation and I will certainly remember this for future reference.

My heart is broken.

 

[promo]

Money talks. As long as I'm paying, most will do business with me. Plain and simple.

Money talks yes.. And if we come to you to sell names then there is a large chance that we get NO money since you apparently can be trusted as far as I can throw you. So I think you will find that your rep will have an affect on which and how many deals you will be able to find in future.

 

[promo]

My heart is broken.

We had a long convo a few weeks back about brokerage business. I gave you some pointers and at the time I thought that we might do business in future. You are probably not really heartbroken, but you certainly wont be doing any business with me either.

Yeah yeah.. Boohoo you dont need me. But do you need to be respected and trusted as a business person? Frankly you age shines through in your attitude.