Unsolicited offer comes in - who blinks first?

Over the weekend I received an offer from an end-user who is looking to buy a domain I hand reg last Spring, and only have a coming soon landing page on it. I replied and asked what was his offer, and he said what's my price.

I had plans originally to develop this domain, but decided against after the New Year, so this comes as a pleasant surprise. On the other hand, I rather the potential buyer to make the first offer, than I to potentially cost myself hundreds.

Any thoughts?

 

Depends on the name and the buyer. In general: name your price. Don’t get overenthusiastic with it. In general.

 

Maybe you can give them a range?

E.g. "I'd be open to considering offers in the low/mid/high $x,xxx range".

 

If I was buying I would be annoyed and put off by a range. In general. Ask a price and be realistic. Especially as it’s a new handreg.

 

Clarify re: the buyer?

 

Price the name realistically, and respond back with a BIN price. Leave room for negociation.

 

Any tells? Weird email? Corporate email? Misspellings? Eagerness? Name? Google! Whois! Etcetera.

 

I have had so many of those type of inquiries refuse to make an offer and then once I give them a price they reply back that they would not pay more than $200. I finally got so fed up with that nonsense from hundreds of people that I set BIN prices and set the minimum offer price to match my BIN prices for most of my domains.

 

Here is what I would do given the situation. I would use namebio to research what similar domains have sold for. If there are no domains similar to yours, you have a couple of options. Research the domains with the main keyword or keywords. That can give you a gauge as to what your potential value might be. From there you might factor in the number of visits the domain gets as it sits right now. You also might factor in the difficulty of finding another potential buyer and do you think the domain is worth holding onto as a long term investment. If finding another end user might be difficult or other issues, than maybe a break even point for you or a slight profit might be a good starting point.

 

Tell them you plan to develop it for a future project but they are free to send their best offer.

Make them throw the first number out.

 

A lot of great advice has been offered already. I guess you don't know much about the potential buyer. If I felt they really wanted this domain, as opposed to it being one of several they could equally well use, that might influence my choice. When people ask for a price, I tend to think we should give them a price. I would try to find the best comparator on Namebio, and set a price very near that. Perhaps even mention that when you tell them the price, or save it for next stage. I would word your response so that it is clear you are slightly negotiable, and hopefully keep the buyer interested. Good luck with it!

 

Update - So the potential buyer came back w/ an initial offer of 200.00. I checked NameBio, and noticed the .net extension of the domain sold 3 years ago for 1800.00. It is built out and redirects to a small law firm. I assume it may be someone representing them trying to buy it.

 

Counter with $1.5 K .. The deal may be done negotiating till high xxx or low x,xxx

 

Tell them the .net is generally considered to be valued at around 10% of the .com value. So $18,000.00 for the .com

 

I have sold 3 law domains with a single letter followed by the word law.ca

In each case I held out for 10k

I still own 2 single letter law.ca domains and get a number of inquiries on them.

I ask 10k period.

Law offices have money, if the .net is used by a law firm you have a minimum 10k payday and I would solicit that company first.

PM me and I will tell you how I did it.
Whoever this 200 dollar schmuck is just tell him you have bigger fish to fry and focus on the law firm.

Now chances are the schmuck is the law firm so be up front and say 10k is your price.

You should not let it go for less because you have a direct hit business name.
This is a domainers wet dream..... use it to your advantage.

 

DING DING DING!!!
Why not reply and tell your prospect that the .net sold for $1800USD and that you value the .com at $9800USD? It's probably worth more but without knowing the name it's hard to guesstimate.

Be unreasonable, and let the other 99% "be realistic"

 

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I always find these threads interesting, because with every domain name you should ask for what you want. Not what is 'realistic'.

In this case NameBio does give you a nice starting point, and justification, for your pricing.

You should ask for $15,000 if you want to get the final price of $8000 - $10000. A $15k asks let's them feel like a very accomplished negotiator if they get you down to $9k. Learn from other threads - nobody should ever take the first offer, and that goes for your buyers too! So always make the first ask price higher than your expectations.

Worst case they say yes and you put extra money in your pocket.

For your response right now, be brief and to the point. No going on about the price, just tell them the price and expect silence for some time.

Best of luck to you bro.

 

You can use GoDaddy's GoValue ( https://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal/appraisal/ ) to estimate the worth and then quote twice the estimated price, so you have plenty of room for negotiation.

I was in your situation couple of days back and applied this method. Transaction now in escrow for a .net domain at low $XXXX

 

Most end users, don't care about how old a name is,or if it has been handreg. Sure those are talking points that can be utilized in negotiations. Most end users just like a name so much (for a variety of reasons) that they won't even check for dirty back links... etc. and have to clean up later.
Then there's the end user that likes the name, takes the time needed to do research, and likes the results they found. In both cases, if contact is initiated by the end user, I would be quoting a premium price using past sales data for similar names that sold, (namebio comes to mind) and start the negotiation from there. sometimes you can go much higher then that if you can find out who wants your name, and what their net worth is. However, nowadays that's getting harder to do. GoodLuck in your negotiations, keep us posted.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I was unaware of the GoDaddy tool. I often used Valuate/Estibot, and more recently NameBio. I find it interesting the value of the domain are quite different.

Valuate/Estibot = $45
GoDaddy = $1882

 

Many buyers don't like to negotiate or their brain lack wisdom for that. Most times they just disappear without trying to beat down the price to where they want it lol

 

End users are end users, not buyers. I’m talking about the general idea from a seller perspective. The common notion is that the domain name is not critical. There are almost always alternatives. Quoting Mike Mann type prices or giving a range will lead to lost sales and lost profit, in general.

There are exceptions to the rule, and being knowledgable about the possibility of a golden egg is very important. But thinking that all are golden is a severe mistake, in a small time model.

 

Well done for doing the basics. I think nothing of putting several hours of investigative work if I can't pin down the buyer straight away. (I do have the time to spare and value all my domains into X,XXX) Very rarely do I not identify the 'likely buyer'.

Interesting that in this instance 'they appear' to have been quite happy using just the .net for a while Also it's worth noting that you could find your dealing with a 'middleman' in this possible transaction.

As mentioned above, I would certainly include a reference to the three year old .net sale and price. At least that should end the low ball stuff. .If it doesn't then you can be darn sure your dealing with a middleman broker. Consider saying you may do some 'Outbound' sales emails for selling the domain - that should bring everything to a head where time-is-money

 

Those mean nothing in the grand scheme. Only means something to fellow domain investors. You make the value by assigning your price. Don’t give it to this law group for anything less than you what you will be happy with. I would hold firm with five figures and hold onto this domain. Maple Dots gave you good advice.