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I used to offer Lease-to-Own on my names at Dan. But about 1/4, maybe more, of them ended up not paying. I stopped offering leases out of frustration. I did not like getting the name back on a couple of them where the buyer, IMO, put up content that I felt deteriorated the value of my domain name.
The problem is that it is so easy someone to lease a name with minimal upfront cost, and so it is easy for them to change their mind. I always felt it would be beneficial if we were able to require a larger initial payment--maybe 20-25%--and then periodic payments after that. But Dan and Afternic did not offer that.
I visited the topic again yesterday. All my names are at Afternic and I see that I can set the number of payments to very low numbers. So now I am trying to figure out if there is a number of payments that would be low enough (so the monthly payments would be high enough), to deter a buyer from canceling midway.
For example, if a name is $12,000 and I offered 3 monthly payments, I doubt anyone would risk $4,000 just to "try out" the domain name. However, offering just three monthly payments isn't necessarily going to incentivize someone to do the lease option. Alternatively, going to 12 or more monthly payments is too long to cause a buyer have more skin in the game.
So I am wondering if anyone here has found a sweet spot in the number of payments offered, where the initial payment is more than a buyer would want to easily lose, yet the number of payments is long enough to feel like a payment plan. I believe the Buy Now Pay Later companies like Affirm and Klarna do a 4 month payment plan by default (I think this is right). I'd think they have done much research on this, so maybe 4 months is a good option.
I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on the subject. If there is a "sweet spot" that really works, I might try it again to improve my sales.
The problem is that it is so easy someone to lease a name with minimal upfront cost, and so it is easy for them to change their mind. I always felt it would be beneficial if we were able to require a larger initial payment--maybe 20-25%--and then periodic payments after that. But Dan and Afternic did not offer that.
I visited the topic again yesterday. All my names are at Afternic and I see that I can set the number of payments to very low numbers. So now I am trying to figure out if there is a number of payments that would be low enough (so the monthly payments would be high enough), to deter a buyer from canceling midway.
For example, if a name is $12,000 and I offered 3 monthly payments, I doubt anyone would risk $4,000 just to "try out" the domain name. However, offering just three monthly payments isn't necessarily going to incentivize someone to do the lease option. Alternatively, going to 12 or more monthly payments is too long to cause a buyer have more skin in the game.
So I am wondering if anyone here has found a sweet spot in the number of payments offered, where the initial payment is more than a buyer would want to easily lose, yet the number of payments is long enough to feel like a payment plan. I believe the Buy Now Pay Later companies like Affirm and Klarna do a 4 month payment plan by default (I think this is right). I'd think they have done much research on this, so maybe 4 months is a good option.
I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on the subject. If there is a "sweet spot" that really works, I might try it again to improve my sales.
