What's the best way to approach an unresponsive domain name owner?

[xlc]

I'm looking to buy a domain name for a product I want to launch. Currently I have 3 options of domain names that are descriptive of my product. Two of them were listed for sale and initially quoted well over their true market value (they probably always are), but after some negotiation I was able to bring the price close to my budget.

For the third domain I'm struggling with an owner that won't respond to my correspondence. It's a parked domain that was first registered 5 years ago and whois history lists 2 owners and 1 deletion. It's comprised of 2 words and 13 characters. It only has niche potential but the name is memorable enough. Currently it's a parked domain and according to analytics it never had an online presence.

I sent the owner 2 emails, first asking if he wants to sell it and got no reply and some days later I sent him another email with a price tag and also got no answer. The email didn't bounce. From my own estimation the offer was somewhere mid-ranged so I don't want to make a higher counteroffer that could lead the negotiation to my disadvantage.

What's the best way to approach the situation at this point? Should I assume the owner is not interested to sell and go with one of the other option? The price I offered for this domain is still under what I negotiated for the others and since I made the initial offer may I can land a price within my budget. Your opinion is much appreciated.

 

[Asfas1000]

Is the owner a domain investor ? Pm me the domain name if you want .

 

[xlc]

Thank you for your answer. From what I can tell the owner is not a domain investor. He owns about 20 names, most of them 3 words with low branding potential. For the name I'm interested in he owns both the singular and plural form. Almost all his domains were registered in the same day which makes me think he got then through a backordering service.

 

[Name Trader]

There could be many reasons the owner is not responding to your emails. Ranging from he has not read your emails for whatever reason, to he is not impressed with your offers, to he is playing a waiting game, since he already knows you are keen to buy the domain.

So tell me, why are you negotiating on 3 separate domains simultaneously? Which one are you going to choose? The cheapest one? All these 3 domains probably suit your business, but I would probably guess that one stands out better than the others, is that the one who isn't responding? Correct?

You obviously cannot force a response from anyone. But what I would do is start Googling their name and email address, to see if he has any other email address, or method of contact. You could always telephone him.

 

[Jeeps]

For the third domain: How how long ago did you email with no response / how long in between the emails you sent? Also, did you do more thorough investigative researching about the owner, i.e. Google their email address, seek out social profiles, read up on businesses they own, what they do, etc.?

 

[Domainace]

If he is not a domainer, he may simply have no interest in selling (at least not for a reasonable price). Godaddy slaps parked pages up on any domain that the registrant hasn't changed the name servers on. If it's a GD parking page, that raises the odds that he just may not have them on the market.
Have you tried to get his phone number? A call could settle things pretty quickly.

 

[xlc]

I'm negotiating on 3 domains simply because that's where I narrowed my list of prospects. The best domain is obviously the most expensive, which is still over my budget although I managed to cut the original price 3x times. The last domain is the one I'm hoping to get the best deal for would the owner be interested to sell. I sent him the last email a couple days ago and my initial email just over a week ago.

I did search for the owner. He is from India and running an IT/Technology business. I feel a phone call would be a bad move on my part at this time as it would just provide opportunity for an unreasonable price quote and little time for decision. Settling thinks quickly is not my intention, I didn't manage to cut the first domain name's price 3x times by being quick.

Thank you all for your answers.

 

[Name Trader]

Have you tried the contact form on his website?

 

[xlc]

That form might just reach someone from client service who has no idea what I'm talking about. I'm pretty certain he has not abandoned an inbox whose address is his name and is associated with 2 dozen domains.

 

[Name Trader]

I'd wait him out then. The one who breaks the silence first, loses.

 

[xlc]

Thank you, I think you're right. Just when I dropped the case with the other domains was when the sellers got back with a truncated price, although it never took longer than 3-4 days for them to get back. I can't help wondering, how can a seller drop a price from $10k to $3k just like that? You must be their only lead if they afford to fluctuate prices like that. How can you expect to sell a domain for $10k when there's no demand for it? I don't know of a market more unpredictable than this one.

 

[Name Trader]

Thats the nature of the domain business. Even DomainNameSales.com operates in the same way. If you don't respond to their highly inflated prices, you get follow up emails for about 2 months, at widening intervals of time.

 

[Krisss]

Hi @xlc, If u are not from India, I might help you trying contacting that guy.
I could hava casual phone call with him...

Lemme know!!

 

[bmugford]

Either the owner has not read the email, or has read the email and is not interested in your offer.

The only options left are basically to try to find an alternate way to contact the owner (phone, mail, facebook, linkedin, etc.), make a better offer that might get his interest, or just move on.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

Thank you, I think you're right. Just when I dropped the case with the other domains was when the sellers got back with a truncated price, although it never took longer than 3-4 days for them to get back. I can't help wondering, how can a seller drop a price from $10k to $3k just like that? You must be their only lead if they afford to fluctuate prices like that. How can you expect to sell a domain for $10k when there's no demand for it? I don't know of a market more unpredictable than this one.

Domain prices are subjective. There is no price guide.

You won't get $10K unless you ask for it. Many domains can be worth that to the right buyer with a budget and a plan.

Brad

 

[equity78]

Domain prices are subjective. There is no price guide.

You won't get $10K unless you ask for it. Many domains can be worth that to the right buyer with a budget and a plan.

Brad

Absolutely Brad, look at Mike Berkens, Mike gets incredible prices for domains that if listed in a discussion thread would have comments like, but it gets no search volume, but I don't know who would use that domain. Mike sold RookiePoker.com for $20,000 and told me he didn't know what it meant, just that they offered $5,000 he said no, they came back later at $10,000 he said no, they came back at $20,000 he said sold.

How comical would an appraisal thread here be, if someone else owned and said they were holding out for $20,000 ?

 

[xlc]

I agree with @equity78 all niches have their own slangs and descriptive terms and no matter how savvy you are of the domain industry you can't be familiar with the connection between all possible terms. Since we're talking poker, I remember inquiring once for fishpoker.com and nobody understood the connection between a fish and poker. From Wikipedia, fish: To chase draws holding weak hand. Especially when facing aggressive play by another player.

Thank you all for your answers in this thread, I was able to contact the owner and it turns out he's not interested to sell.

 

[Name Trader]

You won't get $10K unless you ask for it. Many domains can be worth that to the right buyer with a budget and a plan.

Brad

I ask $10k for most of my domains, and never make any sales

 

[Soofi]

so what have you decided about other 2 names? want to share the 3rd name this guy from India is holding onto? :D

 

[Soofi]

I ask $10k for most of my domains, and never make any sales

That makes 2 of us! :P