How do you change domain name ownership privately?

And safely?

[nzmatt]

Does anyone know the best way to transfer ownership in a domain?

I have found a domain I want and the owner wants to sell it to me. What is a safe way of doing this transaction without paying commission to an agent site?

[chicagohh]

Edit: I missed your line about not paying a service fee... (I mentioned using an escrow).

Your basically left to hope, trust and prayer.

[delboy1978uk]

do you and the owner have payed for hosting?
the easy way would be to transfer to your host without amending all the contact details
get the tag holder changed (might cost a fiver) the owner will get an email asking to authorise the transfer once he says yes the tag will change and you can tell your host to bring the domain name in (again this side of the transaction might cost you a fiver)

Once thats done the domain will be in your hosting control panel and you can do what you like
If you want the contact details etc changed then expect to get in touch with nominet and pay £££ but really it isn't necessary if you have it in your hosting account, especially if it is your friends domain name

Oh yeah, I said the tag renaming cost me a fiver - my mum transfered her freenetname domain name to my hosting when she changed from her dial up to broadband - she no longer dialed with freenetname and now went with ntl, so had to transfer her domain - catch is the domain was free, so they wanted £25 to let the domain go