Offer to buy my domain

wants the domain, but not the business or website

[Lukevdp]

Hi,

I run an online shop that sells to a broad market and I have just had an offer from someone to buy the domain from us. He isn't interested in buying the website technology, or our business as a whole, and we could still trade but we would need a different name.

We've been around about a year, and have built up customer loyalty, a good reputation, and a good brand.

The offer he started with was low xx,#*$!.

If I sold, I'd have the technical issues (redoing the site graphics etc), the legal issues (changing the business name etc) and obviously updating or restarting all my business relationships.

My question is, if he starts with an offer of low xx,xxx, is he likely to have a large purse and really want this domain name? Should I make an exorbatant counter offer or will this just deter him?

Any advice from the pro's who have bought domains in this price range?

Thanks in advance

[rsequin]

Every deal is different. Just don't burn the bridge. Stay in the game and look at you from his position if you can.

Set your price then sell or don't sell. If you are comfortable with the money, sell, reinvest some and take the family for a vacation.

[joost]

Calculate the costs of the new design and all other changes that have to be made, especially the costs to keep your current customer base (search engine positioning, "change of address"-mailings, etc, etc). Assign yourself a salary and calculate the time that this whole process will cost you. When you have all the cost clear, then add a profit margin to establish you minimum price. Then add a safety margin for unforeseen costs and for visitors (and income) that will be lost in the changes made.

In short: set your price, instead of just responding to that of the buyer. Only then will you know if raising the asking price sounds reasonable. And don't forget not to cut yourself short: if all this will cost you a few thousand dollars and months of work, an offer of low xx,#*$!, isn't all that high anyway.

At the same time you might want to try to find out all you can about the buyer: what are his plans with the domain? Are those very ptofitable plans?. What may be the budget? Does he represent al small or a big company? etc, etc.

[suzyvirtual]

You would probably also want to make sure he isn't going to put shockingly innappropriate things on the domain, since it will still have some association with your products.

Also, you could try and work into the deal a prominent link (Looking for the widgets that used to be here? Click Here).

You could even see if he would let you redirect interior pages to your new domain.

All of these things would minimize the hassle somewhat.