Can a domain's questionable history hurt new buyer?

We're considering purchasing an expired domain name with sketchy history

[VNelson]

We are considering purchasing an expired domain name with an unknown history. I have heard that hosting a domain that had a bad reputation on the same server as good domains can pull down the reputation of the others, i.e., bad neighborhood association. So, I'm concerned about taking this risk, and yet the domain name has a name that matches our business model and we don't want others to have it. I guess I could register it but never host it on our server. Any advice from a search engine perspective? At the most, we would 301-redirect the domain to our main site. It would not be used in any other way.

I tried the internet archive to see its history but I only see a parked page with junky links and "domain for sale" message. Is this considered spam by search engines? It's not a scraper site at least so it's not the worst kind.

Thanks
Val

[ogletree]

Google is not that picky. Most of the paranoid stuff you here is from people that have lots of spammy sites. Google can tell when a new site has changed hands. A good idea is to use Google site maps. That lets Google know you are not afraid to tell them you own the site. If the site has a penalty use site maps to get it re-included. If you plan to just redirect the site to your site use the site maps to tell google what site is the main one. If you plan to make a brand new site go for it. If you are legit Google will not penalize you.

I used to do black hat stuff and had black and white stuff on the same server. Google came in and only banned the bad sites. The legit company sites are still around today.

[VNelson]

ogletree,
thanks so much for your thorough reply with your personal experience. that's very helpful. the reason i'm so paranoid lately is that we have a site that is under the minus-30 penalty with google and we can't tell why yet. (i've been active on that WebmasterWorld forum about that.)

i have seen the Sitemaps re-inclusion request so thanks for the reminder about that.

thanks!
Val