Gazundering hits the domain market

Till now, I had no name for this abominable practice of lowering the price one is willing to pay for a domain, right after a verbal agreement is reached. After watching a CNN video about the British real estate market, I realized it already had a name: gazundering.

According to everyone’s favorite resource of general information, Wikipedia, the term “gazundering” is defined as “the practice of demanding a reduction in price to secure the sale of a property. This is usually done during contract negotiation. The timing of this demand is usually intended to prevent the seller from rejecting the lower price, as the sale could collapse if they did, although it may also reflect a genuine downturn in property prices in an area.”

Apparently, the British law gives little value to hand-shaking, virtual or not, unless it’s finalized with a written contract bearing the signatures of both parties. Long gone are the days of committing to one’s offer that was negotiated through an exchange of communications between buyer and seller and which was accepted.

In the domain market, this practice appears to work as follows: an offer is made, through a non-committing medium e.g. via a phone-call or an e-mail. The seller agrees to a selling price and proceeds with the drafting of a contract agreement, potentially involving a third party who’s an expert in the composing of such documents – for example, an IP attorney or a paralegal.

Then, as soon as the iron is hot off the deal anvil, the buyer changes their initial offer by means of counter-offering less money for the exchange. The process might involve the feedback of real or imaginary business partners who, during the course of negotiation, seem to have changed their appraisal of the domain or its business costs; all, at the financial and emotional expense of the seller who’s now left wondering if this is a bad joke.

Where I come from, a deal is a deal. No need for a handshake even, especially in today’s electronic, global market. And yet, even in the acclaimed domaining world, one will find individuals that resort to such a low tactical warfare approach. One’s word reflects their business and personal ethics; it’s a projection of anything done in the past and a prediction of anything that will be done in the future.

A game of chess obviously unfolds the parties’ strategy on the negotiation table. If an offer is not high enough to be accepted, the potential buyer then usually returns with a higher offer in order to close the deal and obtain the goods. But in chess, the rules are known in advance and the most important one is: if you pick up your chess piece, you have to move it.

Domain gazundering will apparently lead more people to offer their domains via centralized selling platforms that allow for a lock-down of the agreement as it is reached; once the price is viewed by the seller as acceptable, it’s as if both parties’ signatures were instantly recorded on the contract.

In an ideal business world, instant buying and selling is a smooth, painless operation that offers inventory and receives monetary funds in exchange. In the real world, a person with no scruples, no ethos and little regard towards the seller’s time and property will try to gazunder a deal, whenever possible.

To counter such gazundering activity, one has to disengage themselves emotionally from the deal, flat out refuse the post-agreement lower offer and, whenever possible, seek legal advice that would potentially entitle them to compensation, should such an act of pulling out of a deal occurs.