Domain inquiries often quote the cost of a domain as a reason that the sale cannot go forward.
While direct sales in a single transaction is what I’m personally after, there are times to consider a “lease to own” option.
There are a couple of ways to leverage the particulars of such a domain sale:
- By using the services of a qualified attorney, that holds the domain and the funds in a trust account.
- By using Escrow.com and their new domain concierge option.
I have not used the latter yet, but I’m negotiating with a buyer that indicated what they can afford to pay per month.
In cases when the potential buyer has limited funds but anticipates to leverage a larger budget soon, the “lease to own” option seems attractive.
One thing to note, is that by offering a “lease to own” option to your domain buyers, you should also decide on the exact pricing model.
For example, if your asking price for a domain is $10,000 when paid in full in a single transaction, spreading the payments over the course of a year or longer should be 20% to 30% higher. This way, you spread your earnings over the course of several months, but you end up receiving a fair amount of money beyond the single transaction price.
Using this approach, the buyer can decide whether they will be stretching their budget now and paying less, or making payments towards a higher amount. From what I’ve seen, the Escrow.com domain concierge fees are very reasonable, and from my understanding they are paid up front by the buyer.
There are other ways to tweak the terms and conditions of a “lease to own” sale, that might require the services of an attorney – at least for the contractual part.
As time goes by, we’ll see more leasing and financing in this industry. To date, this has been a mere trickle. People rarely go this route except where very large amounts are involved. But I’d expect installment payments will be chosen more frequently in the lower price ranges as the years go by.