FAQ

Is this site a brokerage service?

Yes, DomainInquiry.com is a brokerage service. We represent you in negotiations with the domain buyer. The role of DomainInquiry.com makes sure that your offer reaches the decision maker as the domain owner. It also guarantees that you will receive a prompt reply to your offer, within five business days.

How long does it take?

Immediately upon the completion of your transaction at DomainInquiry.com, your offer will be submitted to the decision maker at the company that owns the domain name you are inquiring about. Domain owners who work with DomainInquiry.com commit to respond to your offer within five business days.  Typically you will receive a response within a few hours.

If you submit an offer for a domain whose owner does not work with DomainInquiry.com, then we will forward the offer but cannot guarantee that you will receive a response.

What's the benefit of using us?

We have direct contact and exclusivity with the owner and decision maker on the domain you are inquiring about. You will receive a prompt reply, with pricing information, etc supplied to us from the decision maker. The domain owners who use the DomainInquiry.com service are committed to promptly reviewing and responding to all inquiries submitted through DomainInquiry.com.  By using DomainInquiry.com as a Domain Buyer you have the confidence that your inquiry will be delivered directly to the decision maker and that you will receive a timely response.

With DomainInquiry.com, the domain owner knows that the inquirer is at least serious enough to commit a few dollars to the process and while that often doesn’t cover the time the domain owner puts into responding to an inquiry, it at least lets the domain owner know the person making the inquiry is more serious than the typical inquirer.

Can I contact the owner directly?

By using DomainInquiry.com you are reaching the domain owner directly.  The domain owners who work with DomainInquiry.com have designated DomainInquiry.com as the exclusive means of submitting general inquiries and offers for their domain names.

How much is a domain worth?

Every domain name is worth a different amount depending on the market it targets, the quality of the domain name, the commercial potential of the domain, and the owner’s willingness to sell.  We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the value of domain names by researching sales comparables.  You can view reports of past domain name sales at DNJournal.com.

Also, note that most publicly available information on domain sales prices come from the results of liquidation auctions where domains are sold at fire-sale prices to other domain investors. Sales to end-users are rarely publicly disclosed and usually occur at much higher valuations.

The domain owners using the DomainInquiry.com service are more likely to be buyers rather than sellers at liquidation auctions and will typically only part with a domain if presented with an offer that recognizes the commercial potential of the domain name. It is unlikely that any domain available through this service would have a value below $50,000 and most will be valued in the six-figures and higher. 

Why are domains so valuable?

A domain name becomes a business’ online brand, and sometimes its offline brand as well – think Amazon.com, Salesforce.com, or Furniture.com.  Your domain name usually will appear on every marketing piece, every advertisement, every business card, and every email of your business for the life of your business.

It is the first step for customers finding you online.  If a customer can’t remember your domain name, then they’re not likely to find your business online.

A strong generic brand is instantly memorable.  Companies using fanciful domains such as Google, GoDaddy, or Twitter have had to spend tens of millions of dollars promoting their brand and building brand awareness.  But Cars.com, Jobs.com or Shoes.com have an instant, memorable brand as well as instant credibility, saving them millions of dollars in marketing costs.

There are hundreds of thousands of businesses in the world, large and small.  But there is only a relatively small number of strong, brandable, dot-com domains.  The importance of a powerful, memorable, domain name combined with a limited supply and high demand, creates significant value for the better domain names.

How does a transaction work?

This depends on how the owner wishes to proceed.  If the domain is inexpensive, often times you will be able to pay with PayPal, credit card, or wire transfer.  For more expensive domain names, owners will likely require the use of a licensed escrow service, such as Escrow.com, SEDO.com, or Moniker.com.

Once payment is made, the transfer of the domain to your ownership and control can also be completed in many ways.  The quickest is usually an account change at the same registrar, these types of transfers are usually free and instantaneous.  A domain can also be transferred from one registrar to another, such as from Moniker to GoDaddy.  These transfers can take up to a week to process, and usually include one year renewal fee at the gaining registrar.

How does the escrow work?

The process is fairly similar across the various service providers.  For example, at SEDO or Moniker, you would start by submitting payment to the escrow company.  Once they have secured your funds, the domain owner would transfer the domain name to the escrow company.  At that point, the escrow company will simultaneously release your funds to the seller, and transfer the domain name to you.

At Escrow.com, the company does not take possession of the domain name.  Instead, after the escrow company secures your payment, the domain owner transfers the domain directly to you, the buyer.  Once you verify that the domain name is under your control, you notify Escrow.com, and they will release the funds to the seller.

Escrow companies ensure that the transaction happens safely and securely.  Domain owners usually have a preferred escrow provider that they will use to handle the sales of their domain names.

Are there any future costs?

The price you pay for a domain name is a one time fee.  After that, your only financial responsibility is to pay the yearly renewal fees at your registrar.  The renewal price for .com, .net, and .org domains varies depending on the registrar and the services offered but is usually between $8 to $35 per year.