Appropriate price to buy a parked domain

[Jim4767]

My son is intending to start a website. It will market a service in the city in which he lives.

The problem is that someone else has already registered a domain name using the all-important keywords. That domain name owner has simply parked that domain and has never used it.

He is willing to sell the domain to my son but didn't name a price. I checked the KW Suggestion tool and noticed that the KWs get only 2-3 searches daily.

Can anyone with experience in these things give me a general idea of what price my son should offer to buy such a parked, never-used domain? Thanks a lot.

[exam]

I'd suggest you do some serious brainstorming and come up with 20-30 other options for a domain name. I'd try to strike a balance between:
- Keywords in the domain
- Domain length (the shorter the better)
- Cleverness/rememberability (I claim rights to that word :))
If you absolutely have to have the parked domain, don't let the owner know that. If you think it's a rather obscure domain name, you can offer maybe $50 but the owner may hold out for more. (I'm assuming it's a .com, not some other TLD) Also, some domain parking services will tell you the traffic that a given domain is getting, for example sedo does.

[Greg-J]

It's a small world indeed. I too live in Medford Oregon Jim. Good to see a locals face here.

In regards to your question:
It's a good idea to use those facts when negotiating. If the keyword are low-demand keywords, make sure he knows that. If he insists you start off negotiating, just go low. Real low. $50 even. In the end it gets simple; Your son should pay what the website is worth to him and no more.

[Jim4767]

Exam and Greg-J, thanks for the good advice. I'll pass it on to my son.

And Greg-J, small world indeed. Our Medford stay is almost over. I'll retire in May, then my wife and I are off to Alaska.

[Roman]

- Domain length (the shorter the better)
.

I beg to differ;)


Jim, you mentioned that the name is 'using the all-important keywords'
From this I gather that there can be several other combinations of those keywords and even more if you use '_' & '-'.

Based on the little info you gave I don't see the domain name that valuable as it has multi words and is location specific, so like exam said, offer $50.00 and in the mean time try to come up with an alternative if he rejects.

[Greg-J]

What do you do in Medford Jim?

[exam]

I beg to differ;)Just because you have the longest list of the longest stuff :D
Ok, so I generalized... Sorry :)

[Roman]

Just because you have the longest list of the longest stuff :D
Ok, so I generalized... Sorry :)

LOL, No worries:)

[ly2]

Everytime I have tried to buy off sedo, I give my first offer and the people counter offer with like some insane price. lol
I quit going there after the owner of with.us(i think that was the domain) gave me counter offer of a quarter million dollars with an attached message
"I have recently had higher offers, I will sell no less than this"
Is it me or him who is out of touch? For a quarter million I could score a beautiful .com

[Greg-J]

Maybe even "beautiful.com" ;)

[Jim4767]

Greg, I'm currently (soon retiring) the pastor of South Valley Church, between Phoenix and Talent, next to the Farmers Market.