I am thinking of buyin a few sites in 200-500 USD range. This is the first time I am buying sites, so I am apprehensive! What can I do to make sure that when I paypal the money, I get control of the site, and the guy does not just disappear!
becareful when buying and selling sites.... even through paypal you can lose the money... so i will suggest you to start a new website by your own...
Unfortunately I do not have the time to work on anew site, so I am buying it. . With so many sites being bought/sold here, surely there is some secure way?
check the seller carefully. - check their itrader (many successful transaction about selling site) - date of being member (longer the better) - see their posts to see what kind of person he/she is (use your own judgement) after all just PRAY after sending the payment and hope you can get a domain and the site can make money. good luck and last thing is there is still many good people to deal with in DP just need to look for them.
Make sure the member has good feedback. Wait for the files and transfer of the domain, if they dont come file a paypal chargeback. Bad suggestion, many people buy and sell sites safely on DP everyday.
some people might not agree with you this point, but it still one thing you could do to screen out the scammers.
I recommend you buying a scripts and install them. in this way you will be in the safe side. but you will have to work on traffic.