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Due diligence before buying a website?

Discussion in 'General Business' started by ejg700, Jan 20, 2016.

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  1. #1
    I'm thinking about buying a website listed on *ebsitebroker, but I want to know what steps I should take to make sure I don't get scammed. This particular seller is offering a traffic/seo s site that he says is established, earning an income of an average of $7850 per month for $15000, with a down payment of $3000, the rest to be paid in 60 days from earnings from the site. He has provided me with Paypal screen shots, and a link to his live traffic stats. Everything seems okay, but I can't verify anything about the site through any of the available competitive analysis tools, and there are no references in Google, other than the listing, the site itself, and it's generic social media profiles. I'd love to jump on this, but I'd need to be sure. Is there like a third party verification service, or something I can use to make sure I don't get burned? Thanks.
     
    ejg700, Jan 20, 2016 IP
  2. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #2
    No references in Google? You mean people are spending $7k each month on the site and nobody has tweeted, grammed or anything? Yeah, right.
    Inbound links?
    Archive.org history looks credible
    Skype/Teamviewer screensharing session to verify the stats and sales info
    You've checked for dupe content (like identical sites with identical stats being sold by the same person)

    When you say "everything seems ok" does that mean you've contacted a random selection of their customers to verify their purchases? or is the revenue all through publishing ads?
     
    sarahk, Jan 21, 2016 IP
  3. Engineer2Blogger

    Engineer2Blogger Peon

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    #3
    Seems dodgy to me.

    What's the pagerank? How long has the site been up and running for?

    Be careful man, sites that legitimately earn that much would go for much higher.
     
    Engineer2Blogger, Jan 21, 2016 IP
    sarahk likes this.
  4. qwikad.com

    qwikad.com Illustrious Member Affiliate Manager

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    #4
    qwikad.com, Jan 21, 2016 IP
  5. jrbiz

    jrbiz Acclaimed Member

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    #5
    For any business, including a website, the standard selling price is 1x annual revenues. You are being offered too good of a deal for it to be true. I suspect that the scammer just wants your $3K and will disappear after that.
     
    jrbiz, Jan 22, 2016 IP
  6. NetStar

    NetStar Notable Member

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    #6
    LOL... Use your damn head!!! If the site is making $7k a month and he's selling it for $15k then he ISN'T profiting $7k. OBVIOUSLY he is spending MORE to yield a return on the red. Meaning.... he may be spending $10k+ a month to only make back $7k. If he was seeing a PROFIT of $84k a year he wouldn't be parting with it for $15k. And if true it would have already been sold by now. If it was a black profit of $7k I would pay as much as $100k for it.
     
    NetStar, Feb 12, 2016 IP
    jrbiz likes this.
  7. mentos

    mentos Prominent Member

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    #7
    You can utilize Escrow services which have buyer protection feature. You can get your money back if at later stage you found out its a scam.
     
    mentos, Feb 17, 2016 IP