Ok - this is a new one for me. IM strongly considering buying a site. Im convinced its worth the money so thats not the problem. Its a PHPBB forum that I'll convert to vBulletin, so im not worried about that. It has hosting paid until next January - What are the possible pitfalls or things I sould make sure of? I know I have to have the domain registration and hosting account transferred. What else do I need to make sure of?
Don't use paypal if the price is over $1,000. Use Escrow.com Trying to save a few bucks isn't worth it.
check their # of listed pages in google, msn, and yahoo. Make sure they aren't banned or anything like that. If you are changing the site structure, look into doing some redirects so you don't lose existing listings. Make sure their existing user base is legitimate. They can probably allow you admin access to see that the posts come from a wide variety of IP addresses. You don't want to take over a forum and then all of a sudden see a 50% drop off in traffic. Also, touch base with existing user-community based moderators to find out about any existing issues that they want to see addressed. Check out competitive forums and see if a better deal is to be had elsewhere. Everything is a negotiation Search google groups and any other sources to make sure the domain isn't viewed in a bad light by the community in general. Once a spammer always a spammer in most people's eyes. Check out the host too. Make sure there aren't excessive down time or bandwidth issues. Make sure they will support any additional software you foresee.
im not too concerrned about that stuff - its not kids, mostly older people and I am pretty good at managing a community.
Also check the IBLs to see if they're not from other sites owned by the same guy. They could disappear once he's sold it otherwise