I initiated contact with the seller. I know 100% that they are the rightful owners of the domain and its content. But, I still don't want to take the chance that they just won't deliver. The purchase price is $2,000 for the domain, site, forum, all content, etc. so this isn't a small chunk of change for me to be risking. note:this is not via digitalpoint so there is no itrader. I came here be you guys are experts and I have had many successful purchases here. How do I properly use escrow to purchase the site? the seller said we would do it and then I release the money and he releases the domain. But to me it seems like he should release the domain and then I release the money considering he can force the release of my money if I tried to run off with the domain. Also, I heard from the forum that SEDO is a good service for domain names. How would I properly use that service? Is there a third party service that will literally take the domain from the person, take my money, and conduct the transaction simultaneously? I figure the safest bet would be to try and transfer the domain for like $500 and then a secondary transaction for all the content, once I know it is safe. Because it wouldn't make sense for either of us to not front the money or content at that point.
you just need to use escrow and release payment once you transferred the domain, i can suggest you that use a new domain registrar instead of free push the domain , you just transfer the domain to new domain registrar, once you get the domain to new registrar then release the payment.
Make sure it's escrow.com, that's the most trusted escrow service as well as the most widely known and used.
use escrow and also look up his information, people are less likely to scam you if you have a telephone number and photo of them.
You can use a escrow Or to lower the fees of escrow you can post a project in any frelaancer service and ask the seller to bid their, and award the project and make milestone escrow payment - its cheap Then on complete verification, you can release the payment. Best way i guess
There are other alternative if you don't want to use Escrow. but you will need to trust each other. Google "transfer website safely"
Rather than taking a risk for whole amount , a portion of service fees for escrow service is nominal.
Just wanted to make a note that the sale went through without an issue... just used paypal but mostly safe due to diligence in authenticating actual ownership of the domain
I would NOT recommend using a partitioned escrow payment, because I have been duped before in a large purchase where they just scammed me of the first chunk and took off with it. For what its worth, I guess I'm a cynic because of my one experience. Plus, $2000 is a fair price so it's not one of those, too good to be true purchases. Either way, I'd caution you ot be careful so that you don't make the same mistake as me, $1k down from that mistake.
this is not true, if you get the domain and don't pay him he is screwed. If you pay him with Paypal or a credit card and do not get the domain you can do a charge back or look for recourse through your credit card company.
I would just use paypal if i was you and if he doesn't send you the site then you can just do a charge back and get your money back