Suggestions on seller security for a forum

I am the potential buyer of a forum I am in contact with. I am certain the seller is the true owner and many confirmations have been made. I am rather trusting in him, but as always you don't want to just wire money to someone. And we have agreed on a price, etc.

The issue is that the seller is quite risk averse and worrisome of the security in the transaction. We doesn't trust escrow considering he sees a strong bias to them settling on the buyers behalf without regard to true happenings, and he doesn't want his database out there if the money is reverse and he even keeps his domain.


what are some thoughts on the most secure method for the sellers side?
-I have read many of the threads on the forum on the subject but they pretty much summed up to using escrow. Additionally, he is not a DP member so wouldn't have the added relief of my reputation.

 

Ask him to become a DP member- set the BIN at the price you want for it, and then you buy it. If you really trust him, you could pay via paypal with a gift OR you could pay half now and gain full access to the site but not domain and pay the other half in a month and get the domain.

 

Honestly, if the guy is causing that much trouble prior to the sale I'd be thinking how much trouble is he going to be causing during and after? Smells fishy to me, and I'd be really tempted to just walk away.

OTOH, if the deal is important and big enough for you, why not do the transaction face to face? I did just that a couple weeks ago, we brought our laptops to a coffee shop, I handed him a nice sized check and he transferred the site to me while we were there.