Escrow.com Offers “Payment Plan” Escrow on Domain Transactions
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Escrow.com offers service for domain name purchase payment plans.
I caught up with Escrow.com president Brandon Abbey during DOMAINfest last week. When I asked him about current trends in sales, he said the company is seeing more people wishing to do payment plans when they acquire domains.
Escrow.com has a service for these customers. It runs similar to its traditional domain escrow service, except that Escrow.com takes control of the domain name and facilitates multiple payments from buyer to seller. Once all payments are received, ownership of the domain name is transferred to the buyer.
In most cases, the buyer makes monthly or quarterly payments, which are then disbursed to the seller.
To set up a payment plan escrow, users create the transaction on Escrow.com as usual. They then contact Andee Hill (ahill at escrow.com) with the payment terms. Escrow.com then sends agreements to both parties for signature. Next, the seller transfers the domain name to Escrow.com’s account at Go Daddy.
For extended payment transactions, Escrow.com generally accepts transactions of $75,000 or more. It is currently managing transactions ranging from 8 months to 5 years.
The cost is reasonable — just the standard fees plus a $500 annual fee.
Further Reading:
@Andrew – Excellent news. Kudos to Escrow.com for designing this option. This is a win/win for sellers and buyers. Thanks for sharing this info.
Actually, this further strengthens Escrow.com’s position as a key player in domain name transactions.
Too bad the level is set at 75K ….. this would work wonders in the low end market. This would increase sales a lot I believe.
Still good news.
Great news, this could figure into potential JV deals when the domain owner does not want to fully give up ownership until there is specific performance. Thanks Andrew.
please tell Escrow to do some charities ,
otherwise ,
v patronnise ricklatona,etc , thanks
not a paid post , 2w
Moniker always had this service at much lower cost..
Domainer that is correct, Moniker.com came up with payment plan options years ago and can do virtually any kind of lease to buy, multi year payment plan, asset exchanges and more. Since inventing domain escrow services for the industry in 1998, we have heard and seen the trends of how to make domain escrow like those of real property so we have adapted our online interface to handle most of these. Anyone needing anything more customized can also contact escrow@moniker.com and we can likely create it for you.
Monte – how much do you guys charge for a payment plan escrow?
it is based on the total price of the transaction plus a $100 fee for a customized plan. We base the fee on the length of deal and number of payments. As you know, we have a special escrow account at Moniker and at every other major registrar for these purposes as well as special escrow accounts set up with Citibank and USBank to handle the transactions.
Hi Monte,
I’m interested to know more.
What percentage down payment, and how long payment terms e.g. 2, 3 or 5 years?
Regards,
EM @ KING.NET
we have a deal up to 15 years. just email escrow@moniker.com for more info on types of deals that are non standard. Our standard is listed here: http://www.moniker.com/aftermarket/domain-escrow.jsp
Does the seller get the payments on time or does he have to wait five years until the full amount has been collected?
Yes, according to escrow.com. They will hold the domain and facilitate the payment between the buyer and seller.
@ggc –
“the buyer makes monthly or quarterly payments, which are then disbursed to the seller”
I take this to mean the buyer does receive payments periodically during the course of the transaction.
Oops, make that seller receives payments!
The seller gets the payments as they are received by Escrow.com.
So the seller keeps all the cash to date if the buyer defaults on a payment? Sweet deal for the seller. I wonder how much time they get before default happens.
Rashid – you have to go to the escrow link on Moniker, not the auction link. Yes we disburse payments as per the agreement. they can be down payments, monthly, qtrly, annual, based on certain trigger points based on the deal. Moniker holds the domain in escrow until the obligations have been fulfilled as per the agreement between buyer and seller.
The big difference here is that Moniker is an ICANN Accredited Registrar and Escrow.com is not. Moniker completes the change of ownership when the transaction is complete and releases funds to the seller, Escrow.com makes both parties handle that on their own.
We also have real live and legal agreements actually signed by both parties. These seem to have held up in courts better than electronic agreements. There are many other differences.
Both are good companies and good options to use depending on the size of the transaction and how customized.
how do you invent domain escrow ?
[...] and Moniker offer advanced escrow services, such as purchases where payments are spread out over [...]
[...] Escrow.com Offers “Payment Plan†Escrow on Domain Transactions [...]