Buying an established website comes with many risks.
The buyer of this site is disappointed with the results after sales plunged.
But it’s not without risk, and both buyers and sellers need to think about potential pitfalls.
Here’s an example: The buyer and seller of the resume writing site ResumeToInterviews.com are headed to court.
It’s actually the seller, Jason Batansky, who filed suit after the buyer, Ichabod Ice, LLC started making threats.
Ichabod Ice bought ResumeToInterviews.com from Batansky in 2014 for $217,500.
According to Ichabod Ice, there was one piece of content on the site it purchased that was copied from another site. It was forced to pay $500 to the copyright owner. But it also alleges that the site’s reputation was harmed when the copyright issue came to light, and due to issues with the seller’s SomethingAwful.com account.
This, according to the buyer, caused they site’s revenue to drop 60%.
Ichabod Ice (buyer) sent a demand letter Batansky (seller), demanding Batansky refund the original $217,500 plus additional money.
Batansky disagrees, of course. After Ichabod Ice continued to threaten legal action, Batansky filed suit for Declaratory Judgment.
It’s obviously too early to tell which side is right. A case of a buyer upset because one of the risk factors actually came true? Or perhaps they have a legitimate beef, at least in part.
I recommend reviewing the court filing if you’ve thought about buying or selling a website. It includes the asset purchase agreement as well as why the seller says the agreement was violated.
Nuno says
March 29, 2016 at 9:14 amThank you for sharing. Filing document one | Filing document two are pointing to the same file batansky-2.pdf
Andrew Allemann says
March 29, 2016 at 9:53 amSorry, this should be fixed now.
Nuno says
March 29, 2016 at 9:57 amNothing to apologize, many thanks!
Nick says
March 29, 2016 at 9:25 amI bought 1 site on flippa. Never again. Lessened learned.
Krist says
March 29, 2016 at 10:31 amExcellent post, Andrew. Thank you.
asset says
March 29, 2016 at 10:41 amwhat is the idea ? not buying websites ?
Andrew Allemann says
March 29, 2016 at 11:10 amWhen you buy a website you need to:
a. do your due diligence
b. understand the risks
c. value the site accordingly
RaTHeaD says
March 29, 2016 at 11:43 amam i the only one who thinks flippa websites are crooked because most are buying arbitrage traffic and keeping it off the books. who in their right mind would sell a site for $200,000 that is making $80,000 a month
Pierre says
March 29, 2016 at 1:11 pmDon’t buy a website on Flippa if you don’t know anything about websites.
Nick says
March 30, 2016 at 9:15 amEven if you know about websites, still don’t but. For instance when sellers claims they will give you contact info for their suppliers, they don’t
Henry says
March 29, 2016 at 11:01 pmBuyer’s remorse? Evidently somebody did not do their due diligence or perhaps not enough.
Moreover, did they think that all they have to do is buy the website and the money will keep rolling in? How much of advertising and marketing have they done since buying the site? How much of what the original owners did to get their traffic have they tried or duplicated or is the cost of doing so very prohibitive in the short term and/or in the long run?
There are too many unanswered questions here.