About a quarter of my sales this year are lease-to-own transactions.
This year has been a bit slow for me for domain sales. As of October 10, I’ve sold 27 domains in 2025 (excluding wholesale/liquidation transactions). However, looking back at last year, I was actually a little behind this rate and finished with 41 sales, following a strong close to 2024.
One trend is unmistakable this year: lease-to-own transactions are on the rise.
Of my 27 sales, seven are lease-to-own transactions. Here are my thoughts on this development:
- I don’t mind receiving money over time. I’m never in a cash-poor situation, so the delay in receiving cash from LTO isn’t a big concern to me.
- Of course, I’d rather have the money upfront because then it’s guaranteed. Of the seven LTOs that started this year, one has been canceled so far. The buyer only made one payment. I was surprised about this one because the buyer developed the site. The upside is I got $400 and have relisted the name.
- I’m not sure if LTO has increased my sell-through rate or my total realized prices. Of course, I can assume that the buyer who canceled after one month probably wouldn’t have paid the full $13k for the name upfront, but I have no way of knowing for the other domains.
- The above example notwithstanding, I generally think a buyer is more likely to finish payments if they’ve developed a site on the domain. Of the seven LTOs that started this year, four have been developed.
- I had five LTOs last year, so that makes 12 total at Afternic. Of these, only two have been canceled so far.
- My LTOs range from 12 to 36 months. I’ve dialed that back and now typically set a max of 14 months.
One thing is for sure: I enjoy receiving payments every month, as it smooths things out during slow months.
Does the name go into some sort of an escrow account during the LTO period? I can see a shady seller collecting the money then refusing to transfer the registration.
Yes, Godaddy holds it
Hi Andrew,
I too have found an increase in sales via lease to own. While all sales are welcome, money up front is sometimes badly needed.
With liquidity been an issue for some domainers is there a market for the sale of these lease to own domains for cash up front ? If so what kind of discount do you think buyers of these lease to own sales be looking for ?
If for example it was $5000 over 12 months ($416 per month) would a buyer be willing to purchase this lease for say $3500 ?
Thanks,
John.
That’s a really interesting idea. I think if I were to purchase names that are on LTO, I’d want to buy a large basket of them rather than one or two. Or, I’d want to investigate how each one was being used to figure out the likelihood of them being completed.