According to a press release out this morning, Escrow.com announcedthat Frank Schilling’s DomainNameSales.com has successfully integrated the Escrow.com platform into its automated completion system, to ensure all parties are protected when buying or selling a domain name on DomainNameSales.com.
“Frank Schilling’s name marketing companies have been strong supporters of Escrow.com since 2001 – using Escrow.com’s secure transfer platform thousands of times to purchase and sell domain names. Escrow.com acts in a similar capacity as an escrow agent would during real estate transactions. As the price of generic, meaningful names have risen, it has become more critical that continuity of payment and title are managed. By integrating the Escrow.com API into the DomainNameSales.com purchase platform, buyers can negotiate the purchase of a domain name with its owner and facilitate the seamless and secure transfer of the registration, using a single application. Independent, third party brokers can participate with confidence knowing their service fees can be memorialized.”
“Escrow.com plays a significant role during a domain name transaction by securing the funds until the buyer has received complete control of the name. Once a sales price for a domain is agreed upon, DomainNameSales.com directs the buyer to Escrow.com where they receive payment instructions. After the funds are received, Escrow.com notifies DomainNameSales.com to release the domain and the transfer process begins. After the transfer of the title to a domain name has completed, Escrow.com releases payment proceeds to the name’s seller and broker.”
“The domain name industry has been one of Escrow.com’s largest business sectors for many years,” said Brandon Abbey, President and Managing Director of Escrow.com. “And the investments being made for web properties continue to increase. With the addition of new gTLD’s there will be a lot more Internet property changing hands. Look for us to continue enhancing our systems in support of this community.”
“Mr. Schilling couldn’t agree more. “Domain Names have always been valuable intangible assets. Buyers and sellers are often forced to move haphazardly through the transfer process and there are holes in continuity of title and payment. By integrating a neutral third party stakeholder like Escrow.com into DomainNameSales.com we have a clear path to secure payment, formalize commissions for independent brokers and transfer title to the benefit all parties.”
“Escrow.com is the preeminent medium for adding security to these transactions, “We are all about adding trust and safety to Internet transactions. We’ve been doing this for years in a variety of industries with partners that are the leaders in Internet commerce. Mr. Schilling and DomainNameSales.com are taking this industry to another level and we are very pleased to have been chosen as their partner,” said Abbey.”
“Escrow.com is the only fully accredited and licensed Internet Company serving a wide variety of transactional verticals globally.”
another plus for escrow.com is allowing a buyer up to 5 years making monthly payments. a yearly fee is added, but escrow.com handles the entire transaction. if the buyer defaults on a payment, the domain is returned to the seller and all payments made to that point are retained by the seller.
What about automated transfers of domains once payment has been received.
Automate the whole process by going thru the registry …like when u transfer a .co.uk domains directly thru nominet.
This will probably happen when u get control of the new gTLDs.
Not really news as Escrow.com has been integrated with DNS for a while now but good publicity for both parties.
hardly breaking news
escrow has this facility for ANYONE, that is IF you know around your escrow account
what escrow has to do is deal in multiple currencies
ie. not just sales in $
as the $ sucks and has done for a long time
also being based in other counntries, the banks rape you by up to 20% on the currency swap
therefore I sell in my own currency , £ and take international bank transfers
or even use sedo escrow which works out cheaper even after the 10%
and I hate sedo
@Roy Thanks for the plug-our Domain Holding Service is becoming more and more popular.
@ Guy Escrow.com does plan to offer our services in multiple currencies. We expect this to be available late this year or early next year.
Andee@
Domain holding services payment plan is it for domains over $75k or it could be for domains with a price tag of $5k as well ?
Nice, best service around. Never had a problem with them.
@Rich The holding service has a minimum fee based on a 75k transaction (.89% of 75k plus $500/year) but we accept them for lower priced deals.
Escrow.com is NOT even a proper escrow service
They only do escrow on the funds, not the domain itself
“Never had a problem with them”…until you do.
The idea of having the option of 1 day, 3 day, 5 day period for domains is nonsense
What happens is sometimes the “buyer” will simply t/f the domain in, change nameservers, and assess the traffic – all possible under escrow.com – and then “not accept” the t/f
Nothing the seller can do about it
This scenario doesn’t & can’t happen with a REAL escrow service like sedo, moniker
And AVOID Francois Cardildo’s ecop.com
It’s NOT licensed anywhere.
And is therefore trading ILLEGALLY.
Definitely NOT bonded.
Aggro
I haven’t processed an relevant percentage of sales in terms of volume or dollars to Frank but I can say I have used Escrow.com for over 10 years and have proceeded millions and millions of dollars with them and have never gotten burned by them
If a buyer backs out of a transaction then you as the seller have the right to try to sue them but an escrow company whether for domains or otherwise is not going to nor is responsible for doing it, just holding the funds and sending them where directed by the parties or a court.
As far as ecop.com i believe the person who is acting as the escrow agent is an attorney in Florida who most the domain community know.
I have sold many domains using escrow.com for many years.
Even this year I have sold many names using Frank’s IT/Escrow but I don’t like that escrow.com does’t take hold of the domains itself but make us deal directly with buyer. Many times after transfering the domain we have to beg the buyer to update escrow.com system so we can get paid quickly.
Sedo has accounts with most registars and we can just push the domain to sedo, even to afternic and it is extremely quick and convenient for the seller.
RK
no offense to Sedo which has sold domain for us, I find escrow.com to be a quicker & easier system to use .
I would certainly not elect to use Sedo just for escrow services unless the buyer demanded it
@ Andee
thanks Andee. escrow.com is awesome and never had a problem
great also to hear you will be offering escrow currency options
please make £ GBP for buyers and sellers in UK your first alternative
as we are crying out for that in UK and outside U.S I think UK is the most vibrant domain marketplace
I wouldn’t bother offering euro as don’t think will be here long lol
forgot to say, other great thing about this is sedo will lose a stack of business
whoooo!
Aggro
Escrow.com operates under our license guidelines to secure funds. Just as a real estate escrow, we do not take possession of the property. However, the seller is always protected as the buyer cannot receive a refund unless the domain is returned to the seller possession. As far as I know, Escrow.com is the only licensed escrow company able to conduct business in all US states. Non US based escrow companies may not require licensing-lawyers are legally able to hold trust accounts for their clients.
Michael
Thank you for your comments.
Guy
We are also excited about being able to accept multiple currencies. We plan to start with Euros (although you have a point about the stability) and follow with GBP and Australian Dollars. Contact me directly I can get you involved early when we start offering the new currencies.
Congrats Andee! It’s a strong amount of business you secured there.
FYI- We have a great piece on Escrow.com coming out in the next day or so. Taking you under the hood you will find that this is a remarkable company driven by passionate people and a fearless leader, if for not a coincidence that brought him into the mix, the company might have made it to be on the cusp of greater opportunities today. Frank, Mike, Rick Schwartz, Braden Pollock, Ron Jackson, Monte Cahn, Bob Grant, Morgan Linton, Warren Royal and Steve Kaziyev all contributed to the reporting in a significant way. Keep your eye on the sponsored listings on Domaining.com- you won’t want to miss this one!
btw, there was another participant to the article but what he is saying here seems to conflict what he told us:
“For almost a decade, Escrow.com has remained the champion service with regards to domain acquisitions and sales. Fast, efficient and affordable, it has always delivered the goods for me – every single time.” Acroplex LLC.”
@ Owen, @ Acro & @ Aggro are two different people I believe . . .
Andee
I have used Escrow.com many times with no problem but I do wish that you would offer an inspection period option of “0 days” for domain sales. Right now you can spend weeks negotiating with a buyer, agree with them on a price and then push them the domain, only to have them take advantage of your mandatory inspection period to change their mind and return the domain for a refund. I don’t see any reason why a “0 days” option cannot be offered, considering that the buyer would be clearly made aware that option was chosen before agreeing to the transaction. I sometimes avoid using your company because of this and imagine some others may too, so I think this would not only help domain sellers but your company as well.
@ Aggro
Why don,t you go migrate over to FaceBook where you belong.
This is a professional place not a whipping post for boilerplate such as yourself.
You are really itrritating lots of us with your incesant Whining and untruths, really who are you????
Gratefully , Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Jon,
We appreciate your comments. While less than 1% of domain transactions are rejected, we do get this concern from sellers. The inspection period should be used by the buyer to confirm full control of the domain.
For many of our buyers, it will be the only time they buy a domain and they can get confused by the process. Of course, many buyers are also domainers and should not need a long period of time to confirm-these buyers should only need a 1 day inspection period when the domain is transferring within the same registrar.
Andee,
Thanks for your response. Isn’t it true, though, that the inspection period only begins *after* the buyer has confirmed receipt of the domain and that it really only serves the purpose of allowing the domain to be returned for a refund within the specified number of days? I can see how that’s a good feature for physical items which are shipped, but not for domains which can’t be received in “bad condition.” If the seller has made traffic claims which were not previously verified then a long inspection period could be agreed to by both parties, but in many domain sales no traffic claims are made and a mandatory inspection period does nothing but allow the buyer to change his mind about the deal. I’m not suggesting that your company should release funds before receipt of the domain has been confirmed, I’m only pointing out that you are forcing sellers to provide a money-back guarantee which they may not feel is appropriate considering how much time and effort was spent in the negotiation process. And furthermore, if the buyer returns the domain then the seller may lose a sale which could previously have been made to another party.
In any event I think Escrow.com is an excellent service. I just hope you will make it even better. 🙂
I sold domains through EscrowCom with no problems during many years, until “instant transfer” services like FabulousCom-based DDN / Sedo MLS / Godaddy premium listings appeared. This simply saved a lot of time to myself (no more manual domainpushes, no more whois tracking) and my buyers are no more complaining about a) obligatory faxes to escrow for any credit-card-funded purchases AND b) lack of paypal payment option (as EscrowCom accepts paypal if and only if both buyer and seller are US-based which is never my case as I am not US-based. Not sure if these issues are still in place though. With these restrictions, more customers are lost as they purchase by other means. Without these restrictions (which is the case with other services), my average “sales reversal” rate is <1% which is fine for e-commerce…
I wish EscrowCom could find a way to somehow intergrate itself with major registrars so that the domains could be delivered to buyers _instantly_, without any manual pushes… And of course something should be done to eliminate the situations like silent buyers who first set inspection period to 30 days and never confirm receipt of the domain name making it necessary for busy members of EscrowCom team to manually verify whois and release funds after 30 days!
And, of course, adding multi-currency processing is a MUST thing…
In short, based on my experience with EscrowCom, I can definately recommend them to any seller or buyer.
By the way, a tip to EscrowCom. If, according to escrow stats, it is more profitable to have unsatisfied or even lost buyers who simply do not want to fax their credit cards and IDs (VS. chargeback risk) – of course let it be so… Even though other services accepting CCs for domainsales without such difficulties may disagree.
But! Many banks DO offer Verified-By-Visa or Mastercard-Secure-Code services to their cardholders. Such cardholders are supposed to confirm their purchases by using an extra password (a special window hosted by issuing bank appears during the purchase process). As far as I know, such purchases – where the correct secure code is entered by the buyer – simply CANNOT be charged back. It is a rule set by VISA/MC.
Instead of not using Verified-By-Visa or Mastercard-Secure-Code and demanding faxes, EscrowCom might want to start using these services (if available for the card) and NOT ask for faxes in these cases…
Jon and Joseph,
Escrow.com is and will continue to look at new ways to streamline transactions both for our customers and with our internal processes.
We do struggle with credit card fraud. The last two times I have checked, our business model was not eligible for Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure Code. Although it has been over a year since I looked into the qualifications and is definitely worth a third investigation. We know the faxed authorizations are hated and are looking for options to move from this model.
We appreciate hearing our customers suggestions and comments. The marketplace continues to evolve and our business will too.