How to Sell a Domain Name: A Seller's Guide

Get the name sale-ready

Buyers pay for a name they can receive fast and keep without trouble. Check five things first.

1. Clean ownership. The registrant record names you or your company, you control the registrar account and its email, and the name is not in a dispute, a pending transfer or its final weeks before expiry.
2. Free to move. Under ICANN's Transfer Policy, a registrar may refuse a move to another registrar within 60 days of registration or of a previous registrar transfer, and a change of registrant triggers a 60-day transfer lock unless you opted out. A push to the buyer's account at the same registrar usually still works. Know your registrar's push and auth code steps, but keep the transfer lock on until the buyer has paid.
3. No trademark problem. If the name's value comes from someone else's brand, no sales channel makes it safe; see is domain flipping legal.
4. A for-sale lander. Replace ads with a page that loads fast on a phone, shows the name as the headline, states the price or offers a form, and explains how the deal closes. Ad-filled parking hides the sale, and ads that target a brand can be used against you in a dispute.
5. A machine-readable signal, described next.

The _for-sale DNS record (RFC 10023)

RFC 10023, an Informational RFC published in July 2026, defines a for-sale DNS record: a TXT record at _for-sale.yourdomain that starts with v=FORSALE1; and carries at most one tag per record: furi= (a sales page, email or phone link), ftxt= (a short note), fval= (an indicative price with a currency code) or fcod= (a code a registry or platform interprets).

_for-sale.example.com. 3600 IN TXT "v=FORSALE1;furi=https://example.com/buy"

The RFC says the record does not oblige you to sell, recommends a TTL of one hour or less, asks you to remove it once the name is no longer for sale, and says automated systems should not commit to a purchase on an advertised price without human verification. Leave out fval= if you want your price private. Atom began publishing these records in September 2026 for listings on its nameservers, explaining: "The next buyer for your domain may not be a person. It may be an AI agent." On a marketplace's nameservers, you can add the record only if that platform supports it.

Choose your sales channels

Inbound is the base layer for every name: no cost until a sale, but you wait for the buyer.

Outbound works when you can name the buyers: companies using the same words on another extension, in plural or hyphenated form, or on a longer name this one would upgrade. AI tools can build these lists and summarize each company in minutes, which makes AI-assisted outbound practical; they cannot make a mass email welcome. Send short, individual messages: the name, why it fits, the price or a range, and how the deal closes. Commercial email is regulated (the CAN-SPAM Act in the US, stricter consent rules in parts of Europe), so keep it one-to-one. Never pitch a name whose value comes from a company's trademark to that company; under the UDRP, that offer is classic evidence of bad faith.

Brokers fit narrow, high-value buyer pools. Sedo's seller brokerage, for example, charges no upfront fee, takes 15% of the price only on a sale, and requires an exclusive agreement. With any broker, agree commission, term, exclusivity and minimum price in writing, and ask for sales you can verify.

Where to list your domain

• Afternic, a GoDaddy company, shows listings in search results on more than 100 registrar and reseller sites, according to GoDaddy. Names in its Fast Transfer network move to the buyer automatically. GoDaddy lists the commission as a flat 15% on its aftermarket nameservers and 25% otherwise, plus 5% with the optional Boost program.
• Sedo runs its own marketplace and syndicates listings to partners such as registrars through SedoMLS. Its price list charges 10% for a buy-now sale on its marketplace when the name uses Sedo parking or its sales lander, 15% for other marketplace sales, and 20% through SedoMLS.
• Atom takes open and expert-curated listings, offers lease-to-own with down payments, and publishes RFC 10023 records for listings on its nameservers.
• Registrar marketplaces include Dynadot's marketplace, Namecheap Marketplace and Spaceship's SellerHub; check each one's fees and transfer process.
• Dan.com closed on June 27, 2025. GoDaddy, which acquired it in 2022, had already migrated the platform to Afternic, according to DomainInvesting.com.

Two rules keep listing on several domain marketplaces safe. First, your nameservers point to one lander and change your terms: Afternic's lower rate, Sedo's lowest rate and Atom's automatic records each need that platform's nameservers or lander, so pick one platform for your nameservers. Second, a price can be a commitment: GoDaddy states that Afternic buy-now prices are binding, as is the floor price its sales team may accept without asking you. Keep prices identical and delist everywhere the moment the name sells, or you can sell it twice.

Buy now, make offer or lease-to-own

Fixed prices dominate. In Sedo's figures in the Global Domain Report 2026, 76% of sales were buy-now transactions and only 8% were negotiated make-offer sales, according to Domain Name Wire. Keep make-offer for names with thin comparable sales and a small buyer pool, and set a minimum that screens out offers you would never take.

Lease-to-own trades speed of cash for reach. Afternic offers terms of up to 60 months, with the name locked while the buyer uses it. GoDaddy's terms say a lease buyer who cancels forfeits the payments made, and the name returns to the seller.

How to answer an inquiry and negotiate

Reply within a day, then work through these steps.

1. Qualify the buyer. Check the email domain, company, funding news and website. An end user launching a product values the name differently from an investor, and a broker may be fronting a stealth acquisition. AI research tools do this in minutes; verify what they report.
2. Set your floor first. Decide your floor price before you reply, from comparable sales (NameBio and DNJournal publish them), your holding cost and the number of other plausible buyers. Automated appraisals are a starting point: GoDaddy says its GoValue estimate uses AI and machine learning, but no model sees your inquiry history or this buyer's budget. See how to value a domain name.
3. Anchor with one number and a reason. Quote one price, not a range, because buyers tend to fix on the low end. Give a reason: comparable sales, the exact match to their product, the extension.
4. Concede slowly, and trade. Answer a counteroffer with a smaller move, and never cut twice in a row without a new offer in between. Trade price for terms: the buyer pays the escrow fee, closes this week, or takes a payment plan.
5. Let silence work. After you quote, wait. One polite follow-up after a few days is enough.
6. Use only real deadlines. A planned price increase is fair to mention if true. Invented rival offers are dishonest and collapse when the buyer walks.
7. Walk away below your floor. Decline politely and leave the door open; the name remains your asset.
8. Put the deal in writing. Confirm price, currency, escrow service, who pays the fee, transfer method and deadline by email or in a short LOI.

How to get paid safely through escrow

Marketplace sales close inside the platform, which collects the payment and handles the transfer. For a private sale, use an established domain escrow service such as Escrow.com:

1. Agree the terms in writing, including who pays the escrow fee and how long the buyer has to confirm receipt.
2. Open the transaction yourself, or accept the buyer's invitation only after reaching the escrow site by typing its address, never through a link the buyer sends.
3. The buyer pays the escrow service. Wait until your own escrow account shows the funds as received; an email, a screenshot or a "payment sent" message proves nothing.
4. Transfer the name: push it to the buyer's account at the same registrar, or remove the transfer lock and send the auth code for a registrar transfer. If the buyer will move the name to another registrar, do that before any change of registrant; ICANN's policy advises this order to avoid a 60-day lock.
5. The buyer confirms receipt within the agreed period.
6. The escrow service pays you. Escrow.com says it pays the seller the same or next business day once all terms are verified, minus any share of the fee you agreed to pay.
7. Remove the lander, the _for-sale record and every listing, and keep the records for tax.

How long does it take to sell a domain?

No honest average exists, and most names never sell. Time to sale depends on:

• The buyer pool. A name dozens of businesses could use sells sooner than one that fits a single company.
• Price against comparable sales. An ask far above what similar names fetch waits for a rare buyer.
• Distribution. In the same report, 56% of Sedo's sales came through SedoMLS partners such as registrars, which show listings to buyers who never visit a marketplace.
• Friction. A visible price, instant checkout and a name that can move today remove reasons to delay.
• Terms and outreach. Lease-to-own adds buyers who cannot pay upfront; outbound speeds up names with identifiable buyers.
• Timing. Demand for a keyword or extension follows what the market is building; .ai domains are the current example.

The real trade-off is speed against price. Selling to another investor at wholesale is usually faster than waiting for an end user at retail, and every year of waiting costs a renewal fee. Review prices regularly and drop names that no longer earn their renewal (portfolio pruning).

Fees and taxes

Budget for these before you set a floor:

• Commission: a percentage of the price, varying by marketplace and channel as shown above, or a broker's fee on success.
• Escrow fee: depends on the amount and payment method. Buyer and seller agree who pays; Escrow.com adds the buyer's share to the price and deducts the seller's share from the payout.
• Payout costs: fees that depend on the payout method, such as wire transfer fees.
• VAT or similar taxes on commissions in some countries; Sedo's price list, for example, excludes VAT.

Tax on your profit depends on where you are tax resident and whether you trade domains as a business; a sale may be taxed as business income or as a capital gain. Keep each name's acquisition cost, renewals, commissions and fees; you need them to calculate profit. Platforms may ask for tax details before paying out. Ask a tax professional where you live.

Common seller mistakes

• Moving the name or sharing the auth code before payment is secured.
• Leaving the name on a slow or ad-heavy page that never says it is for sale.
• Pricing from hope instead of comparable sales, or setting a hasty buy-now price on a rare name.
• Answering inquiries days late, or without a price.
• Letting the name expire during a long negotiation.

Scams aimed at sellers

• Fake appraisal requests. A "buyer" makes a generous offer, then says the deal needs an appraisal from one specific service. That service is part of the scam, and the buyer goes silent once you pay, as Namecheap and Domain Name Wire have documented. A real buyer orders and pays for any appraisal they want.
• Fake escrow sites. The buyer insists on an escrow company you have never heard of. Escrow.com's fraud guidance lists the signs: false claims of affiliation with a known escrow brand, recently registered domains, lookalike email addresses and no reachable phone support. These sites report "funds received" so you transfer the name.
• Overpayment. The buyer pays too much "by mistake" and asks you to refund the difference. The original payment later bounces or is reversed; the US Federal Trade Commission notes that fake checks can take weeks to surface, and you repay the bank. Refund nothing until the full payment has cleared, and keep deals inside escrow.
• Account phishing. Emails imitating your registrar, a marketplace or an escrow service ask you to "confirm the sale" through a link. Log in directly, use two-factor authentication, and consider a registry lock for valuable names; account takeover is a common route to domain hijacking.

Education, not financial, legal or tax advice. Domain investing is speculative and most domain names never sell. Read the disclaimer.