Dan.com lease to own

[Systreg]

Anyone using the lease to own option on Dan with any success?

My reason for asking is, I'm assuming some potential buyers who visit Dan are clicking on the "Buy a domain" link on the home page menu, and on that page it says:

Here’s how it works:

1. Search our database
2. Find your dream domain
3. Purchase, rent or lease a domain

It doesn't mention that sellers may or may not offer the lease to buy option, so potential buyers may assume they can lease any domain.

I've sold by monthly payments a long time ago, but the buyer had to be sent repeated payment reminders each month, so I turned the lease option off after that.

This last week I've had 2 buyers asking to pay monthly, one was happy to pay £1,950 if he could purchase it over 24 months, I told him I didn't offer lease to buy as it wasn't worth my time, because after fees and vat it would only be £66 per month, he persisted and said he'd be happy for me to even increase the price to make it worth selling, as he wants to spend on marketing, rather than the domain outright, I declined.

The other buyer offered £950 for a domain and said that was his limit, unless payment terms were available, again, I wasn't interested in leasing and as I wasn't crazy about the domain, I decided to accept the £950 to close it.

I'm pondering turning the leasing option back on, although I'm not sure I'd want to do leasing over very long periods like 2 years or more, it would depend on the domain and price.

@Sam on @Helmuts recent live stream mentioned in passing that he was using it, and said he was getting sales that way, would you care to elaborate a bit on that, Sam?

What sort of domain price ranges are you selling at, and what monthly buy to lease durations are you selling over etc?

Cheers.

 

[Ben Thomas]

You have to think about sales across a 5 year period. If a domain costs £25000, nobody wants to drop that cash immediately. A smart business person would use finance, or credit card or something and spread it across a period of time to prevent a dip in cashflow (no matter how small that may or may not be).

£416 a month is a lot easier to see go out of your bank than £25000.

 

[atlas]

Dan holds the domain, takes care of collecting the payments, chasing the buyer, and forwarding the money to you, so there is not really much extra time involved on your part.

Dan also automatically marks the price of your domain up if the lease is longer than one year. You get half the markup and Dan gets half the markup.

I recently sold a domain priced at $3125 on a 24-month installment plan. The buyer pays $143.25 per month.

I get sent the money each month. It is a sale.

If the buyer defaults, I will get the domain back so there is little risk.

 

[MapleDots]

Dan.com is not long for this world, everything will be moved to Afternic and Dan will die just like uni registry.

It's such a shame because the service is head over heels better than Afternic but the decisions are already made.
Bodis was also kicked unceremoniously to the curb as the integration with afternic/godaddy started.

Waiting for the day when the domain dan.com goes up for auction and the whole history is wiped out.

There is no room for a dan.com in the godaddy/afternic world.
They will keep integrating and raising commissions until there are no more users to speak of and then it dies.

I wish I was wrong, but unfortunately precedence has already been set and the writting is on the wall.
I remember saying similar when uniregistry was sold to godaddy and in both cases the companies had better software than Afternic but that did/will not save them.

 

[Systreg]

You have to think about sales across a 5 year period.

I'm rapidly approaching 60 in a couple of years mate, and I may be dead in 5 years, so that's not a good length of time for me to lease a domain for

I think around 2 years would have to be my maximum for any higher priced domains, and maybe 9 - 18 months for cheaper domains.

@atlas, congrats on the sale Yes, I'm aware of how it works with regards to Dan collecting the payments and chasing them up if they're late with a payment, as it was on Dan that I leased a domain previously.

I agree there's not much time involved on my part apart from completing the actual sale, my point about it not being worth my time, was just to do with getting £66 per month for 2 years, well it would have been a bit more than that if I'd agreed to raise the price as the buyer suggested, or if I'd offered the other buyer payment terms, but I just can't he bothered spending 2 years getting £66+ each month on 1 or 2 domains.

I don't like how Dan mark the prices up, which increases depending on the amount of time leased for, this is their service fee schedule:

2–12 months = no markup added
13–24 months = 10% markup
25–36 months = 20% markup
37–60 months = 30% markup

Yes, it's more money, but I don't like the adding of extra fees.

I also feel Dan are missing a trick, as they could offer another payment option, like paying an agreed percentage of the sales price as the first payment, and pay the remaining percentage over however many months.

I was really just wondering how many lease to buy sales people were getting, because if it appears that buyers prefer to buy that way, it could be worth it if numerous domains were leased, rather than just the odd 1 or 2.

@MapleDots, let's hope that doesn't happen, because the Dan service has been great for the several years I've been using them, payments are very quick, often same day or next day at the latest, the support team are always helpful, and the previous 9% commission was good for the service that provides nice clean sales landing pages.

 

[Systreg]

I added the lease to own option to all of my domains last night, with the following monthly percentage options.

I'll see how that goes for a while before tinkering, I might also turn off the Afternic integration so that people can't buy at a $ price:

Prices up to £4,450 = 12 months lease.
£4,450 = 15 months lease.
£7,450 = 18 months lease.
£9,450 up = 24 months lease.

[Edit] Note to self, turned the Afternic integration off on Apr 20th

 

[m4c]

I just bumped into https://venture.com/ - a US leasing ONLY site - great idea for domain owners, but not sure it’s a good bet for the business users…

but then maybe it’s just what we’re used to - common practice the property world…

 

[fuzzer]

Big fan of the lease-to-own option here. I think the min payment per month is £100, might be wrong. I'm sure it's helped get a few low £xxxx sales over the line and once you get a few they stack up, always nice to see monthly payments coming in. Dan.com have managed it great - no problems so far, and if they stop paying, you get the name back.

No huge sales with it so far, but I like to always offer it as an option in discussions, I like to think it helps show the value over time and makes the names you're asking a decent amount for seem more manageable/comparable to an employee wage over 5 years (the domain is going to be working for them over that time).

 

[Systreg]

I think the min payment per month is £100, might be wrong

That looks to be the case, and was something I wasn't aware of when starting this topic, as I was telling the buyer that over 24 months it would be £66 per month after my fees, but on checking, if you list a domain for £1,950, it only allows you to lease for a maximum of 21 months, and I wasn't aware there was a mark up fee added to it until Atlas mentioned it above, so the monthly fees on £1,950 over 21 months is £103, not the £66 I thought it would be.

On another topic and to save starting another thread, I recently received an email from Dan with an offer, which was from a broker, email reads:

We just received a Buy Now offer on Ecoxxxxxx.co.uk for $1837 usd gross (currently around £1490 GBP gross).

The broker said the buyer can pay within 7 business days.

Please let me know if you would like to accept or provide a counter.

Probably a buyer via Afternic as it was a $ offer, I told them I was looking at the £2,450 BIN in pound sterling or close to it, not dollars.

I've never had an offer from a broker before and I just don't get it, why pay to hire a broker, when you can enter your offer on the for sale page, do people really need to pay someone to do that on their behalf, to me that's weird.

No idea how much their broker charges, whether it's a flat fee or a percentage of the amount offered?

I would never consider using a broker, the way I look at it, rather than pay a fee to a broker, use that saved fee to add to my offer.

 

[atlas]

On another topic and to save starting another thread, I recently received an email from Dan with an offer, which was from a broker, email reads:



Probably a buyer via Afternic as it was a $ offer, I told them I was looking at the £2,450 BIN in pound sterling or close to it, not dollars.

I've never had an offer from a broker before and I just don't get it, why pay to hire a broker, when you can enter your offer on the for sale page, do people really need to pay someone to do that on their behalf, to me that's weird.

No idea how much their broker charges, whether it's a flat fee or a percentage of the amount offered?

I would never consider using a broker, the way I look at it, rather than pay a fee to a broker, use that saved fee to add to my offer.

I do not think that these brokers are specifically hired by the buyer. Someone sends an email or makes a telephone call to Afternic, then the Broker, who works for Afternic/Godaddy relays the offer to the domain holder.

 

[m4c]

I do not think that these brokers are specifically hired by the buyer. Someone sends an email or makes a telephone call to Afternic, then the Broker, who works for Afternic/Godaddy relays the offer to the domain holder.

yup - I just had exactly that on a name I enquired about - had an Afternic landing page with ‘submit your details’ and a broker responded

 

[Systreg]

Thanks, I see broker and assume someone has paid them, as I know that happens, but maybe it worked the way you suggest.

I still don't get it though, if you see a domain for sale, enter your offer in the box and click submit, why email a company and then a broker at that company emails Dan, then Dan emails me, it's long winded and pointless, just make the offer yourself.

 

[Sam]

Hey,

I have a few lease to buys active and will always have that option open as most people prefer to pay over a year or several years. I have active up to 60 months some people dont like this but gives the person time to pay for it most of my domains are all priced over 4k so it works ok for me but all depends on what domains you are selling i want all my domains sold so i will have as many options as i can give to the buyer before i would only take all the money upfront but now i have far more sales with lease to buy.

I don't like selling via dan.com but like I have said its best to have all options open for a buyer.

Anyone using the lease to own option on Dan with any success?

My reason for asking is, I'm assuming some potential buyers who visit Dan are clicking on the "Buy a domain" link on the home page menu, and on that page it says:



It doesn't mention that sellers may or may not offer the lease to buy option, so potential buyers may assume they can lease any domain.

I've sold by monthly payments a long time ago, but the buyer had to be sent repeated payment reminders each month, so I turned the lease option off after that.

This last week I've had 2 buyers asking to pay monthly, one was happy to pay £1,950 if he could purchase it over 24 months, I told him I didn't offer lease to buy as it wasn't worth my time, because after fees and vat it would only be £66 per month, he persisted and said he'd be happy for me to even increase the price to make it worth selling, as he wants to spend on marketing, rather than the domain outright, I declined.

The other buyer offered £950 for a domain and said that was his limit, unless payment terms were available, again, I wasn't interested in leasing and as I wasn't crazy about the domain, I decided to accept the £950 to close it.

I'm pondering turning the leasing option back on, although I'm not sure I'd want to do leasing over very long periods like 2 years or more, it would depend on the domain and price.

@Sam on @Helmuts recent live stream mentioned in passing that he was using it, and said he was getting sales that way, would you care to elaborate a bit on that, Sam?

What sort of domain price ranges are you selling at, and what monthly buy to lease durations are you selling over etc?

Cheers.

 

[Systreg]

Thanks for the input, Sam, good to hear you're getting a few lease to buy sales.

Yeah, It'll obviously come down to domain quality with regards to how many lease sales anyone will get, and of course, the price it's listed at. 5 years is still too long for me, but maybe I'll increase to 30 and 36 months, depends on price and taking into account the service fee markup % Dan charge.

Like you, I always prefer to sell for the full price up front, but this is another option to offer, time will tell if it increases sales or not.

I've turned Afternic off again now, so it'll only be £ prices, which means I'll have to go through all my domains and lower the prices, as I'd raised all prices due to no longer being able to adjust Afternic $ price to take into account the £ to $ conversion price, that'll also mean probably changing the monthly percentage options I listed above, all fun and games ain't it.

 

[Ben Thomas]

I may be dead in 5 years

We don't get out of here that easily, mate. You'll still be flipping these things when you're 90

On as real note, I understand. I get that lease to buy is shit. Rather cash up front, easy sale. Done. But if you think about 5-10 lease to buy domains coming in per month, it's nice little bit of revenue.

Personally, I've never had any sales on DAN, but my portfolio isn't strong enough.