How do you buy a domain already in use?

Question

I've seen some good domain names that are registered already, but there is no webpage, just a holder. Some have been registered for a while
I tried Snapnames, but it seems the owners renew before the domain expires.
Should I just email the owner? Then how do we make the exchange if they agree? How do I know how much to offer?

Answer 1

Use web sites like www.whois.net to find out who owns the domain name.

If the domain is listed as "Private" chances are they are not interested in selling.

Otherwise, definitely email or call the owner to see if they are willing to sell. From the registration you can tell how long they have the domain name, so you can estimate how much they have invested in keeping the domain name thus far. It is safe to guess that they wouldn't want to give it up without recovering their cost. Your estimate of their cost would be the starting price, but how much you are willing to go up is all up to you.

The transfer is easy. The time I did, I give the new owner's information to my current hosting provider. Once the registra information is changed, the new owner is free to move it to another hosting or registra service provider. It took less than a week.

The tricky part is that you have to trust the current owner will make the switch once you give him/her the money. You might do the transaction via PayPal so that at least you have some protection and could recover the money from your credit card company if something goes wrong.

Answer 2

You have to buy it off the current owner. So, yes you can contact them. As to how much to offer, that depends. If it is a good, easy to remember name, they probably registered it for resale. I would start by asking if it is for sale, and what they might sell it for. They will give you a higher than they will take answer and you can go from there.

FYI: It is also possible that the domain was registered for internal use. It is useful to have a registered name if you have people that need to access your server and a web page is not the only service that they might need to access.