Do you respond to all offers on your domains or is there a magic number someone has to hit to get a response?

One thing you learn pretty quickly as a domain investor is that most of the inbound offers you get are for a lot less than you’d be willing to accept. The reality is, most people have no idea how much domain names sell for so they really have no concept of what a “reasonable” offer actually is.

A few years ago I brokered the $850,000 sale of a 2L .COM. The sale went to someone who made an inbound offer that started at $500,000 and went up from there. What I thought was so interesting (and still find interesting) is that over the course of the time I was fielding inbounds, I’d say the average offer price I got was $500. When I would respond and tell people that we’re only accepting offers in the high six-figure range…well let’s just say I got some interesting responses.

For me personally, I understand that there is a disconnect. Unlike real estate where people have a pretty clear understanding of how to estimate price, the domain name world is a mysterious and mercurial place to most people. I’m a big fan of treating other people how I’d like to be treated which means, no matter how low an offer is, I usually respond.

At the same time, I’m not getting hundreds of inbound inquiries a day so for me, responding to every inbound I get isn’t a huge time sync. I know some people who have thousands or tens of thousands of domains and for them it’s just not realistic to respond to every offer, so they need to have some kind of cut off.

Then there are people who don’t get too many inbounds but just find themselves getting offended by low offers so they either don’t respond or they respond with a mean email back. I always think that sending any negative email back to a potential buyer is a bad move since you never really know what someone’s true budget is. I’ve heard of people starting with a $500 offer and ending with a $50,000 sale so the reality is – anything is possible.

At the same time, like I said above, I like to treat people how I would like to be treated so it’s just not in my nature to send a nasty email back to someone that puts a low-ball offer in on one of my names. I’d rather try to help them understand more about the value of domain names and what an incredible asset they can be. I often refer people to places like DNJournal and NameBio so they can see examples of what similar domains are selling for and get a feel for true market values.

But that’s just me.

Now is where you come in. When you get an inbound offer on your domains, is there a bar you set where if the offer is below a certain number you just don’t respond? I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton