When you buy a domain, how long do you think you’ll hang onto it before you sell?

time horizon

It’s something many people don’t think of when they buy a domain, but more people should – when do you realistically expect to sell? This question is tied to an equally important question – what do you want to sell it for?

If you look at some of the top Domain Investors, the people who have made millions selling domains (and nope, I’m not one of them), you’ll notice that they have no problem holding onto a domain name for five, ten, even fifteen or more years until the right buyer comes along.

The reality is, if you do have enough time to wait for the perfect buyer, you will get top dollar for a domain, if it ever sells of course. The question is, how long is that and are you comfortable turning down solid offers along the way? I imagine that Rick could have probably sold Porno.com for a few million dollars years before selling it for $8.88M, but waiting for the right buyer likely put an extra $5M or more in his pocket so was it worth the wait…you tell me?

Here’s the challenge. In many cases you can’t spend five-figures on a domain name and wait ten years for it to sell, or maybe it takes twelve years, or longer. You need liquidity in some reasonable amount of time. So you should be thinking about this when you buy a domain and know the trade-offs.

If you buy a domain for $10,000 and want to sell it in two years, maybe selling for $20,000 or $30,000 makes sense. At the same time, if you’re buying a name for $10,000 and hoping to get $250,000 for the name – setting a goal of one to two years might not be realistic. You might need to wait ten, which means you need to decide if you’re actually ready to spend that $10k now.

For me, I don’t buy domains for $10,000, most domains I buy cost less than $500 and I’d expect to sell a domain I buy today within 5 – 10 years from now. If it sells earlier, great, but nothing I’m buying today am I looking at as money I’ll be able to spend in the next five years. I wouldn’t say I’m a long-term investor in this case, but I certainly wouldn’t call myself a flipper.  So here’s the question – when you buy a domain name, what is the typical time horizon you’re looking for when it comes to selling?

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton