Escrow, transfer and the week nobody plans for

The mechanics of a clean handover, and the three places deals stall.

Most buyers plan a domain acquisition up to the moment the holder says yes. Then comes a week, sometimes longer, in which the deal is agreed and nothing is yet in your name. That is where good deals quietly go wrong, and we treat it as seriously as the negotiation. We stay through transfer: escrow, registrar, DNS and handover, closed end to end rather than introduced and invoiced.

What a clean handover involves

1. 1Terms are agreed, and only then is your identity yours to disclose, if you choose to.
2. 2Funds go into accredited escrow, so neither side has to trust the other first.
3. 3The holder releases the domain from their registrar to an account in your entity's name.
4. 4DNS and email are configured so the address works from the moment it lands.
5. 5Escrow confirms the transfer and releases the funds, and you receive confirmation of the asset in your account.

The three places deals stall

The first is the gap between yes and funded. A holder who has agreed a number has not yet been paid it, and every day in between is a day for second thoughts. This is where fair dealing pays for itself. A holder who feels cheated finds a reason not to complete. A holder who was paid what the name is honestly worth usually wants it finished as much as you do.

The second is the registrar. A name held for many years can sit in an account nobody has opened in a long time, under an old email address, with settings the owner has forgotten about. None of that is hostile, but it is slow, and a buyer who reads slowness as reluctance can unsettle a willing seller. We keep the holder's side moving and give you a position update after every contact.

The third is the landing. The domain arrives, but in the wrong place: a founder's personal account, an agency's login, or a company that has not been incorporated yet. We register the asset to your entity, in your account and under your control, never parked with us. Where a live business is moving onto the name, DNS continuity matters as much as the transfer itself.

Plan the week before it arrives

The fix for all three is the same. Decide before the negotiation ends where the name will live, who signs for the entity, and who can act quickly on the registrar and DNS side. It takes an afternoon. Skipping it is how a deal that took months to agree starts to drift in the days after everyone thought it was done.