How to buy a name someone already owns

Read the registry's record before you write

Start with the registry's record, which you read through WHOISWHOISThe public record of who registered a domain and when. Most owner contact detail is hidden by privacy rules, but the dates are not.Read the definition. The registry is the company that runs the ending, and it keeps one record per name. That record gives the registrarRegistrarThe company you buy and renew a domain through, such as Namecheap or GoDaddy. It does not own the name, it only registers it for you.Read the definition, the registration day, the expiry day, the status codesStatus codesShort codes the registry puts on a name to say what can and cannot be done with it, like a block on transfers.Read the definition and the name servers, which say where the name points. The holder's details appear only when they are published, and for most names today they are not.

The privacy rules of 2018 hid the holder's details. ICANNICANNThe body that sets the rules for domain names and approves new endings.Read the definition had let registrars mask the record, Andrew Allemann wrote on Domain Name Wire on 27 December 2018, and many now showed only the dates and the name servers.

On .com and .net, the registry's record never carried the holder: those details sit at the registrar. Where a record does show a holder, it is often a privacy servicePrivacy serviceA company whose name stands in the public record in place of a name’s holder. It hides the holder’s contact details and does not own the name.Read the definition. Domains By Proxy, LLC, the name on many records, is GoDaddy's privacy service and not the owner, Elliot Silver explained on DomainInvesting on 5 September 2022.

The record still answers four questions: where the name is registered, since when, when the holder next pays, and whether the name is locked against a move to another registrar. On the website, WHOIS reads the record for one name and puts each status code in plain words. You get one live lookup a day with no account. In Product, the WHOIS page comes with the Investor plan.

The name's own page answers a fifth question. Ads, a for-sale line or an empty page mean that the name is not in use. A business that runs on the name needs it, so expect a no, or a price set by what the name is worth to that business.

Find the listing and set your ceiling

Many held names are listed at a marketplaceMarketplaceA site where owners list domains for sale and buyers make offers, such as Sedo or Afternic.Read the definition such as Afternic or Sedo. When you type such a name into a browser, you may see a for-sale message, according to Allemann's guide of 19 July 2021 on Domain Name Wire. The same 2021 guide says that names good for a business often sell for $1,000 to $5,000.

According to the Global Domain Report 2026 from InterNetX and Sedo, 76% of Sedo's sales were made at a fixed Buy NowBuy nowA listing with a fixed price you can pay at once to get the name.Read the definition price, 8% through a negotiated offer and 56% through partners such as registrars. Sedo's median sale was $818, and its .com median was $595 (Domain Name Wire, 23 March 2026).

In the sales we track, the 12-month median on .com is $810, and the count of those sales is 28,214. Most names sell for $5,000 or less, Allemann added on Domain Name Wire on 1 June 2022, and some sellers take payment over months.

Set your ceiling before you write, from past sales of names like the one you want. In the name's drawer, Est. value is the model's estimate, and Similar sales beside it shows the count and the median of those sales. A listed price is the holder's opening figure, not the last one.

Reach a holder whose details are hidden

When the record gives no contact, four routes remain. Silver listed them on DomainInvesting on 5 September 2022, for a name behind GoDaddy's privacy service: the name's own site, the registrar's contact form, the registrar's own broker, which at GoDaddy costs $69.99 plus 20% of the price, and an independent broker, who may find an older record.

The form depends on the registrar. ICANN's rules make a registrar publish an email address or a web form, as Kevin Murphy wrote on Domain Incite on 27 May 2026. GoDaddy's form offers three fixed subjects, and none of them is an offer.

When nobody answers, Allemann's advice on Domain Name Wire on 2 March 2016 was to use older tools. One holder, who would have ignored an email, was glad of the phone call. In another case, a first-class letter sent after unanswered emails and calls brought a call back within three days, and the name as well.

For the message itself, be straight and to the point, and never lead with being a student on a budget (Silver, DomainInvesting, 31 May 2023). Silver uses a real name and leaves that choice to you. When a company holds the name, write to a large company's counsel or a small one's chief executive. No reply may mean the name is not for sale, or the offer is too low.

A buyer's brokerBuyer’s brokerA person or service paid to approach a name’s holder and negotiate on the buyer’s side, usually for a fee and a share of the price. It can keep the buyer’s identity out of the talks.Read the definition, who negotiates for you, is a route for a price in the tens of thousands, or for when your company must stay unnamed. On its own brokerage page in 2026, Sedo asks a $99 fee plus 20% of the price, and keeps the buyer anonymous. We have no way to contact a holder and we broker nothing, so you write the inquiry yourself.

Who names the first figure, and when

Ask for a price before you give one. The first figure frames everything after it. A holder who hears your budget has heard your price, and a holder who hears your company's name prices the name for that company. Silver, writing on 31 May 2023, prefers to open with a reasonable offer, since an uneducated offer is often ignored.

Timing counts too. The last week of the year is a good week for a founder to lock in a name, Silver wrote on DomainInvesting on 26 December 2023: investors are quiet, and some want one more deal inside the year. On 16 December 2021 Silver had noted a limit: a higher-value deal that needs several approvals rarely closes in that week, so start earlier.

The expiry date in the record is the day of the holder's next bill, and a bill is a reason to answer. If you do not need the name now, patience helps. A seller wanted $20,000 and took $3,000 a couple of years later, needing cash, as Allemann, then an investor, told it on Domain Name Wire on 2 March 2016.

Buy before you are known. A buyer's broker may hide who the buyer is, so that the holder does not price the name for a large company (Silver, DomainInvesting, 29 July 2022). The reverse came on Domain Incite on 14 November 2024: days after writing that eBay's new slogan pointed at people.love, Murphy reported that the $75,000 buy-now price was gone and that only a brokered deal seemed to remain.

Never threaten, and close through escrow

A threat is the one move that turns a slow purchase into a lost one. When a buyer implies legal action, Elliot Silver ends the friendly discussion and hands the matter to counsel, and that cost will most likely be added to the price (DomainInvesting, 10 May 2017). Silver assumes that every threat will be carried out.

The filing that follows a failed purchase has a name: reverse domain name hijackingReverse domain name hijackingA panel’s finding that a dispute complaint over a name was filed in bad faith, for example after the complainant failed to buy the name.Read the definition, a complaint filed in bad faith. Allemann reported 86 such findings in 2025, against 56 in 2024 (Domain Name Wire, 6 January 2026). The first of two reasons given for the rise was companies turning to the UDRPUDRPThe usual procedure for a trademark owner to claim a domain that copies their mark.Read the definition, the dispute procedure for trademark claimsTrademark claimsA period after launch when anyone registering a trademarked word sees a warning first.Read the definition, after failing to buy. Such findings remain a small minority of decisions.

If you believe you hold a trademarkTrademarkA registered right over a name inside one line of business. Owning a domain gives you no trademark, and a domain can collide with somebody else’s.Read the definition older than the name, that is a question for a lawyer, to be asked before any message to the holder. Nothing in this chapter says what a claim is worth.

Close through escrowEscrowA neutral third party that holds the buyer’s money and the domain until both sides have done their part, then completes the swap. It is how large domain sales avoid either side going first.Read the definition: a neutral service holds your money until the name is in your account, then pays the holder. Allemann's guide of 19 July 2021 suggests using one for a purchase outside a marketplace. On Escrow.com's fee page in 2026, a purchase up to $5,000 pays 2.6% with a $50 minimum, and one up to $50,000 pays 2.4%. The lessons on escrow and on instalments take it from there.

Before you write to a holder

• Look the name up in WHOIS for its registrar, its registration date, its expiry date and its status codes.
• Open the name in a browser and see whether it shows ads, a for-sale line, a redirect or a business in use.
• Find the listing and its price, then read Est. value and Similar sales in the drawer.
• Write your ceiling down before you send the first message.
• Write from an address with no company name in it, and ask for a price without giving one.
• After two weeks of silence, take the next route: a form, a call, a letter or a broker.
• Never put a trademark, a lawyer or a dispute in a message to a holder.
• Close through escrow, never by paying a holder directly.