GoDaddy Broker - Respond or Not? (1 Viewing)

MapleDots

MapleDots

MapleDots.ca
Community Guide
Joined
Nov 4, 2020
Topics
1,242
Posts
6,005
Likes
5,330
From
Waterloo, ON
Country flag
https://twitter.com/x/status/1679195344075096066


I've had a couple of theses myself so I'll give my two cents.


First, none of my domains are on the godaddy network so anything brokered is bonus to me because the commission is paid by the buyer.

Second, it's a crazy low offer but the person spent almost $100 after taxes (if currency conversion is involved) so they have to be at least interested in establishing a dialogue.

Third, since GoDaddy is doing all the work just quote a price and let them handle it. It's not like it's costing you any time or effort to simply quote a number.

Fourth, if you get 10 of these and one turns out to be real you're laughing all the way to the bank (assuming you get asking or near asking price).



@DataCube - thank you for tweeting (y)
 
Last edited:
I did respond to the broker out of courtesy, but not with an asking price.

I am not all that interested in pricing a domain in response to a lowball anchor point.

I basically just said I am not interested, and if the buyer is willing to make a serious offer I will consider it.

Serious buyers tend to come back with serious offers.

I have dealt with GoDaddy brokers countless times. They know I am not going to entertain a $50 offer.

I just sold a similar, but probably worse, domain today for close to $6K.

Just for reference, this domain sold for $500+ at GoDaddy expired auction and I was willing to go much higher to win it.

I have sold comparable domains for numbers well into (5) figures.

Brad
 
Last edited:
Min bid offers are coming in like mad and it seems that researching and pricing domains is all I do every night - unfortunately none of them have turned into sales.

I have come to understand that these are just hobos running around with spare change in their pockets, looking to steal domains. Due to this, I plan on ignoring any offer less than 4-figures for a period 30 days.

Serious buyers will up their bids, while the low-balling crumb bums will just fade away.
 
On that note, I just got a $500 offer and price request from Afternic when my minimum bid on that domain is $2K. :rolleyes:

Like I said on NP, exactly what purpose does the "minimum bid" serve at Afternic? Is it a user "make work" project?
 
A brokerage platform or process that allows buyers to have ridiculously low offers placed in front of domain owners is a flawed platform IMHO. Part of what a professional broker should be doing is educating the buyer client about realistic budgets for premium domains, which clearly did not happen here. Then again, for $69 "brokerage" help, you get what you pay for... ;+)
 
MaiTaiMan said:
A brokerage platform or process that allows buyers to have ridiculously low offers placed in front of domain owners is a flawed platform IMHO. Part of what a professional broker should be doing is educating the buyer client about realistic budgets for premium domains, which clearly did not happen here. Then again, for $69 "brokerage" help, you get what you pay for... ;+)
Click to expand...

That's a good point, but, probably a bit unfair too because they are two completely different models that are geared towards two completely different audiences. I'm usually the last one to defend GoDaddy, but there are probably a LOT of broker inquiries coming in for domains that a specialty broker can't really justify working on based on a commission alone, and thus need to charge an engagement fee to justify it.

If you're a broker that only works on at least mid-5 and 6+ figure domains, then you get the choice to turn down or accept individual cases.

But obviously many inquiries are from people with a small budgets so that model would never work, and these people would then go unserviced. With GoDaddy's market dominance, I can only imagine that they must collect $69 every minute of the day offering this service.

It's kind of like a payday loan. Everyone's horrified to see that interest rates are supposedly so high, but no bank wants to serve those people either. And the interest rates are actually not that high, its the initial effort, like the application fees and background checks that end up being a big chunk of the expense, and clearly those things require time & effort & costs that need to be recouped.

So in both cases, you've got small time people that no one wants to serve. Asking that $69 engagement fee seems, in all honesty, pretty reasonable - assuming you get a knowledgeable broker. Even if it is as simple as having the broker set some reasonable expectations, that's a $69 lesson that is probably worth it to the buyer.

@jamesiles - Just how many brokers work under the GoDaddy network? I'm always surprised how many different names I get emailing me from GoDaddy. Not sure if that's due to turnover? Or just a large number of brokers.

@MaiTaiMan - Just out of curiosity, do you ever charge any engagement fee if the domain is too low in value to justify working on? Or a flat fee? Or do you just turn them down?
 
Last edited:
rlm said:
That's a good point, but, probably a bit unfair too because they are two completely different models that are geared towards two completely different audiences. I'm usually the last one to defend GoDaddy, but there are probably a LOT of broker inquiries coming in for domains that a specialty broker can't really justify working on based on a commission alone, and thus need to charge an engagement fee to justify it.

If you're a broker that only works on at least mid-5 and 6+ figure domains, then you get the choice to turn down or accept individual cases.

But obviously many inquiries are from people with a small budgets so that model would never work, and these people would then go unserviced. With GoDaddy's market dominance, I can only imagine that they must collect $69 every minute of the day offering this service.

It's kind of like a payday loan. Everyone's horrified to see that interest rates are supposedly so high, but no bank wants to serve those people either. And the interest rates are actually not that high, its the initial effort, like the application fees and background checks that end up being a big chunk of the expense, and clearly those things require time & effort & costs that need to be recouped.

So in both cases, you've got small time people that no one wants to serve. Asking that $69 engagement fee seems, in all honesty, pretty reasonable - assuming you get a knowledgeable broker. Even if it is as simple as having the broker set some reasonable expectations, that's a $69 lesson that is probably worth it to the buyer.

@jamesiles - Just how many brokers work under the GoDaddy network? I'm always surprised how many different names I get emailing me from GoDaddy. Not sure of that's due to turnover? Or just a large number of brokers.

@MaiTaiMan - Just out of curiosity, do you ever charge any engagement fee if the domain is too low in value to justify working on? Or a flat fee? Or do you just turn them down?
Click to expand...
I don't blame the broker for presenting the offer. It was not like there was some sales pitch about how $50 was a great offer.

Dealing with many of these brokers in the past I know the experience level varies greatly.

In most cases, the broker will at least try to educate the buyer somewhat. In this case, that is what makes me even more unwilling to ask a price.

It is unlikely the buyer just said $50 and the broker was like "Sure". There was likely some education that the buyer just ignored.

I am not that interested in chasing lowball offers. In my experience it is a waste of time, and serious buyers will come back with serious offers.

1689371329667.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: rlm
rlm said:
That's a good point, but, probably a bit unfair too because they are two completely different models that are geared towards two completely different audiences. I'm usually the last one to defend GoDaddy, but there are probably a LOT of broker inquiries coming in for domains that a specialty broker can't really justify working on based on a commission alone, and thus need to charge an engagement fee to justify it.
Click to expand...
I don't mean to pick on GoDaddy; they are a great partner. But ... one would think a large, tech-sophisticated company could/would leverage AI to help these buyers understand what a realistic offer would be; doesn't have to be a human broker educating the buyer, a lot of the educational stuff could be automated. GoDaddy does, after all, have its own automated appraisal tool! Letting buyers present lowball offers, which of course get ignored/rejected, is not a good user experience for the buyer. Those frustrated buyers then walk away with a bad impression of GoDaddy and/or its brokers, precisely because they haven't been educated on why their offer(s) were not realistic.

rlm said:
@MaiTaiMan - Just out of curiosity, do you ever charge any engagement fee if the domain is too low in value to justify working on? Or a flat fee? Or do you just turn them down?
Click to expand...
Every case is different, and I hate turning away people and gigs, but we are brutally frank with people if we think their budgets are unrealistically low. We will sometimes take on low budget projects, even do them pro bono for the right people/organizations (non-profits, etc.), but most of the time we turn them down and/or refer them away (sometimes to GoDaddy, ironically). When we turn them down, we still try to educate or help them in some way, give them some tips, and/or show the buyer how and where they can buy the domain on payment plan. We also turn away anyone who, during our vetting process, we think will be a P.I.T.A. to work with, those are the know-it-all types, the really arrogant or stubborn or downright rude folks, the folks that don't listen to our advice and aren't respectful. Sayonara!
 
MaiTaiMan said:
I don't mean to pick on GoDaddy; they are a great partner. But ... one would think a large, tech-sophisticated company could/would leverage AI to help these buyers understand what a realistic offer would be; doesn't have to be a human broker educating the buyer, a lot of the educational stuff could be automated. GoDaddy does, after all, have its own automated appraisal tool! Letting buyers present lowball offers, which of course get ignored/rejected, is not a good user experience for the buyer. Those frustrated buyers then walk away with a bad impression of GoDaddy and/or its brokers, precisely because they haven't been educated on why their offer(s) were not realistic.
Click to expand...

Yes, they could automate some things, but if you convince a buyer that a domain can be automatically valued, then the buyer thinks you're crazy if you're asking 10x their valuation. I hope the broker doesn't start off by giving their automated valuation to the buyer. The reality is, those tools are more miss than hit, and the godaddy one does woefully bad at higher value domains. I just did a quick check on the last 4 .ca domains sold and they averaged 10.3x godaddy's valuation pretax. So thanks but no thanks, I really don't need that kind of help.

And does the customer even blame GoDaddy when they fail to acquire the domain through the broker service? I'd guess most of those people blame the seller for what they think is an unrealistic price, not GoDaddy for not tempering their expectations.

Here's a good example. Buyer places a $5K offer on a bodis lander which had a $5K minimum offer requirement. The GoDaddy valuation was just a touch under $5K - so in his mind, this was corroborating information, this domain was independently valued near $5K and had a minimum offer of $5K, so he thought he could buy it for $5K or at least very close. So he was upset when I told him the domain was more like 15x that valuation and he felt like he was bait-and-switched, and he was upset. Upset with the seller though, not GoDaddy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors who contribute to keep dn.ca free for everyone.

Sponsor
CanSpace
CatchDrop
CIRA
FullHost
WHC
Donors (6)

Sponsors who contribute to keep dn.ca free.

Members who recently read this topic: 26

Back