A Quick Primer on Online Escrow Services

By | February 29, 2012

At WebsiteBroker.com, we work hard to make sure that the purchases you make are trustworthy and secure. But that doesn’t mean you should consider the issue out of your hands. Instead, you should try to use online services to help ensure a safe and secure transaction when you buy or sell a domain – and one of the most reliable ways to ensure a protected transaction is to use an escrow service.

What exactly is an escrow service? Though we recommend you use them in your sales or purchases, it’s worth taking the time to explore them further. That’s why we’ve prepared this quick primer on using online escrow services for the buying and selling of sites here at WebsiteBroker.com.

First, it’s important that you understand how the basic concept of escrow works. Many people are familiar with it, but it’s worth rehashing here briefly. Essentially, an escrow account is a separate account between the buyer and seller. The buyer puts the full purchase price in this account so that the seller knows that money has been committed, but the money is not released from the escrow to the seller until the buyer is happy that each of the steps has been fulfilled.

Essentially, an escrow service is a great way to ensure a transaction goes off smoothly between two people who are new to each other and aren’t quite sure if they’re ready to trust each other yet.

Next, you’ll want to recognize how you can use escrow services when dealing with Internet purchases. Essentially, your choices are limited to the platforms you can find. Services like Escrow.com can be used to set up an escrow account for a large purchase, but sellers should be wary of large transaction fees that dip into the amount of money they’re receiving from these escrow payments. Other online payment fulfillment services might also have escrow features; don’t commit to any one service until you’re sure about how their escrow service works.

Eventually you’ll want to make the commitment of purchasing or selling a website domain through a buyer or seller you found at WebsiteBroker.com. This is good news! But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be protective of your property or your money; simply contact the buyer or seller and ask them if they’re comfortable using an escrow service for the completion of the transaction. If not, simply re-state your request and let them know how it works; chances are they may actually be convinced when they hear how secure these transactions can be.

There’s more to the story of using online escrow services, of course, but this brief primer should give you a basic idea of what it’s like to buy or sell a website using an escrow feature online. We encourage you to do more independent research so that there are no surprises along the way; eventually, you’ll find a service that you can reliably use every time you make a purchase or sale here at WebsiteBroker.com.