In all candor, we would like to think everyone has a good heart and wants to be honorable when selling their website, unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. And sometimes an anxious buyer may be burning with excitement to make a deal but not realize that they may be getting themselves in over their head. Below are a few tips to help you evaluate a website seller.
- Consider using a marketplace where sellers are rated based on their past transactions. For example, on eBay, every seller has a “feedback rating.” The higher the rating, typically the more trustworthy they become. Other marketplaces such as EmpireFlippers.com, Flippa.com, etc offer a similar rating system. EmpireFlippers is even better because it offers vetted websites.
- In marketplaces where prospective buyers can ask the seller questions, notice the responses. Is the seller answering a direct question or avoiding a specific question altogether. Are the answers one or two words or does the seller respond with thorough answers?
- You may want to avoid a seller from another country. My comment may come off as being cruel or intolerable but I make that from a legal standpoint. Should you have a dispute with a seller and they live in another country, it can make it more legally challenging should a problem arise. That doesn’t mean that everyone from a foreign country is a scammer but you should be more cautious when dealing with someone who is not from your own country.
- Ask for every kind of data you can get your hands-on and try to draw a conclusion based on that. If the seller is providing all that without much fuss, chances are he doesn’t have anything to hide. If your conclusions from the data and evaluation of the seller don’t match, it is better to not proceed.
You are buying into relations, not businesses
Anonymous
I don’t remember where I read this quote but nothing explains it better than this. If you want to stay away from scams, then the easiest way to find out is to look for the information about the seller. If the seller has integrity and people vouch for him or her then the chances of you getting scammed reduce significantly.
Finally, you should not trust anyone but yourself because at last, it will be you who is going to be responsible for whatever you’ve purchased. So don’t rush. Try to get answers to as many questions as you can.