I had a deal fall through on GoDaddy this week. To keep it short, a prospective buyer made an offer to buy a domain name via GoDaddy, and I accepted the offer. The domain name was listed for sale on Afternic, and the offer was above the minimum offer amount I set but below the BIN price. I told the broker I would accept the deal if the buyer paid “right away.”

Typically, I have found that buyers pay right away, particularly when they are dealing directly with a GoDaddy broker. For whatever reason, I haven’t had many defaults on GoDaddy domain name sales. I don’t have a significant enough volume of business to suggest this is the case across the board.

By the third day of seeing the domain name in an “on hold” status without the buyer paying, I reached out to GoDaddy to let them know I wanted to cancel the deal if the buyer had not yet paid. At the time I agreed to sell the domain name for the offer, I specifically told the broker that I would agree if the buyer paid “right away,” and three days later does not count as right away for me.

There are a couple of reasons why I stick to this three day rule. I don’t want someone to shop around a special deal to try and flip my name before paying for it. If they re-sell after paying, good for them but not before paying. I wasn’t worried on this particular deal since there isn’t a huge gulf between the BIN price and the accepted price, but I don’t want someone to have the opportunity to try and flip my name before paying for it. The other reason is I don’t like to drag things out and keep having to follow up. I can’t really remember a time when someone took more than 3 days to submit payment.

More often than not, I think the delay is caused by cold feet or disapproval from a partner or manager. They agreed to buy a domain name but then had an issue after the offer was accepted. By time limiting a purchase, I can know if a deal is going through or not. It’s helpful for me to understand my own cashflow to make my own business decisions.

If someone has a valid reason for not paying right away, particularly if they mentioned it at the time of the deal, I can be more lenient. When it comes to simply disappearing and not communicating, three days is my limit.