Hire a broker

What a broker does that a listing does not

A broker is a person or firm that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. The distinction that matters here is between passive and active representation. A marketplace listing waits: it sits there, indexed and priced, until someone who wants your domain happens to find it. A broker goes looking. They build a list of businesses for whom your name is strategically valuable, work out who controls the budget, make the approach, and negotiate.

That difference is the entire product. Most domains that sell for serious money do not sell to somebody who typed the name into a browser; they sell to a company that had not seriously considered buying until a credible professional explained why they should. Media Options frames the value as network plus negotiation, and Saw.com claims brokers achieve a "lower purchase price on average" for buyers through an "extensive industry contact network."

On the buy side there is a second product: anonymity. Grit Brokerage describes its service as a "stealth acquisition service where we reach out to a domain owner on your behalf" (Grit Brokerage). If a large company emails a domain owner directly, the price moves before the conversation starts. A broker strips the identity signal out of the approach, and that is most of what the commission buys.

What brokers charge, on published rates

Fee structures are more transparent in this corner of the industry than most people expect, though the transparency is uneven. The figures below are as published by each firm in 2026.

Media Options publishes "15% of the final sale price, with a $1,000 minimum" and no upfront cost — "you pay nothing unless we are successful." Saw.com operates the most detailed published fee schedule in the industry, with a self-service tier at "9% of the purchase price or $75.00 whichever is higher," a premium tier at "15% of the sale price or $250.00 whichever is higher," and separate payment-plan minimums. VPN.com publishes a "standard commission of 15% of the transaction price (minimum $5,000), due at closing through Escrow.com." Sedo charges 15% for seller brokerage and $99 plus 20% for buyer brokerage, with a further 2.5% for a privacy waiver, all set out in its price list.

GoDaddy's Domain Broker Service is structurally different: it is a buyer-side product that charges upfront. Secondary reporting puts it at $119.99 non-refundable plus 20% commission, with a 30-day negotiation window after which the upfront fee is forfeited if no deal closes. That fee doubled from roughly $69.99 in May 2024, and GoDaddy's own broker page publishes no pricing at all — the figures come from Name Experts and community reporting rather than a primary source, so confirm them before you buy.

Minimums matter more than percentages

Fifteen percent is the market standard: Media Options, Saw.com's premium tier, VPN.com and Sedo's sell-side all publish exactly that number, and Media Options' own buyer's guide puts the industry range at "typically 15–20%." Comparing firms on the percentage alone, though, misses where the money actually goes on small and mid-size deals.

Work the arithmetic. VPN.com's $5,000 minimum commission means a $10,000 sale costs you half the proceeds. Media Options' $1,000 minimum means a $3,000 domain gives up a third. Saw.com's $75 self-service minimum is the only structure among the firms verified here that makes sense on genuinely small names. The percentage is what you notice; the minimum is what you pay.

One piece of good news: no brokerage verified here charges a retainer. Media Options, Saw.com, VPN.com and Sedo's sell-side all publish success-only models — no fee unless the domain sells. GoDaddy's $119.99 is an upfront service fee rather than a retainer, but it is non-refundable, which puts the buyer in functionally the same position.

There is also no norm on which side is cheaper. Buy-side costs less than sell-side at Media Options (10% against 15%), more at Sedo (20% against 15%), and more again at GoDaddy. Check the direction of your transaction against the specific firm's schedule rather than assuming.

How much does the domain need to be worth?

Media Options publishes the only such threshold available from a named firm, in its own 2026 guide. It is self-interested advice, and it is also more conservative than you might expect from a firm selling brokerage:

• Below roughly $10,000 to $25,000 — may not warrant broker services at all.
• $25,000 to $250,000 — worth considering, especially for brandable names.
• Above $250,000, or a one-word .com — strongly consider professional representation.

The independent arithmetic supports it. Against a $5,000 minimum at one firm and $1,000 at another, a domain below about $10,000 hands over an irrational share of the proceeds. Below that threshold, list it on the marketplaces, configure the nameservers correctly and keep the 15% to 20% for yourself.

The same guide makes a point worth carrying: "lower commission does not equal better outcome." Choosing a broker on price alone is identified there as a red flag in itself, which is self-serving but not wrong — an extra five points of commission is cheap against a broker who reaches a buyer nobody else would have found.

How outbound brokerage actually runs, and what the success claims are worth

Media Options publishes its buy-side process as a five-step "Strategic Strike Method": identify the domain, determine a value range, research the owner, negotiate terms, transfer. Sell-side outbound inverts it — build a list of businesses for whom the name is strategically valuable, identify the decision-makers, approach with a credible pitch, and run parallel conversations to create competitive tension. Media Options gives a typical acquisition timeline of "2-8 weeks."

Success rates are where you should be most sceptical. Media Options claims it sells "on average, 80% of the names we take." Read that sentence carefully: it is self-reported, unaudited, and conditional on which names the firm agrees to take on. A brokerage that accepts a small fraction of submissions and sells 80% of those has a very different real-world hit rate than the headline implies. Saw.com and Grit Brokerage publish no success rate at all.

No independent, third-party measurement of domain brokerage success rates exists in any verifiable source. Any industry-wide percentage you are quoted is an estimate, including the ones that sound precise.

Red flags, and the scams that wear a broker's clothes

The single most documented fraud in this industry targets sellers who think they have found a buyer. Someone claims a buyer will pay a substantial sum, then insists you first obtain an appraisal certificate from a specific named service — typically justified by a claim that the buyer's bank requires it. You pay the appraisal fee and the buyer evaporates. Andrew Allemann documented it in detail in December 2015, naming several fake certification agencies and noting that scammers impersonate real registrars and hosting companies using spoofed email addresses. It is catalogued alongside domain slamming and auction fraud in Wikipedia's article on domain name scams, which carries a documented history of regulatory enforcement.

Never pay an appraisal fee at a buyer's or broker's request. Not once, not for any reason.

The other patterns to refuse:

• Any upfront fee framed as a listing fee. Every legitimate brokerage verified here works on success only. GoDaddy's non-refundable service fee is disclosed and legitimate, but it is a genuinely unfavourable structure and should be recognised as one.
• A buyer who insists on an unfamiliar escrow service. Check the escrow site's own domain registration date, call the phone number, and remember that real escrow companies request bank wires with account and routing numbers, never person-to-person transfers.
• Unsolicited "we have a buyer ready" emails. Doctored offer emails and shill bidding are documented auction-scam patterns. A broker who contacts you first with an offer in hand is a red flag, not an opportunity.
• A brokerage that will not state its fees. Grit Brokerage and GoDaddy's broker page both publish nothing, which is not itself evidence of bad faith for established firms — but get the number, the minimum and the exclusivity period in writing before you sign anything.

When hiring a broker is the right call

Brokerage earns its commission when the name is valuable, the buyer set is small and identifiable, and the approach needs to be credible. That means a domain worth $25,000 or more, a one-word .com or an obvious category name, and a handful of companies for whom owning it would be strategically meaningful.

It is also the right call on the buy side whenever your identity would move the price — which is nearly always, if you are a funded company or a recognisable brand. And it is the right call for anyone who simply does not want to negotiate. The effort you spend is close to zero, because delegation is the product, and a broker manufactures inquiries that would never have existed otherwise.

When it is the wrong call

Hiring a broker is wrong for cheap domains, and the arithmetic is not close. On a $3,000 name, a $1,000 minimum commission is a third of the sale and a $5,000 minimum exceeds the sale price entirely. Anything under roughly $10,000 should go on the marketplaces with correct nameserver configuration, where you keep the difference.

It is wrong when there is no realistic end-user set. A broker cannot manufacture demand for a name that no business wants — outbound only works if there is somebody credible to send it to, and a good brokerage will decline the mandate rather than tell you that. It is wrong if you are unwilling to take the domain off public listings while the broker works, because a live Buy It Now price undermines the negotiation they are running. And it is wrong when the "broker" contacted you first with an unsolicited offer.

The recurring mistakes follow the same pattern. Hiring a broker for a domain worth less than the minimum commission. Not getting the commission, minimum and exclusivity period in writing. Leaving a public listing live during an engagement. Treating a self-reported success rate as a market statistic. Paying GoDaddy's upfront fee without registering that it is non-refundable and the window is 30 days. Choosing purely on the commission percentage. Failing to check whether the buy-side fee at a given firm is higher than its sell-side fee, which at Sedo and GoDaddy it is. And paying an appraisal fee at anyone's request, ever.

Frequently asked questions