Grit Brokerage Discusses Recent Domain Sales as of Q1 2026

Grit Brokerage Domain Brokers Brian Harbin and Michael Law discuss recent sales including domains like Path.com, Wisdom.com, Canary.com, Glex.com, EmmaStone.com, CashForHouses.com, Daytona.com, and many more which helped them achieve Escrow.com Masters of Domains award for the 4th time in just 5 years. Each domain sale has an interesting teachable moment so there is much to learn from this episode. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNk88aAWuPI

Brian Harbin: Hello, my name is Brian Harbin. Welcome to the Grit.org podcast! 

Today we are talking about domain names. So I've got myself and Michael Law here. Michael, welcome to the show!

Michael Law: Hey Brian, good to be back! Glad to be on with you. And yeah, it's crazy that it's already almost May this year. This year's flying by.

Brian Harbin: Yes, fast start to the year so far for sure. And so yeah, just wanted to get back on here and talk about some of the transactions and deals that we've done over the last 6 months since we did our podcast. And so first off, before we dive in, wanted to give a shout out to escrow.com, today's sponsor, the world's most secure payment method for online transactions. 

So whether your transaction is $100 or $100 million, escrow.com makes buying and selling online safe, secure, and trusted. So you can rest assured your transaction for a motor vehicle, electronic equipment, business domain name, or anything sniffing you is protected. So visit escrow.com today to learn more about how you can transact with confidence. 

So, Michael, yeah, just give everybody a little background on yourself and rundown before we dive in.

Michael Law: Sure. So, well, I've been in the domain business for, you know, almost 20 years now, but Brian and I have been brokering domains together for about 7 years. And it's been going great. You know, myself, I'm here in western Nebraska. This year has been a bit of a challenge out here just for, you know, people in the state. We just dealt with a huge wildfire and luckily, you know, no densely populated areas were affected, but over 600,000 acres of basically pastureland burned within a week and ran through 4 counties. 

So we've been doing a lot to try and support the firefighters here, doing some volunteering. I'm involved in the Rotary Club here. And so we do quite a bit to volunteer and try and support those efforts and other things in the community. It's just been so dry here in Colorado. I know I went snowboarding a few weeks ago and the mountains are hurting as well. So there's gonna be drought conditions most likely this year. 

And yeah, so hopefully we can kind of get through that and get some moisture and lots of rain in the spring. Other than that, you know, things are going well. Domains are selling, you know, we've been busy. Life is good. You know, family, friends, doing quite a bit. Springtime, I'm going to be doing quite a bit more fishing and some hiking and things like that. Got a road trip planned in a couple of weeks. So yeah, it's good to be back here though and chatting with you and talking domains.

Brian Harbin: That's right. And you guys got a lot of summer lake activity going on around you, so it'll be fun.

Michael Law: Yeah, absolutely.

Brian Harbin: Yeah. And so for those of you that don't know a little bit about my history, so this is my 12th year brokering domain names. Really, really just originally drawn to the industry for just the intrigue of domain names and then just really being able to work from home and that flexibility and You know, fast forward now, 12 years later, our oldest son is going off to college in the fall. Got to go to the Masters last weekend with him and see Rory get his back-to-back win. And our middle son is navigating being 13 and trying out new sports. And then, you know, still continuing to coach our youngest son who's 10. And I think I'm on 60 different sports teams that I've coached over the years. 

So typically, if I'm not brokering domain names, then I'm on a sports field somewhere. But my wife and I celebrated 20 years of marriage last year. And so yeah, before we dive into... I wanted to mentioned escrow.com at the beginning. So, you know, Grip Brokerage, we recently got the Masters of Domains, which is the top 10 brokerages that do the most amount of volume through escrow.com. They do about half a billion dollars per year in domain transactions. 

So, and for us, we were excited about it. It was our fourth time in the last 5 years that we've been on that top 10 list. So, just wanted to give a quick shout out to our team. There's 8 of us here at Grit Brokerage. As Michael mentioned, we've been working together now for about 6 and a half years. Sabrina, she's been a researcher with us now for 6 years. Cath is in her 5th year and she does research and outbound. 

Maureen is our acquisition specialist and she's been with us for over 5 years now and she's got a couple decades of experience in the industry. Teresa, she's also a research and admin in her 4th year. And then Tess Diaz, in her 3rd year, she's a strategist with us and she's also got a couple decades of experience in the industry. So, you know, for us, we specialize in doing outbound sales and stealth domain acquisitions. 

And our big thing is consistency, you know, not just in the tenure and experience of the brokers and the folks that work with us, but just in our communication, follow-up, and our monthly newsletter now that's been going out every single month for over 6 years and running. And this is our 80th podcast episode. So just consistency and one of the things that's interesting about the Masters of Domains list is they don't show the amount of transactions that each of the top 10 folks have. And sometimes, you know, to be in that top 10, one 8-figure sale can essentially put someone in there. 

And so one of the things that I think we take a lot of pride in is just the consistency, because I think to be consistently doing domain transactions over a period of time, you just have to have that volume because you can't always count on those 8-figure deals each year. And really the way that escrow does it is that if you do a deal with another broker, you essentially get half the credit. So if it's a $500,000 domain sale, then we would get $250,000 credit towards escrow Masters of Domains. And then if you do a lease-to-own, you get credit for any funds that were collected that year. So that's kind of the way they do it.

And so last year just was going through some numbers and we did over 250 individual transactions. So definitely a lot of volume going through escrow.com. And then we typically have about 12 to 15 different domain name holding agreements where, you know, buyers doing monthly payments over typically a span of 1 to 3 years. So there's... and then of course, there's a lot of business we do outside of escrow.com just based on, you know, the seller, the buyer, depending on the situation. Like we just did a pretty decent-sized 6-figure deal through escrow.domains. 

And there's some other platforms that we transact through as well. But just a little bit of a bird's eye view on how they do that. And so Michael and I, what we're doing today is we're going to kind of go back through the last 6 months and each of us have kind of picked out some domains that we brokered and then why they were kind of specifically meaningful or any teachable moments from each of those. 

So, you know, we're not necessarily going to share the exact details of who the buyer was, what the price was paid, but just more so something notable that listeners could take away. So, Michael, what's the first one you have on your list?

Michael Law: Sure. Let's see. So I had earmarked this one. The domain is herringbone.com, and this was a pretty interesting deal. It was an outbound sale. We pitched the domain to quite a few different buyers, and ultimately the buyer that bought it, their first reply was... and this closed out not too long ago, but their first reply was in December, so the deal took a little while. They started out, they were asking some details about the domain. I provided price and payment options and things like that. 

And then they had a board meeting in January. I'd been keeping in touch with... it was basically the chief operating officer of the company over text and phone, but they didn't come out with an offer until kind of late February. We were already 3 months in and their offer was low, but it was significant. It was kind of in the range. And so there was a good chance of getting a deal there. But their offer also was attached with... they wanted 30 days to do due diligence. 

And at this point, we were already 3 months into the negotiation. And so we're just kind of like, that's kind of a long time already. So we gave a little pushback on that and we were actually able to get it into escrow and closed out about 2 weeks after the offer, after the final negotiation settled, final number was in. And that was a huge upgrade for that buyer. They were previously using a 2-word domain and now they just have the one clean herringbone.com moving forward. So, you know, a big win for our client, big win for the buyer with a clean one-word domain. Yeah.

Brian Harbin: And I love that brand too. Anybody that's, you know, done renovations or house knows that, you know, herringbone wood is a style of doing tile or flooring or brick. And so I think it's just a classic name and a brand. So excited to see how they continue to use that.

Michael Law: So one of the things that was pretty cool because there was so many different types of buyers for that name too. And so, you know, the one that ultimately bought it is like a digital company. So pretty neat to see actually who comes out of the woodwork and shows the most interest.

Brian Harbin: Exactly. And their logo, you know, it's simple for a logo as well. So one I wanted to mention was path.com, P-A-T-H.com. And so this was one that we sold in just under 6 months. And what was notable about this sale was that we had a buyer that we'd gone back and forth with, got them up to a price that they were happy with, the seller was happy with, but it was pending on a signed purchase agreement. So, and purchase agreements aren't necessary for domains. I'd say maybe 10% of them, you know, there's a purchase agreement. So we've got a simple one-pager that we use for those. 

And so I sent this over to the buyer. And they sent it back to me and it's now 7 pages after all the red lines. So they turned a 1-page purchase agreement into 7 pages. And it was already Friday afternoon as it says the weekend for, you know, the seller. He's like, all right, we'll get back to you early next week. 

Well, in that time period over the weekend, another offer came in that was higher. And I said, well, we've got another buyer, but if you can fund it first thing Monday morning, then we can do the deal. And sure enough, funds were at escrow first thing Monday morning and we closed the deal with them and that first buyer ended up missing out. 

So I think the teachable moment there is that sometimes I think, you know, people get caught up on the purchase agreement where if you really look at the purchase agreement, you know, 99% of it is going to be irrelevant once the escrow transaction is done which going through escrow.com, everything's pretty straightforward as it is. And even sometimes like seller's disclosures about, you know, if there's any pending issues with it, all that stuff is public information. So even just doing a search or a quick due diligence can help satisfy that. 

So I think it's unfortunate, you know, when people lose out like that. At the same time, I think being able to transact quickly and make things simple can get the deal done the majority of the time. So that was a teachable moment from Path.com. What's up next for you?

Michael Law: Yeah, that Path deal was great. I mean, a big sale. And like you said, if you drag your feet, you're at risk of losing the domain. So not all domain transactions happen quickly or with multiple buyers at the same time, but definitely it can happen. So buyers should kind of know that. Another one that I thought was kind of interesting was a 4-letter.com and it's GLEX or GLEX, but this was a neat deal because the sale price was pretty strong and it was at full price, which was in the low 6 figures. So we had gotten an offer from a buyer and they originally came in with a low 5-figure offer. 

And we basically said that was too low. But we got with the sellers and we understood they would be willing to sell it on a payment plan or a lease. And so we kind of presented that option to the buyer. They went quiet for a while, probably over a month, probably discussing internally their options. And ultimately they came back and they said, like, you know, we would be interested in talking about a payment plan or a lease. And we actually were able to sell at full price on a lease. And we put the deal together pretty quickly once they came back to us. 

And yeah, just a big win for the seller, for the buyer. For the seller and just payment plans in general or leases, for sellers, it's great to have that passive consistent income. And when you're getting consistent monthly payments, if the buyer ever defaults, you keep everything paid up to that point and the domain comes back to you. 

So there's downside protection kind of built in. Then for the buyers, it just opens the door to acquiring a premium domain without needing to wire a huge lump sum. In most cases, they can start using the domain right away, building on it, generate revenue, and then have an asset that helps pay for itself over time. A lot of buyers don't realize that's an option, so when you present it, it really gets them thinking. And a lot of times it helps bridge the gap and get deals across the finish line for stronger prices. So I thought that was a neat deal. And for a 4-letter domain, I think it was a big win for everybody. Yeah.

Brian Harbin: And that's been an interesting trend too, just seeing a lot of these 4-letter pronounceable domains becoming popular, even if they're non-words, I think when you saw V-R-B-O, all their commercials, now they're calling it Vrbo. So I think a lot of people like that pronounceability, being short, 4 letters. And so I think that was a great transaction for both.

Michael Law: And there's a lot of opportunity for investors with those types of names because a lot of times you can find a diamond in the rough that might be a good pronounceable 4-letter. It doesn't even necessarily have to be totally pronounceable. Good strong 4 letters can be acquired for relatively low prices and then marketed for quite a bit higher. Short.com is a very powerful asset and businesses, they really like those. They're memorable and they're hard to mistake. So yeah, good inventory, good names.

Brian Harbin: Yep, absolutely. One I wanted to mention too was Wisdom.ai. So this was one that we closed at the end of last year. And what was notable about this one, it took about 2 years. It was something that Maureen had worked on for a couple years for us and ended up being the largest.ai sale of all time at that point. There's been a couple since then, but, you know, just that one's a good example of just how time and kind of tenure in this business of just going to conferences and building relationships helps get deals done. You know, we worked with Mark Kuba on this deal who was actually the seller, and I remember we were close in negotiations and, you know, I've known Amar for a long time and going to ICA and NamesCon, and we've got kind of the shared pickleball interest. 

So we were chatting before we got into negotiations and we were talking about books and pickleball and everything. And he brought up Andre Agassi. And I said, well, have you read his book before? He's like, it's funny you mentioned that because it's actually sitting right here on my desk right now. And it was kind of one of those moments... we talked about that for a little bit. And so that was kind of one of those moments where I'm like, all right, I think we're going to get something done here. 

So I think, you know, just goes to the power of persistence and relationships. And, you know, funny enough, a couple of months after that deal, this past January we co-hosted a pickleball tournament with Amar at the ICA event, so that was a lot of fun getting to see that kind of come full circle. So, and I think, you know, in a lot of ways too, that's helped the.ai niche. You know, when you have sales like that, they kind of help set a benchmark. And so typically it's not uncommon for a record price to be set and then soon after to be beat because of setting that new benchmark. So that was a fun one.

Michael Law: Yeah, I remember talking with Amar and I was like, hey, how long do you think this is going to be the highest.ai sale? And he was like, oh, it's going to get taken out within a few weeks. There's just been so much momentum with.ai, but it lasted a few months. Only recently, I think there was a higher.ai sale reported, which was bot.ai, and that actually went into the 7 figures, like I think it was $1.2 million. But yeah, pretty cool. And you know, .ai is still kind of dominating sales of non-dot-com domains. You know, .com of course is ruling the roost for sure. 

But, you know, what we're seeing across the names that we're selling is that, you know, .co, .org, .io, and we've sold a few .me's and we're selling those still, but .ai is definitely commanding higher sales prices and more consistent inbound and outbound interest.

In the last few months, we've sold quite a few pretty good ones. We sold nickel.ai, rig.ai, teamwork.ai, and then even a few more creative words or names like Woodrow.ai and Bounteous.ai. Domain investors are riding the.ai wave, which I do think is creating more opportunity for investors in other extensions like .io, .net, .org, and things like that where maybe investors are spending more on .ai, and then .ai renewals are pretty hefty as well. So they may be trimming from other parts of their portfolio to be able to afford to upkeep a .ai portfolio. I think that .ai definitely has staying power, but I think there will be a comeback in some of these other extensions, specifically .co, .io, and some of the other really strong generic TLDs like .org, .net.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, and I think to your point too, even the .ai renewals recently were increased and you have to renew those 2 years at a time, so it's not a cheap renewal, typically a couple hundred bucks per domain. So I think where investors do need to be careful is buying those 2 and sometimes 3-word .ai domains that, you know, can get expensive real quick. So not letting those sit on your shelf for too long and buying those longer .ai domains.

Michael Law: Yeah, I think it can be difficult with the two-word .ai. I mean, there's tons of really good ones, you know, word combinations, but the keywords are a little bit difficult. You know, we haven't seen as many sales of those, but kind of the catchier two words are selling a little bit better, I think, for the two-word names and shorter. So like the long drawn-out keywords, not seeing tons of interest, but like the short catchy two words. But again, I would stick to one-word .ai myself. But yeah, there's people selling all different types of .ai names right now.

Brian Harbin: Yep. So what's the next one you picked out?

Michael Law: Yeah. So I want to mention one that was kind of a neat deal. It was givers.com. And this was another one that took quite a while from start to finish. And this deal was kind of tricky because when we reached out, the buyer quickly replied that, "Hey, yeah, the domain owners have been contacting me about this domain for the last couple of years and trying to sell them the domain." And he's not interested in the price that they want. 

And so, you know, that right away kind of made the negotiation a little bit tough. But it gave us a chance to kind of overcome that, educate the buyer, and try and look at all the different angles of how we can kind of get this done and get the name over to them. It's the perfect upgrade for that business. 

And, you know, it did take quite a while. There was a period of time where there was no discussion, but again, with a lot of persistent kind of follow-ups, education, and, you know, we actually did this one on a payment plan as well, which they didn't realize was an option. And so that really helped get this one over the finish line. And again, another great upgrade... you got a one-word.com now. They were previously joint givers, and then now it's just givers.com. They're using the name. You know, he loves it. I've seen him post on LinkedIn about it and yeah, super excited to see them and glad to get a deal for our client as well.

Brian Harbin: Yeah. And a good example of like just a positive connotation, right? I mean, there's a lot of things that you can do with that and definitely a domain that will, even if they stop using at some point, it's definitely going to carry, you know, long-term resale value. So definitely a good one. One I wanted to mention as well is emmastone.com. This was a lot of fun. We represented the sellers of this domain. They'd owned the domain for a long time, 20-plus years. They bought it for their niece. And it was funny because it was a husband and wife that were selling it and they were off traveling. 

So a lot of the conversations were three-way phone calls with them. And so they really just wanted somebody to come in and help kind of set the price, negotiate, and make sure everything went through smoothly. So we got that turned around pretty quick. And what was neat is we didn't really know what she was going to use it for. 

And then come to find out, you know, I think it was like 4 or 5 days before the Super Bowl, we heard there was going to be a Super Bowl commercial with Emma Stone and Squarespace. And they did a lot of marketing around it. Beyond just the Super Bowl commercial, there was a couple different videos they did where there's one where she's in a trailer, reenacting the negotiation, which obviously wasn't at all how it went down. It was actually very smooth and seamless process. But I think it's always fun to see domains like that that are talked about on a large scale. 

And I think the way that she portrayed kind of the emotion, passion, frustration that people can feel from not having their exact match domain when they're building a brand or they have a use for it. And so I think it was great for the industry. And obviously it's fun to be part of those deals that do get talked about on a larger platform. So that was a fun one.

Michael Law: Yeah, those commercials were hilarious. And then I did think about like I wasn't part of that negotiation at all, so I didn't know how it went down. But just seeing her commercial with her throwing a fit and telling the seller, just tell them we're going to take it if they don't give it to us and stuff like that. But I mean, that's how a lot of people feel. But when you have a broker involved, you're the cushion and you're able to kind of work through any kinks like that. And yeah, very cool that you were able to do that.

Brian Harbin: Yeah. And kudos to her as well. I mean, she was smart to hire a broker to help negotiate on her behalf, to help kind of eliminate that, you know, additional pressure that a lot of times an emotional buyer can bring to the situation. So that helped for sure.

Michael Law: Yeah. So cool that it was like on a Super Bowl commercial. And yeah, the Super Bowl in general this year was just huge for domains. There was a lot of really good domains featured. And I've noticed, you know, this year you see the .com flash on the commercial a lot more than in some previous years. I know there was a period of time where everything was hashtags and things like that. 

And, you know, companies thought if they just put their hashtag out on the commercial, then that's going to drive traffic. Well, they've come back around and domains are front and center on commercials now. So that's pretty, pretty neat to see. I know there was AI.com on a Super Bowl commercial and that sale was made public this year. The sale happened last year, but the sale price came out right around the time of the Super Bowl too, which created a lot of buzz. That's the highest sale in the industry by another broker, kind of a legend in the industry, but AI.com sold for $70 million. So very cool to see that on a commercial and just in general see so many great domains on the Super Bowl commercials.

Brian Harbin: Yeah, absolutely. There was row.co was on there, Claude.ai. And, you know, kind of to your point, yes, more companies are learning to advertise with their domain names. I mean, there's a lot of times you see like a QR code up there on the TV for, you know, but, you know, you're not necessarily going to have time to be able to pull out their phone, pull it up, click on it. But essentially the QR code is taking you to a link. So if you had just a good domain name that you could put up there, then that's going to save you that time. And QR codes are helpful, but I think, you know, if you're advertising on a large scale like that, having that premium domain is going to be less friction in terms of getting that client to come your way. Let's see. Oh yeah, sorry. What— which one did you have up next?

Michael Law: Yeah, no, I didn't really have too much details on others. I mean, a lot of the sales that we've done, they actually go fairly smoothly and quickly without too much delay in negotiations, things like that. But we've sold several other pretty good names recently, including Apogee.com, which was a really nice name and a good sale price. We had a neat deal for DigitalInfluencer.com. I know we've got a few deals in escrow right now that hopefully close out soon. 

But yeah, a lot of good names are selling. We've got some good traction on a couple two-word .coms. And yeah, again, several short four-letter domains have been sold recently. So yeah, it's overall, I think it's a good time in the industry for domains, even though there's obviously tension in the world, some war. 

But even when that happens, the unique thing with domains is there's kind of always movement in the stronger markets. Buyers get real aggressive and then when things tighten up, sellers can get more flexible and gives us as brokers the opportunity to go back and put these deals together. Ultimately, domains are digital assets with long-term value. And so there's kind of always opportunity depending on where you're sitting.

Brian Harbin: Absolutely. And once I wanted to mention too was CashForHouses.com. That was one we sold a few months back. And what was interesting about that domain is it came with a 25-year-old trademark and which it was extremely beneficial for the buyer to be able to use that. And having a trademark on your domain is not always going to help get a significant multiple on the domain, but in some cases it does. And so that was kind of an interesting domain plus trademark and how that's going to be used. You know, a couple there I wanted to mention, you know, Canary.com was one that we sold, you know, in the past 6 months or so. 

And, you know, animal domain names are just, I think, always going to be popular. You know, from the branding, anything that, you know, a word can create like an immediate picture in your mind is going to be easier for people to remember. So that was a great sale and one that was notable. I also wanted to mention Daytona.com and Viana.com, which we sold. And, you know, those two were, you know, kind of more that we're adding to the city domains that we've sold on top of like Philadelphia.com, Detroit, Houston, Phoenix, Raleigh, Cambridge. 

So Daytona and Vienna were a couple that we've done in the past few months as well. And then even also at a couple domain conferences, I mentioned going to Miami for the NamesCon. That was their first year doing that in Miami. And, you know, probably the last— I don't think they've done a NamesCon down there in the last 10 years plus. So it was good to be back in Miami for that. And we're going to be back again this coming up November. So definitely join us in NamesCon down there.

And also the ICA meeting. So ICA meeting was in Vegas in January, and they're actually going to be doing a summer one in New York. And, you know, ICA is great. A little bit smaller conference in terms of the people, but just a great chance to interact with people one-on-one and just get to know people better. And, you know, a lot more strategizing in terms of— I think the timing of the year is great in terms of being at the beginning of the year and kind of being able to map things out with folks. 

So those are a couple things that we've been doing. I know Tess has had a few other additional conferences she's already been to this year as well. So, you know, networking is just a big part of it, you know. I mean, you know, the longer that you're in the industry, the smaller the domain industry gets. As a matter of fact, this morning I opened up my inbox and, you know, a client was like, hey, here's a domain I'm interested in. Do you know— have you heard of this company that owns it? And I said, yep, I know them pretty well. 

And so I think that's one of the things that just happens the longer you're in the industry is just it gets easier to do deals once you've had a lot of successful deals with certain types of buyers and sellers.

Michael Law: Yeah, for sure. I'm excited. I'm thinking I'm going to try to make the ICA New York event. It's in about a month, May 19th. So always like to support ICA and their shows and their meetups are just always top-notch. They put on a great show, really high-end people show up, and yeah, we've come out of those conferences with a lot of great contacts and making deals and things like that. 

So yeah, ICA is the Internet Commerce Association, and they do a lot for industry protecting domain rights. And if you're in the domain business, you should be a member of the ICA.

Brian Harbin: That's right. And actually, we sold Jenna.co while we were at the pickleball event. Yeah, in Miami.

Michael Law: Yeah, that was a pretty fun deal.

Brian Harbin: You know, so one thing I wanted to mention too that's interesting and relevant right now is that April 30th— so I think this episode will probably drop once it's already open— but April 30th, the string applications open up. So basically, to give you a bird's eye view of it, is about every 12 years historically, ICANN opens it up for companies to be able to apply for a new string. So essentially there's 1,200 extensions other than.com, right? 

And so they open it up for companies to apply. It's about a quarter of a million dollars too for the application fee. It's a pretty rigorous process for the application. And so that window is going to be open from April 30th till I think it's end of the summer. And then end of the summer, they're going to announce, you know, if there's a contention. 

So if, you know, two separate people apply for the same string, then they're in contention, which means they have to essentially bid it out. And historically, some that have had multiple bidders have gone for, you know, in the millions of dollars. So people that are applying for a string are hopefully, you know, hoping nobody else is in contention and they can just— and then once they find out, it's typically about another 18 months before they can actually start selling that. 

And one of the things that I found especially interesting, so last year we actually brokered the sale of a string. We sold it in about 2 months after we got under exclusivity. But with ICANN and going through their process, it takes, you know, several months. You know, in this case, it'll be about 9 months. It's pretty much done. It'll be official and closed out in probably end of May. 

So we'll be able to announce which string that was. But it's, you know, for me, been very educational to learn that whole side of the business. I mean, There's 1,200 strings I mentioned, and a lot of them are going to be like brand TLDs. So like big company, like an Amazon or Google, they own strings, but they're not available for purchase from the public. So they just own that, so they're not really trying to sell them. Then there's also strings that are tied to a community.

So you're going to have ones like.hiphop, you're going to have.music, you know, .art, some of them are, require you to be part of a community. Actually I don't think.art is, but like.eco would be an example of one that has a community. And what's interesting is out of those 1,200 extensions, about, I think there's about 100 of them that have 10,000 or more domains under management. 

And so a lot of companies own these strings and don't necessarily know how to sell domains and price them and A lot of them kind of rely heavily on putting them out through partnerships with registrars, like getting them listed on GoDaddy. So when you type in a domain, you know, they want to have their string as an option that people can can click and buy. 

So what I'm excited about for this new round is I think, you know, getting more people, more money, more focus on domain names. I think people having other options for domains is healthy for the industry. I do think it helps also increase the value of the existing domains that have been around for a long time and have built that up. So I think there's going to be a lot of things that we can learn from it. I think, yeah. And essentially the reason a lot of companies like the idea of owning a string is it's essentially a renewal business, right? 

So if you have 10,000 domains under management, that's essentially going to be six figures each year just in renewals that you'll get, because most people typically when they buy a domain, they're going to keep it for a while. And your fixed costs are going to be around, you know, $50,000, you know, starting off, and then goes up depending on the amount of domains under management. So it's a long-term, you know, buy and hold for a lot of companies.

So I think that's going to be great for the industry and again, hopefully get some new faces and new companies and, you know, new money flowing into the industry, which again, I think is going to be good for everybody. So it'll be exciting to see and we'll keep you guys posted as we learn more throughout this string process and how it all unfolds.

Michael Law: Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting which strings have the most interest and contention. Last time they opened this up, cryptocurrency wasn't really a thing. And so I think some of the crypto, you know, .crypto, .coin, things like that are going to be really hot. But yeah, it should be pretty cool to see, you know, what lands where and, you know, how many new strings are introduced ultimately. And I agree with you. I think it's good for the industry to have options. And I would say, you know, for just purely domain investors to kind of be careful on what you're, you know, kind of what you're investing in with those.

Brian Harbin: Yeah. And I think it's important to know when you, you know, are buying a new string domain, you know, checking the renewal fees. Sometimes they have what's called a high-high model, which means you pay that initial fee, but then you're going to have like a higher renewal rate. Sometimes $100, $200 a year, sometimes more than that. 

So I think you just want to be aware of that. They might look good, or the first year might be enticing, but you want to keep in mind, you know, if it's a long-term play, that you got to make sure that you're not spending too much on renewals each year because those do, can add up for sure. And Michael, I know you had talked earlier a little about the lease-to-own option, so when you're talking to buyers, I guess tell us more about, from your perspective, why that's a good option and the benefits to that.

Michael Law: Yeah, no, I mentioned, but yeah, for buyers, it just really opens the door to acquiring that premium domain and being able to use it upfront without needing to put out all the cash. And again, a lot of buyers don't really realize that that's an option. And we've been doing, I think Brian mentioned, but I think we have at least 15 or so lease-to-own deals in escrow right now. 

And for the buyers to be able to either put a down payment, sellers usually want to see some kind of skin in the game from the buyer. So just a straight lease isn't quite as common. Usually you need to have like 10 to 15, 20% down, and then installments over 12, 24, 36 months. Shorter is better generally for the sellers. For buyers, obviously they like to see it longer. But I think on average, 12 to 24 months is typically kind of where these land. 

And yeah, like I said, there's a lot of flexibility on how these can be structured. If, you know, something like a big down payment doesn't work for a buyer, then maybe you can put a balloon at the end instead. It really just kind of depends on how the sellers and the buyers kind of line up and ultimately where it lands. 

But yeah, just having a payment plan or a lease in our toolbox has really helped us put a lot more deals together. And, you know, you typically arrange these deals a lot closer to the asking price, sometimes even above the asking price of the domain, rather than negotiating an all-cash deal, you know, well below the asking price. So it creates kind of a good, a win for both parties involved.

Brian Harbin: Absolutely. And a couple things I was going to mention too, a lot of times when it comes to you know, domains being paid over 2 to 3 years, you know, the ones that we set up typically don't have the interest, you know, baked in each month. That just kind of adds more math to make it more complicated. 

So a lot of times it's, you know, baked into that final price and then just equal monthly payments. And one thing I would say to just, you know, advice for people that whether you're a buyer or seller, just don't set it and forget it. With a domain name holding agreement because, you know, with every single one we're doing, I, you know, follow up with the buyer, you know, every single time, every single month they're supposed to make that payment just to make sure it goes through, make sure it gets to escrow, make sure escrow credits it and sends it out on time. 

So you just want to make sure that it's continually managed because there is that part that if you are late, the seller can, you know, put in a cure period. And if it's not paid within 7 days, they can actually you know, get the domain back. And it's not terribly common, but again, you just want to make sure that you're on top of it, managing it. And so, and I wanted to mention too a couple domains that we have for sale. 

So definitely check out gripbrokerage.net. Our monthly newsletter goes out about the middle Tuesday of every month, and a lot of great inventory ranging from our bargain bin at, you know, domains at $500 all the way up to the millions. A couple domains that we're working right now is bind, B-I-N-D.com, which I like, just very strong, secure, short, you know, 4-letter, you know, very professional, positive-oriented, you know, domain name. Emporium.com, which I think has a lot of different use cases for that one. Entertainer.com, which is a great generic domain name. I know, Michael, you had a few you wanted to mention that we're working on right now too.

Michael Law: Sure. I think we have maybe one of the strongest lineups of names that we've had for a while, but for gambling, we have things like plays.com and props.com. Prop betting is huge. And I just, I Really like those two names, short, one syllable. 

As Brian mentioned, we've sold a lot of geo domains, and we have a few others right now that are really strong. We have oahu.com, bridgeport.com, and several other geo domains that are available. Some of the exact matches that .coms we have, we have like pasta.com, brewing.com, and machinery.com. And then just personal names are selling quite well. We've sold several of those, not necessarily first last, but just like first name. So things like oliver.com we have for sale right now, alana.com, doug.com, audrey.com. And so these are all just really great names for businesses or for personal use. 

And then yeah, Brian mentioned Bind, which is just a really great short brand. We're selling loved.com, so the past tense of love, which I really like that name as well. And then certainty.com is another really strong name that we have for sale. So yeah, like Brian said, you can check out our newsletter, you can see our inventory, or at least quite a bit of it monthly. And yeah, sign up for that at gritbrokerage.net.

Brian Harbin: Well, good deal. Well, yes. So yeah, appreciate you guys tuning in. Wanted to give you guys kind of a recap over the last 6 months. Hopefully there was a takeaway or two in terms of just some of the deals that we've done. And again, a shout out to the Grit Brokerage team and, you know, helping us get to that, you know, top 10 again this year. 

Thank you for escrow.com for putting that on. Looking forward to the conferences coming up. And like I mentioned, the TLD strings. So, you know, check back with us in a few months and we'll be back with some more updates. And anything else you wanted to say, Mike, before we sign off here?

Michael Law: No, I think that's about it. Yeah, we always appreciate, you know, our clients, our buyers, sellers. The names that we mentioned are kind of only, you know, scratching the surface of what we're working on. We've got a lot of great names, and I expect a lot of those to be sold this year.

Brian Harbin: Absolutely. And thank you guys again for tuning in, and we'll see you guys next time! Take care!