Please Help on Selling My Website

[alpine10]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
NJ (The potential buyer is located in CA)

I am selling my website (both the domain name and entire website for about $40,000) to an individual who wants to use escrow after the contract is signed. As I have researched, the money will be held by a 3rd party during the transfer and inspection period. My concern is, what is stopping this individual from putting the money in escrow, acquiring the logins from me to access the highly confidential code for 'his inspection' and then for him to either transfer the code to himself (or even damage the code) and then make up some excuse to the escrow company on why he doesn't want to buy it anymore? Then I would have my website code stolen and the escrow company would not release the money to me.

Does anyone know a way to execute this transaction in a way where I am protected? I'm not looking for people to state the obvious that if he does this then I have grounds to sue. I want this transaction to go smoothly and do not want to have this wind up in court where it would be tough to proof the theft of the code.

Thank you!

 

[FlyingRon]

That's the whole point of the escrow. The bank (or whoever is doing the escrow) holds the funds pending your performance. He shouldn't be able to get the funds back unless you fail to perform.

Of course, be sure it's a legitimate escrow. Lots of scam escrow web sites out there. A bank trust department is the best idea.

 

[alpine10]

That's the whole point of the escrow. The bank (or whoever is doing the escrow) holds the funds pending your performance. He shouldn't be able to get the funds back unless you fail to perform.

Of course, be sure it's a legitimate escrow. Lots of scam escrow web sites out there. A bank trust department is the best idea.

So you are saying lay out clear terms in the contract and as long as I execute on those terms I will be entitled to receive the funds? My concern is as listed above is that he could steal the code during the review period but if I have him sign a contract which states he fully reviewed the code and entire website before, then I would be covered correct?

How is escrow.com? Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[FlyingRon]

Yep that's pretty much the way it works. Escrow.com is one of the good ones. If you have questions, I'm sure their customer service will be glad to guide you.

 

[racer72]

The escrow can work the other way too. You state as part of your agreement to the escrow that the funds are to be held till you inspect the returned merchandise to verify it is the same as what you released for inspection. The buyer of your website will have to agree to this to use the escrow, this should be enough to prevent potential buyer from messing with anything if the purchase does not go through. If the buyer does not agree to this, tell him to take a walk.

 

[alpine10]

Yep that's pretty much the way it works. Escrow.com is one of the good ones. If you have questions, I'm sure their customer service will be glad to guide you.

The person will be able to review the website in my presence and thoroughly test anything they want. However, I will not let them have access to the passwords until I receive the funds for obvious reasons. I think I determined the solution to be have the contract state that they reviewed the site already and it is tested to their satisfaction and then I will transfer the domain name and web site to them. After they receive that they would need to verify this with escrow.com and payment would be released to me. After payment is released to me I would provide them all passwords to access the sensitive coding materials and admin panels.

Does this sound fair?

I appreciate the help once again.

 

[racer72]

The only person that can answer your question about the fairness is the buyer.

 

[germai]

congrats on having such a successful business!