If you’re considering trading in virtual real estate then you’ll be pleased to know there are plenty of online marketplaces where hundreds of people buy and sell websites every day.
If you’re looking to buy a well established Internet business then there are some marketplaces that are more likely to have what you’re looking for than others and likewise, if you’re selling an established business you’ll find more potential buyers in some places over others. Brokers are another option that might be best to employ in some instances.
If you’re not experienced with measuring performance of Internet businesses, how to spot holes in the ‘virtual books’ and so forth, you would be well advised to seek help from someone who can perform a due diligence check on any site you’re considering.
When it comes to selling a website you will need to ensure that you can provide all the relevant facts to potential buyers to help them understand how the business has been performing, what its key levers are and what is honestly involved in maintaining it. There is a great deal more to selling a website than that too and taking a look around online marketplaces is a good way to see how sellers are presenting data and what questions are potential buyers asking.
You also might have heard of the term site flipping or flipping websites which is traditionally meant in the same way people flip houses. They buy a house that can do with some TLC and then once they’ve given it a makeover they sell it for profit! Can this possibly be done with virtual real estate too? Of course! You will find that many of the online marketplaces where people buy and sell websites have quite a lot of web property that is in need of serious attention that you could grab and renovate and on-sell for profit.
Take a browse around some of the online marketplaces for buying and selling websites to begin getting a feel for what’s currently on offer in the world of virtual real estate!
Hey Michelle…
As well as selling new websites…I am starting to look into buying and selling also.
What do you think of researching websites via search engines…. and contacting the owner if they are willing to sell if you spot a site with potential to flip?
This research will be started by thinking of any niche you think will be lucrative, and start searching by specific keywords.
I have already found a website, for good niche…1st page of Google, with that keyword bringing in 18,100 keywords (Exact Match) … and the website is dead, nothing has been done to it for ages it looks like, and there’s a lot of improvements that can be made.
This was found within 10 minutes of research. I can imagine if I bought that, re-done it… the potential is huge. It just shows, if you look for it, you can find some right gems.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks
Kiran
Kiran I know of people who do this type of research and buy sites that way. Of course how you approach the owner is important because it’s easy for them to all of a sudden think their website is worth a million dollar buy out because someone has contacted them, lol!
You would probably need to do some convincing that you will actually pay them and so forth, as many people might worry that it’s not a genuine request.
I’m sure you would have the finesse to put the customer at ease and to help them understand what the market value of their site is (generally) and go from there. If they tell you the site has loads of potential just remember you can’t bank potential and that there will be a cost investment (most likely time) to get the site to the next level.
This has been done successfully by many people so you are definitely on the right track and I’d love to hear how things go if you decide to contact this particular site owner. Good luck, it sounds like a good one!
Thanks Michelle…that’s helpful
I have emailed the owner, no response yet, but there’s a lot of opportunity like this around, so this is a strategy I will add to my arsenal … it’ll be exciting to say the least!
I’ll keep you updated.
Thanks
Kiran