Selling a large site

[MaxS]

Hi,

I may be selling one of my largest sites tomorrow. The selling price is up there.

Do I need to have a legal document drafted stating what's transferred? If I have him bank wire the money to me, is there any risks? What would be the standard procedure for a large transfer, in what order should it be transferred?

Thanks!

[Cutter]

I'd go with an escrow service. Talk to your lawyer about the details as far as contracts.

[Chris]

yes, if the sum is large you'll want to be careful and have all the legal bases covered.

[MaxS]

Do any of you have a turnkey contract I could use or do I have to contact a lawyer? We're going to be transferring the money via bank wire, so basically the protection would be for his end as I can't see him getting the money back once it's transferred.

Or can someone suggest a lawyer that I can speak with over the internet/phone that specializes in these type of transactions?

[demosfen]

We're going to be transferring the money via bank wire, so basically the protection would be for his end as I can't see him getting the money back once it's transferred.
You'll have to give him your account number, and it's enough to withdraw money from your account. The easy (but possibly not the only) way to do it would be to just print a fraudulent check and deposit it into his own account. Obviously it takes a criminal mind and few people would go that route. I hate to say it because it will involve extra expenses, but I'd feel more comfortable with escrow service.
I don't recommend giving your account # or write a check to anyone unless you absolutely trust the person. They can empty your account.
Now that I'm thinking (rare happening) about it, you can open a special account just for this type of transactions, and make sure that you never have more than a few hundred dollars in it. That's cheaper than escrow service.

[MaxS]

Thanks for the tips, demosfen.

[MaxS]

We're using escrow. Is that relatively safe? Is there anything I should look out for?

[chromate]

I agree, escrow's definitely the way for large transactions. I've used escrow.com before without problems. There have been cases in the past with peope creating fake escrow pages during transactions, so make sure you're actually looking at escrow and not one of those.

[Kyle]

I think your site's depth plays a big part in this...

If your website is a simple content site, where the content is obviously original and the only source of profit is advertising networks (adsense, CPM banners, etc), the process should be easier.

Of course if the sale price is something extremely large, its worth paying a good lawyer to assist you. But I believe the complications associated with the business also play a big role in legal issues.

Escrow.com works well. Think of the variables involved that define who owns the website. Again, if it's a simple site where the ownership is simply defined by the WHOIS data, then Escrow is perfect. If there are products and servers and licenses that need to be transfered to a new owner, these would be added variables to complicate the transaction.

[MaxS]

Thanks a lot for the info. It's a simple site, there really are no licenses or anything tricky. During the 1 day time frame where the buyer can review the site, I'm afraid he might steal the code and run off claiming I didn't send it all?

Cheers