escrow on steriods? Does eCop offer the answer to site leasing, part financing etc?

**Clinton** · December 22nd, 2011, 04:37 PM

Has anyone tried ecop for escrow services?

They do escrow for domains like SEDO but don't charge SEDO's high rate of 10%.

One feature that people often expect from escrow.com which escrow.com don't offer is for an extended inspection periods i.e. where you pay for the domain/site and get a month or two to test it out.

eCop seems to offer this via their Finance Page which is a setup for deferred payments - they will hold on to the domain DNS control till full payment is made and then release it to the buyer.

They also have a swap option where part of the payment for a domain is ... another domain.

And they offer the ability for a buyer and lender to enter into a loan agreement using a domain/site as collateral.

**benitez17** · December 22nd, 2011, 06:18 PM

I've never even heard of them until now, but it looks like they are specifically catering to domain buyers and sellers. The same company owns premiumdomains.com and a few other domain marketplaces, so that's no surprise. Maybe I'll give them a shot the next time I have to transfer a smaller domain.

**grynge** · December 22nd, 2011, 06:36 PM

They look to offer some reasonable suggestions to a few problems in the industry. My biggest problem would be there is no mentioning of where they are bonded, no mention of the companies name or any other legal disclaimer you would expect to see on a legitimate escrow company.

**ScottJ** · December 23rd, 2011, 02:41 AM

I think its run by Francois who owns Domaining.com, haven't used it as yet but do plan to give it a whirl in the new year.

**grynge** · December 23rd, 2011, 03:04 AM

I am not sure about France but most other countries have particular stringant laws when it comes to Escrow companies. Personally I wouldn't want to be handing over any of my top domains to a intermediary company that wasn't bonded.

**Clinton** · December 23rd, 2011, 12:49 PM

Another company that offers lease-to-own on domains and websites is ZenEscrow. They claim to offer free legal agreements, some UDRP and other protections and will, apparently, even transfer the site for free.

They are partners with IES (escrow.com). Maybe they aren't big enough to meet the legal requirements and deposits for handling larger transactions.