One of the highest value Australian domain sales

I’ve been waiting 5 years to tell this story in full. It was all a bit hush / hush at the time.

In October 2016 I was engaged to sell the domain name Insurance.com.au. The domain registrant was a company comprising 5 separate shareholders – one of whom was my client.

As you would expect, I had a lot of interest for such an absolutely premium domain name.

To cut a long story short, I got my client and his fellow shareholders an unconditional offer of $385,000 + GST from a good friend of mine. A 10% deposit of $42,350 was paid to show seriousness.

Then, in doing a final “are you all done” check with other interested parties, I got an unconditional “settle in 7 days” offer from iSelect. Price $435,000 + GST.

That set the cat amongst the pigeons. Unbeknown to me – and my prospective buyers – one of the 5 shareholders (Insurance House) had a right of first refusal to acquire the domain. And they exercised that right.

I wrote about this in oblique terms 5 years ago on Domainer – “Lessons from an Old Dog”.

A sale happens when money changes hands

Insurance House paid out the other 4 shareholders, and took full ownership of the company that was the registrant.

I issued an invoice for commission for the lower offer (the one that had paid the deposit).

Insurance House paid my commission. It was a fantastic 60th birthday present!

I therefore think it fair to claim a sale of $385,000 + GST = $423,500. 🙂



15 thoughts on “One of the highest value Australian domain sales

  • November 28, 2021 at 9:50 pm
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    Congrats Ned

    That is a fantastic sale price. 👍👏👏👏😎

    I think it would go for a bit more now!

    Nicely done & thanks for sharing.

    Ed

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    • November 29, 2021 at 10:46 am
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      Thanks Ed. 🙂

      The market is definitely better now in my opinion – so I agree with you.

      Things were a bit different 5 years ago. There was some uncertainty given that direct reg was very much on auDA’s agenda even back then. I remember the auDA AGM in November 2016 (held in Sydney). Good turn out, and the then CEO and Chair fielded a lot of questions about the necessity and possible impact of .au!

  • November 28, 2021 at 10:13 pm
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    Cheap

    Of course Insurance House exercised their right of refusal

    $1-2m domain

    But thanks for sharing Ned, always good to put runs on the board

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    • November 29, 2021 at 10:55 am
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      I love you armchair experts! 🙂

      The domain had previously been on the market in 2016 with another well connected domain broker (NOT Rob, Ed or Mike Robertson), and that person was unable to get a deal together. That can happen.

      My client than approached me, and the rest as they say is history! Several major insurance companies weren’t interested at all (they claimed it was too generic); and some companies budgets tapped out between $100k and $200k.

      As I said to Ed above, the market back then was different to what it is today.

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      • November 29, 2021 at 4:48 pm
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        The price at which a domain name sells or attracts offers is not necessarily its value Ned.

        Cars.com.au sold $1.6m and Property.com.au $9m, and I know that the owner of Finance.com.au has declined several 6 figure offers and will not discuss less than 7 figures.

        I am not diminishing your result, just saying I’m not surprised Insurance House exercised their right of refusal.

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    • November 29, 2021 at 10:38 am
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      Thanks Mike. I remember chatting with you at the time.

      I hope you kick a goal with Brisbane.com.au!

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    • November 30, 2021 at 10:15 am
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      Mike you’ll have to make certain Brisbane.com.au sale isn’t subject to NDA, and publish !

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  • November 29, 2021 at 8:44 am
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    Great to finally hear the full story Ned. I can’t believe it’s been five years already!

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    • November 29, 2021 at 10:37 am
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      Thanks Shane! I know – 5 years in the blink of an eye. So much has happened in that time though.

      There was a lot more to the story of selling Insurance.com.au as well.

      E.g. some people approached my client trying to do a direct deal. But my client was fantastic – he kept me in the loop and forwarded the emails. 🙂

      All’s well that ends well though.

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  • November 29, 2021 at 9:33 am
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    Congratulations! nice story to share. All the best.

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  • November 29, 2021 at 4:48 pm
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    Massive sale, and imagine what it’s worth today? Can’t wait to see this one developed to its full potential some day…

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  • November 30, 2021 at 9:22 am
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    Insurance pays off ! Nice sale result

  • November 30, 2021 at 5:03 pm
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    Good one Neddy!

    I don’t think there’s such a thing as too generic, because a generic name and URL like Insurance.com.au could be used to capture many high-traffic long-tail keywords like eg

    ‘Pet insurance’
    ‘Car Insurance’
    ‘Life insurance’
    ‘Health insurance’

    Etc

    Because most insurers have many different products, the Insurance.com.au would be particularly attractive.

    I just saw a TV ad for 1300Insurance.com.au

    Don’t ever let SEO guys tell you otherwise. Most SEO guys are professional charlatans and all are as canny as they come.

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