Buying a Domain Someone Else Owns: Process and Safe Payment

Step by step: buying a domain from its owner

The safe order is the same whatever the price. Do not pay anyone until you know who controls the domain and how the handover will work.

1. 1

   Check who holds it and where

   Look up the domain to see the registrar, creation and expiry dates, and whether it is listed for sale on a marketplace.

2. 2

   Make contact

   Use the registrar's contact form or relay email, a 'for sale' link on the parked page, or a broker. Use a company email address, not a personal one.

3. 3

   Agree price and terms in writing

   Price, currency, who pays escrow fees, which registrar the domain moves to, and the deadline for the transfer.

4. 4

   Open an escrow transaction

   Both parties accept the terms on the escrow site and you fund it. The seller is only paid after you confirm the domain is yours.

5. 5

   Receive the domain

   Either a push to your account at the same registrar, or a registrant change plus a transfer authorisation (EPP) code for a registrar transfer.

6. 6

   Confirm and release

   Check that registrant details show your company and the domain is in your account with MFA, then release payment.

Finding the owner of a .com or .sg domain

Contact details are rarely public now. For .com and other generic domains, ICANN Lookup uses RDAP, the replacement for WHOIS, and personal data is usually redacted. The record still shows the registrar, which typically offers a web form or relay address to reach the holder.

For .sg names, SGNIC's FAQ says its WHOIS masks the email addresses and phone numbers of registrant, administrative and billing contacts, and never shows NRIC numbers. The registrant's name or organisation may still be visible. Our guide to looking up who owns a domain shows what each lookup reveals.

Paying safely: escrow and marketplaces

An escrow service sits between buyer and seller. You pay the escrow company, the seller transfers the domain, you confirm receipt, and only then is the seller paid. Escrow.com's fee calculator lists a standard fee of 2.6% with a US$50 minimum for transactions up to US$5,000 (approximate, as of October 2026); who pays it is negotiable.

For prices above a few thousand dollars, ask a lawyer to look at a short purchase agreement covering warranties that the seller owns the name and has not licensed it to others.

Moving a .com to your name: registrant change and the 60-day lock

Two separate changes may be needed: who holds the domain (the registrant) and which registrar it sits with. ICANN's Transfer Policy sets the rules for generic domains such as .com.

• A change of registrant must be confirmed by both the prior and new registrant through a secure mechanism, and the registrar must process it within one day of confirmation.
• After a change of registrant, registrars may apply a 60-day lock on transfers to another registrar, unless the prior registrant opted out beforehand.
• The policy advises that if the end goal is a different registrar, the registrar transfer should happen before the registrant change to avoid the lock.
• Registrars may also refuse transfers within 60 days of a domain's creation or a previous registrar transfer.

In practice, the simplest path is often for the seller to push the domain into your account at their registrar, then you change the registrant details, and move registrars later if you want. Agree the sequence in the escrow terms.

Buying a .sg or .com.sg name

SGNIC's category rules set who may hold each extension. A plain .sg is open to anyone, with a local administrative contact for foreign applicants. A .com.sg requires the holder to be registered, or registering, with ACRA, Enterprise Singapore or a Singapore professional body; a foreign company needs a local agent as administrative contact.

SGNIC's FAQ says transfers between registrants under the same registrar follow that registrar's procedure, and a registrar transfer uses a domain transfer password; if the losing registrar does not act, SGNIC approves the transfer after 7 days.

When a dispute makes more sense than buying

If the holder registered a name matching your trade mark to sell it to you or profit from your reputation, the UDRP (for .com) or SDRP (for .sg) can order transfer without paying them. You must show rights in the name, that the holder has no legitimate interest, and bad faith. A business genuinely using its own name usually keeps it. Our guide to domain name and trade mark disputes in Singapore explains the process.

Do it yourself or get help?

Most purchases are straightforward if the seller is cooperative and you use escrow. Where it goes wrong is usually after payment: the domain lands in a personal account, the registrant name is wrong, or auto-renew is off.

Our Domain & DNS Setup (S$99) transfers the domain into your company's name and registrar account, sets DNS for website and email, and turns on auto-renew so it never lapses. We do not negotiate prices or act as an escrow agent. IT Sorted is a Singapore-based team of developers with over 10 years of experience; you pay upfront, send the brief in writing and follow progress on your order page.