Buying webistes is just not something you would do without any preparation at all. To avoid being taken in by fraudulent individuals, you have to go through the due diligence process, and step one is to perform some ownership checks of the website and of the domain. This step is probably the most crucial and if anything wrong comes up during this process, at least, you would have the choice of just withdrawing your bid from buying the site altogether. That is, if there really no workarounds to any of the problems you discover.

Checking the Ownership of the Website  

The most basic step in confirming the ownership of a site is to utilize the WHOIS tool provided by DomainTools. This tool can be used free of charge and it gives important info needed in verifying site ownership, although there's also a paid version that provides more in depth information. At the very least, you'll have access to the domain registration information and contact information of that specific domain. Match the data you get from the WHOIS inquiry with the info provided by the seller, and ensure that they are the same.

Check the Site Owner

The next step in making sure that the transaction you are entering into is completely authentic is by checking the reliability of the owner himself. With popular marketplaces like Flippa.com, you can view the seller's info which can give you an overview of how long the seller has been a flipper and if he has a sound history. You could also perform an internet search for the seller's Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkdIn accounts, and get more information from them. If you don't have his full name, you can put in the name he uses as a seller in your search and see if anything comes up in internet marketing blogs or forums.

Check Domain Status, Registrar History

From a simple WHOIS search, you'll also get important information on the registrar history and the status of the domain. Take note that if a website has recently been transferred to a different registrar, it cannot be transferred again within the next 60 days. This is generally known as the waiting period for domain transfers. When you do a verification on the status of a domain, expect it to be in a "locked" mode - meaning, the site or domain owner will have to "unlock" it before he can give the ownership to the buyer.

Check for Any Trademarks

A website may contain trademarks such as Microsoft in a MicrosoftRules.com site, or Apple in a AppleGadgets.com. If you want to purchase a site using a trademark, you need to confirm first that the seller has the lawful right to use the trademark, if the site isn't being offered by the companies Microsoft or Apple themselves. More importantly, the seller should have the official documents to support such claims.

Only after you've accomplished the above suggestions in checking the legitimacy of the site ownership and the seller himself, can you continue on with the next steps in the due diligence process when buying websites. Whether you are into flipping websites full-time or part-time, check us out to get all the steps involved when researching a prospective website to buy so that you don't get scammed!