Of domain names sell for $1.5 million, sort of… — A bunch
Domain names change hands, but not with cash.
The domain names manufacturedhome.com, manufacturedhomes.com, manufacturedhouse.com, manufacturedhomes.net and modularhomes.com have been sold for over $1 million.
Sort of. There’s a bit of a backstory.
The seller is SearchCore, a firm that, until recently, was in the business of creating directory and lead gen sites.
Ahead of that, the firm was known as WeedMaps. It had a directory for marijuana sellers, but sold that business off.
It also bought Makeup.com, which it later sold for $2 million.
Along the way it picked up Karate.com and Rodeo.com for $500,000, but paid nothing up front. It later had trouble paying for them (more on that later).
Now the firm is in the business of selling manufactured homes. From weed to online lead gen to selling mobile homes.
It literally runs three mobile home sales centers in modest Texas towns.
Despite being in the bricks-and-metal business of selling manufactured homes to Texans, SearchCore decided to get rid of the handful of manufactured home domain names it owned.
It paid close to $350,000 for the domains it sold.
The buyer is Platinum Technology Ventures, which is run by SearchCore’s former Chief Strategy Officer.
Platinum bought the domain names for $1 million plus agreed to provide $61,100 worth of advertising services from the domains to SearchCore. It also agreed to assume all obligations under a leaseback deal with DomainCapital. It still owes $122,000 to Domain Capital. So it’s paying well more than $1 million for the domains.
Yet Platinum is not paying out of pocket. It entered into a $1 million non-recourse, but secured, note with SearchCore. SearchCore also loaned Platinum $90,000 to start operations.
It sounds a bit like shuffling things around, especially since the former CSO is (or at least was) a personal guarantor on a consignment agreement SearchCore made for manufactured homes. By doing the sale, SearchCore is able to book a big gain.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in the sales value. If Platinum doesn’t pay, the domains will just go back to SearchCore. SearchCore hasn’t always ended up paying as stated by schedule for domains it bought on credit.
Speaking of, SearchCore also recently “sold” Karate.com and Rodeo.com, the domains I mentioned earlier.
It had purchased the two domain names from David Jeffs of Communicate.com/Live Current fame and his firm Domain Holdings Inc (not to be confused with the domain brokerage in Florida). LiveCurrent also used to own Makeup.com, which SearchCore purchased at one point.
SearchCore kept renegotiating the note on the Karate.com and Rodeo.com domains. It just “sold” the domains again by assigning the domains along with the $400,000 it owes on them.
As of right now, the Whois on both domain names still shows Domain Holdings. Perhaps the domains were assigned back to the firm.
I don’t know. What I do know is that none of these sales would meet Ron Jackson’s requirements for being listed on his weekly sales charts. That’s for a good reason.
