Silver Lining: Dan.com LTO Payoff

As you know, GoDaddy is shutting down Dan.com in October. Yesterday, Afternic and Dan launched a “Migration center” to help domain name sellers move domain names to Afternic and archive account data before October 15. Buyers were also emailed about the migration process.

I have heard from many domain investors who sell on Dan, but I had not heard from any buyers until yesterday.

I have two active LTO deals remaining on Dan.com. One of the buyers reached out to me to let me know he submitted the remaining 5 monthly payments (approximately $3k) ahead of schedule. He did this because he wanted to avoid dealing with the transition to GoDaddy.

I asked him if he could share any communication he received from Dan.com regarding the migration, and he sent me the email he received, which I posted it below. Perhaps other sellers will also have their LTO deals paid off early since it is one of the suggestions made in the email to avoid transitioning payments to GoDaddy.

I guess there’s a small silver lining to the Dan shutdown. Hopefully others will experience a similar outcome for their active LTO deals.

Dear [Buyer],

We’ve got an important update about your Lease to Own (LTO) domain agreement with Dan.com.
As you might know, Dan.com joined the GoDaddy family in July 2022. To enhance your experience, we’ll transition your Lease to Own agreement to GoDaddy starting in November. This transition will happen automatically following your November payment, so you won’t need to do a thing.

If you’d prefer not to make the switch, you’ve got two options to choose from before the due date of your November payment:

1. Pay off the remaining balance of your Lease to Own agreement to take full control of your domain name immediately.
2. Cancel the transaction or miss the November payment by its due date, which means forfeiting the domain name and past payments.

Should you choose to proceed with the transition, your existing payment terms will remain unchanged, though some may notice adjustments in currency or tax as we switch to GoDaddy’s Terms of Service and GoDaddy’s Domain Name Registration Agreement. For further details, you can refer to our Buyer FAQs. For most though, nothing else about your transaction will change – except now, you’ll get access to more products and services with GoDaddy.

If you have any questions, we’re here to help.

Best regards,
Dan.com