02 / Domain check
We read the historybefore the price.
A domain name check for one name, written up as a report you can forward to a partner or a lawyer. Registrar, expiry, EPP locks, DNSSEC, nameservers, ten years of archive and the blocklists. For buyers about to pay an owner, and for owners who inherited a name nobody can explain.
Domain due diligence before buying
Most people look at the asking price first. We look at what the name has been. A clean-sounding .com can carry six years as a pharmacy spam relay, two expiries, a drop and a re-registration by a parking company. None of that shows on the sale listing. All of it shows in the records.
You pay an owner USD 4,000 for a name. Three weeks later your first newsletter bounces because the domain sits on a blocklist from 2019. That is the case we see most. It is fixable, sometimes, with delisting requests and a few months of clean sending. It is cheaper to know beforehand and negotiate on it.
What a domain name check covers
We pull the current registration through RDAP, which has replaced port-43 WHOIS as the authoritative lookup for generic TLDs, and we compare it against the historical WHOIS records we can retrieve. That gives the registrar, the creation date, every owner change visible in the record and every gap where the name lapsed.
Then the live state: the expiry date and whether auto-renew is likely set, the EPP status codes on the name, the nameservers and who runs them, whether DNSSEC is signed and whether the DS record at the registry matches the keys the zone actually publishes. A broken DNSSEC chain makes the whole name fail to resolve on validating resolvers. It happens after nameserver changes more than any other time.
Then the past: snapshots in the public web archive going back as far as they exist, a look at what the name served in each era, and a run against the major spam and domain blocklists. If mail was ever sent from it, we read the MX and SPF history too, because a name that used to send bulk mail carries that reputation forward.
Domain expiration check for owners
Not every check is about buying. A fair share of our work is a plain domain expiration check for a business that has lost track of who registered its name. The agency closed, the former employee left, the card on file expired in 2022. We find where it lives, when it lapses and what it takes to get control back. If the answer involves moving registrars, transfers and renewal watch picks it up from there.
Buy a domain from the owner, with the facts in hand
When you buy a domain from the owner, the report becomes your list of questions. Why did it lapse in 2017? Who holds the DNS? Is there a serverHold nobody mentioned? We do not contact the owner and we do not negotiate. If the seller wants a page to show buyers, that is a different job: domain for sale pages.
EPP / Status
EPP status codes,in plain words
Every registered name carries one or more status codes. The ones that start with client are set by the registrar. The ones that start with server are set by the registry and are harder to lift. These are the ones that come up in a check.
No restrictions and nothing pending. Fine on a name you own. On a name you are buying, it also means nothing stops it being moved out from under the seller before you pay.
The registrar lock. Normal and good. The owner lifts it in their account when they are ready to transfer. If they say they cannot find the switch, that tells you something.
Contact and nameserver changes are blocked until the owner unlocks. Common on premium names and on registrars with extra security tiers.
The name cannot be deleted by request. Harmless, often set by default alongside the transfer lock.
The registrar has pulled the name from DNS. Usually unpaid, sometimes a verification failure on the registrant email. The name does not resolve at all.
The registry has pulled it. That can mean a legal order or an abuse finding. We stop and tell you before you spend another dollar on it.
A registry-level lock. Sometimes paid for as extra protection, sometimes a dispute. The report says which, if the record shows it.
The name has just been renewed automatically at expiry. The registrar can still delete it within the grace window and refund itself if the owner does not pay.
Expired and deleted, now in a 30-day window where only the last owner can restore it, at a restore fee well above a normal renewal.
Five days from release. Nobody can restore it now. It drops and anyone can register it, usually a drop-catching service first.
A transfer is already in motion. If you are mid-purchase and did not start it, call the seller today.
Registered within the last five days. A name this fresh with an asking price of thousands is a reason to ask questions.
A name that lapsed once can be bought back. A name that sat on a blocklist for three years needs a plan before the first send.From one of our buyer reports, name withheld
| Line | Source | Why it matters to the price |
|---|---|---|
| Registrar and creation date | RDAP, registry | Age alone means little. Age with one continuous owner means a lot. |
| Expiry and renewal state | RDAP | A name expiring in 11 days is a negotiating point and a risk. |
| EPP status codes | RDAP | Any server code stops the transfer until the registry acts. |
| Nameservers and DNSSEC | Live DNS, DS at registry | A mismatched DS record breaks resolution the day you change hosts. |
| Ownership history | Historical WHOIS where retrievable | Gaps and drops show a name that was abandoned and caught. |
| Archive history | Public web archive snapshots | What the name was used for, and whether you want to inherit that. |
| Blocklist status | Major domain and URI lists | Current listings hurt mail on day one. Past listings fade, slowly. |
| Mail record history | Current MX, SPF, DMARC | A name that sent bulk mail carries the reputation it earned. |
Process
From the name you sendto the card you keep
Two working days is typical for a single name with an ordinary history. If we need longer, we say so on day one.
You send the name
The form, the phone or a chat message. Just the name, and whether you are buying it, selling it or trying to recover it. We reply the same working day with a written quote.
We read the live records
RDAP, DNS, DS records, status codes. This part takes an hour. If anything stops the job here, such as a
serverHold, you hear immediately and pay nothing further.We read the history
Historical registration data, archive snapshots by year, blocklists and mail records. Most of the time on a check goes here.
You get the report and the domain card
A two-page report in plain English and the one-page domain card. We mark the lines we would raise with the seller, and the ones we would ignore.
Follow-up questions
Reply with questions for 30 days after handover at no charge. If the deal closes and the name needs moving, see transfers; if it needs mail, see mail setup.
Questions
What buyers askbefore they send it
Can I not just run a WHOIS lookup myself?
You can, and you should. A single lookup shows today. Most registrant data is now redacted for privacy, so it often shows less than you expect. The report shows the last ten years: owner changes, drops, re-registrations, what the name hosted and which blocklists caught it.
Will you negotiate with the owner for me?
No. We do not broker names and we do not take a percentage of a sale. The report tells you what you are buying. The offer and the payment stay between you and the owner, ideally through an escrow service both sides agree on.
Can you tell me who owns a privacy-protected name?
Usually not, and we will not try to get around a privacy service. Most registrars forward messages to the hidden registrant. We tell you how to use that channel and what to expect from it.
Do you check country-code names like .co or .io?
Yes. Some ccTLD registries publish less data and some do not support RDAP fully, so the history section can be thinner. The quote says so before you agree to it.
Who is this not for?
If the name is unregistered and you are buying it new at list price from a registrar, a full history check is usually more than you need. A domain name shortlist already tests history on every candidate. And if you need a legal opinion on a trademark, that is an attorney's job, not ours.
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