Qelzavo

Domains and the records behind them

01 / Domains · Austin, Texas

A domain is an address.Check it like one.

We run a domain name check on the name you own or the one you want to buy, then set up the mail records so your invoices stop landing in spam. Two people in Austin, on domains since 2016, working for small businesses anywhere in the United States.

Domain status check from USD 120 per domain. Mail setup from USD 280 per domain. Indicative. The written quote after we look at the name is what counts.

Proof sheet of candidate domain names with one underlined in clay pencil
Twelve candidates on proof paper. One survives the phone test, the WHOIS history and the trademark search.
03 / Transfers

60dA domain transferred in the last 60 days cannot move again. Plan the registrar change around that, not around a sale.

Domain transfer help and renewal watch

Scattered names pulled into one registrar account in your name. Reminders at 90, 30 and 7 days before each expiry.

From USD 90 per domain plus the registrar feeIndicative

04 / Sale pages

A domain for sale page that answers the buyer first

One plain page: registration date, registrar, lock status, archive history, blocklist results. Buyers ask those questions before they ask the price. Sellers who answer them up front get fewer tire-kickers.

We write the page. We do not broker the sale and we do not hold funds.

From USD 200 per page · indicative

02 / Process

From shortlistto working mail.

  1. 01.

    Shortlist

    You send a one-paragraph brief. Within a week you get twelve candidates, each spelled out loud over the phone to someone who has never heard it. Most names die at this step, which is the point of it.

    12 candidates · 1 brief · days 1 to 7

  2. 02.

    Availability and history

    We read the WHOIS history before we read the price. RDAP for the current registration, archive snapshots for what the name hosted, domain blocklists for what it sent.

    RDAP · archive · blocklists

  3. 03.

    Purchase, by you

    You buy the name in your own registrar account, with your card and your login. We never hold a client's domain, not for a day, not for convenience.

    Registrant: you · 2FA on

  4. 04.

    Nameservers

    One DNS host, two or more nameservers, set at the registrar. If the old host still answers for half the zone, we find out now rather than after mail moves.

    NS × 2 · TTL lowered to 300

  5. 05.

    MX

    Mail records for one provider. MX records for Google Workspace now come down to a single entry. Microsoft 365 needs its tenant host. Old MX rows come out the same hour.

    MX 1 smtp.google.com

  6. 06.

    SPF and DKIM

    One SPF record, counted against the limit of 10 lookups. A DKIM key published under the provider's selector and tested with a real message, not assumed.

    v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

  7. 07.

    DMARC and the domain card

    Set DMARC to p=none first. Watch the reports for two weeks. Then tighten it. The last thing you receive is the domain card, with every value as it stood on handover day.

    _dmarc TXT v=DMARC1; p=none

01 / 07

Drag, scroll sideways or use the arrow keys.

03 / Limits

What we will not do,and why not.

01

Hosting

We do not rent you a server or a mailbox. Your mail provider bills you directly, and when you leave us nothing breaks, because nothing of yours ever ran on anything of ours.

02

Reselling names

We do not sell names. If a name on our shortlist is for sale, you buy it from the owner, not from us. No markup, no commission hidden in a registrar fee.

03

Website builds

We point the name at whatever your web person built. We will check their DNS rows. We will not design the site, and we would rather say so in the first email than in the fourth.

04

A guaranteed inbox

Correct SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop the record-level failures. What Gmail does with your content and your sending volume is Gmail's decision. Anyone who promises the inbox is guessing.

04 / SPF too many DNS lookups

Count your lookupsbefore Gmail does.

Your SPF record allows 10 DNS lookups. That figure comes from RFC 7208, section 4.6.4, and receivers enforce it. Every include:, a, mx, exists and redirect costs at least one, and an include can hide three more inside it.

The pattern we see most: Google Workspace for staff mail, then a newsletter tool, a shop and a helpdesk, each setup wizard telling you to add one more include. Nobody counts. The record reaches 13, the receiver returns permerror, and the invoices land in spam.

The full calculator lets you tick your senders, edit each cost, and see the draft record and its length against the 255-character string limit. It also works out how long to wait after lowering a TTL before you switch.

Open the SPF lookup calculator
Worked example · six senders and two mechanisms

13 / 10 lookups

Over budget by
3
Record length
164 / 255

Over the limit. Receivers stop counting at 10 and return permerror. Many treat that as no SPF at all.

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.google.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:servers.mcsv.net include:sendgrid.net include:shops.shopify.com include:zoho.com ~all

Lookups = Google Workspace 4 + Microsoft 365 2 + Shopify 2 + Mailchimp 1 + SendGrid 1 + Zoho 1 + a 1 + mx 1 = 13. Limit 10.

Lookup costs measured at time of writing, providers change them.

05 / Who does the work

Two people.Domains since 2016.

The person who reads your zone file is the person who answers your email. There is no account manager between you and the records. More on the about page.

Bakery window with its web address hand-painted on the glass
The name ends up in paint on glass. Check it before the sign-writer does.

2.People in the practice. One of the two answers the phone and the chat.

12Candidates on every shortlist, each with availability, history and the phone-spelling test written down.

30dRe-check of your records free within 30 days of handover. The terms of that are in the guarantee section.

A domain name for small business is rarely the exotic problem people expect. It is a florist whose mail moved to Microsoft 365 while the old MX row still pointed at a shared host. It is a contractor whose name was registered by a web designer who left in 2019, under the designer's own account. It is a bakery that painted its address on the window and then let the card on file expire.

None of that needs a platform. It needs someone to look, write down what is there, fix what is wrong, and hand you a page that says what the state of things is. That page is the domain card. You keep it, and the next person who touches your DNS can read it in two minutes.

06 / Plain answers

If you own a name,if you want one.

The questions we answer on the phone most weeks, written down once. The longer versions sit on domain check and sale pages.

For owners
Can you set up email on my domain if the website is somewhere else?
Yes. Mail and web are separate rows in the same zone. We touch the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC rows and leave the A and CNAME rows that serve your site exactly as your web person left them.
My mail goes to spam and nobody can tell me why.
Usually it is a record, not a mystery. Most often an SPF record over 10 lookups, a DKIM key that was never published, or two SPF records where receivers only accept one. We read the headers of a real message and the zone, then say which.
Who should hold the registrar account?
You, under your business email, with two-factor on. Not your designer and not us. Half the transfer jobs we do exist because someone else held the login.
How do I run a domain expiration check myself?
An RDAP lookup shows the expiry date, but not whether the card on file still works. Log in to the registrar, check auto-renew is on and the card expiry is after the domain expiry. That second check is the one people skip.
For buyers
What does domain due diligence before buying cover?
Current registrar and expiry, EPP lock codes, the WHOIS and archive history, blocklist results, any recent transfer that triggers the 60-day lock, and whether the name sits close to an existing trademark.
How do I buy a domain from the owner safely?
Through escrow, with the transfer started only after funds are held. We explain how that works and check the name. We do not negotiate, broker, or hold your money.
The name was parked for years. Does that matter?
It can. Parked names sometimes sent spam or hosted pages a blocklist remembers. Mail from a listed domain starts life in the junk folder. The domain check looks for exactly that.
Is a short name worth the price?
Short names are taken. A clear two-word .com usually is not, and it spells itself over the phone. We will tell you when the expensive one is not worth it.

07 / Inquiry

Send the domain name.We look first.

Put the name and what is going wrong in the notes. We look at the public records before we reply, so the first reply already says something useful and carries a written quote.

One per line is fine. We only run public lookups on them.

No newsletter. Your details are used to answer this inquiry and nothing else.

Office 138 River Road, Suite 4
Austin, Texas 48482
United States

Indicative. The written quote after we look at the name is what counts.