Sold Your Domain Too Early? 3 Reasons Not to Stress

Many of you have probably experienced domain sellers' remorse. It's that feeling you get when you realize, sometimes years after a sale, that you could have sold your domain for a lot more – if only you'd hung onto it a little longer.

All investors can understand this frustration. With each sale comes the risk of selling "too soon" and potentially missing out on future gains.

But realistically, this isn't the type of problem that domain investors should be stressing about. Instead, domainers should be more focused on acquiring the next great domain or finding the right buyers for the ones they already have.

Last month, Andrew Allemann posted an interesting article at Domain Name Wire, addressing three reasons why you shouldn't "kick yourself" for selling a domain too soon. He brings up some great points to consider if you're feeling bad about some of your own domain sales:

1) Even if you had waited longer, you probably would have sold it by now.

In other words, you will never be satisfied with when you sold, particularly in a market that is doing really well.

For example, let's say you bought a domain in 2003 and sold for a hefty profit in 2007. But if only you'd held onto it longer! Well, let's say you did. By 2010 or 2013, you'd probably be tempted to sell again. But if only you'd held onto it until 2015!

See the problem here? There will always be a seemingly "right time" to sell when the market is doing well. Don't worry about the potential gains you could have had by waiting even longer. Move on to the next big sale.

2) Your annualized return might actually have been lower if you'd waited longer.

When you look at the actual percentage gains over time, you may realize that you actually did sell at the right time (assuming you're still actively buying and selling other domains with the same relative success).

Allemann writes, "Consider a domain name you bought in 2005 for $5k and sold for $15k in 2008. Your annualized return is about 45%. If you waited to sell that domain name in 2015 for $30k, your annualized gain would be around 20%."

While you’d still have made more money for holding onto it longer, you could argue that it may have been wiser to sell when the return was 45%, so you could have invested that money into other domains, aiming for a similar rate of return.

3) Hindsight is 20/20.

At the end of the day, you're likely to question every decision you make in a few months or years from now. As an investor, you will never win if you're constantly focused on the past. Yes, you can learn from your mistakes. But at all times you should be strategizing for the future by closely following the market today.

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