Are you a website builder thinking about selling your site for a profit? If that’s the case, you have a few alternatives for selling your website.
Empire Flippers (EF), FE International (FEI), and Flippa are the three most popular website brokers right now, in our opinion.
Introduction To The Website Brokers
Empire Flippers
If a website/online business makes it to the Empire Flippers marketplace, you can be very certain it’s legitimate. Empire Flippers sites tend to be on the higher end when it comes to value. For example, it’s not uncommon to see websites on Empire Flippers sell for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
FE International
FE International is a similar website broker as Empire Flippers. There won’t be hundreds of postings, but there will be 30 to 40 high-quality online businesses that are profitable.
The most costly listing, for example, is a SaaS product that generates a net profit of $4 million per year. On the other hand, the cheapest website is a review site that makes a net profit of $20,000 each year.
If you’re seeking those kinds of offers or your website meets those requirements, FE International could be the place for you.
Flippa
Flippa may be used for almost any online business, with listings in various budgets. For example, you can find a $1,000 affiliate website adjacent to a $500,000+ authority website.
However, because Flippa has many listings of online businesses, you may have to go through some low-quality websites to find the good stuff.
Getting Started With A Website Broker
The process of registering with these three brokers is relatively similar and begins on their respective websites.
To get started with Empire Flippers, go to the EP website, click “List Your Online Business”, or click here, and fill out all essential information.
When dealing with FE International, go to the website, press “Sell a website” in the menu and click the “Get Your Valuation” button which brings you to the valuation form.
To begin the process with Flippa, click the “Sell Now” button.
Takeaway: In our opinion, both Empire Flippers and Flippa have the more streamlined process of selling websites. FE International lacks the (UX) design to really capture both sellers and buyers.
What Happens After You Let Them Know You Want To List With Them?
After submitting their form, you will receive an email from FEI asking you a series of questions about your firm so that they may determine if it satisfies their listing standards.
FE International Listing: What to Expect
Nothing out of the ordinary that you should be able to answer, so don’t be surprised.
After you’ve submitted your responses, you’ll be requested to provide a P&L for the site. If you don’t have one, you’ll be provided with an Excel P&L template to fill out for their valuation team if you don’t already have one.
You’ll have to wait for the Valuation team to do the figures to see what price and multiple they can list it at after you send the P&L back. This can take a few days, and the response you get will explain how they arrived at the figure they provide you in great detail.
They’ll even tell you how long they anticipate it’ll take to sell the site based on previous sales.
In my experience, the FEI process takes only a few days.
Once you submit and pay, EF creates a support ticket in their system, starting the process. Someone almost instantly updates you on the situation.
Empire Flippers Listing: What to Expect
Not long after that, you receive another email with an estimated date for your listing to go live on their marketplace and all of the information they require to validate the site and assign a value to it.
They’ll also offer you a list of roughly 30 questions regarding your website to answer. When you respond to those questions, a Vetting Specialist appears on the ticket to inform you that vetting has begun. This person might ask you more questions (I did).
The Vetting Specialist is the one that creates your P&L for you and provides your listing valuation and multiple. The length of time it takes varies. It took over two weeks for me to get a response from EF after submitting my application.
Flippa Listing: What to Expect
Flippa is a low-cost online marketplace for entrepreneurs. If you don’t mind dealing with many tire kickers, it’s an excellent place to sell your site.
Flippa will ask you what kind of online property you’re considering selling when you click the button. You’ll be able to tell the difference between existing sites, new sites, apps, and domain names here.
After that, Flippa will guide you through generating your listing. They’ll ask you a few basic questions about your company to get you started:
- What is the company’s name?
- Which particular location is it based?
- What industry does it belong to?
Similarly, After that, you go on to the more difficult ones.
You’ll be well-prepared if you’re familiar with purchasing and selling web properties. Explain your sources of income, how you earn money, potential vulnerabilities, new owner opportunities, employee size, etc.
It’s straightforward, but be prepared to put in some effort. Everything you write here will assist potential buyers and enable you to sell your business more quickly and for a larger profit.
Then you get down to business. Flippa does not vet any of the businesses they advertise, although they ask for “documentation.”
I put “documentation” in quotes since it might be about anything.
If you’re a buyer, be aware that there is no verification process.
Flippa requests that you join Google Analytics after you’ve added your revenue. (This is an excellent approach to verify traffic; thus, I think Flippa has done it successfully).
What Makes Them Different
- Before the appraisal, Empire Flippers asks you a few additional questions.
- Empire Flippers produces your P&L for you, and then you check it for accuracy, whereas FE International needs you to compile your P&L.
- Flippa has no vetting process; however, you must provide your Google Analytics information.
- With Empire Flippers, it appears that getting a valuation takes longer.
What Can You Buy & Sell on the Website Brokers
Empire Flippers can help you with any internet business. Websites monetized by adverts or affiliate items, eCommerce enterprises, Amazon FBA businesses, eCommerce, SaaS tools, and more fall under this category.
FE International is a company that specializes in SaaS, eCommerce, and content websites (e.g., blogs, review sites, etc.)
They do due diligence on all of the properties they offer, ensuring that only legitimate, well-established websites enter the marketplace.
Flippa allows you to buy and sell almost any online asset, including domain names. It can be used for various things, including blogs, websites, eCommerce businesses, Amazon FBA stores, apps, SaaS solutions, and more.
Seller Commissions
Empire Flippers
Empire Flippers have a tiered compensation structure: 15% for sales under $1 million, then progressively decreasing as the deals get bigger, eventually settling at 2% for sales over $10 million.
FE International
The commission fee charged by FE International ranges between 10-and 15% depending on the size of the transaction (lower commission for larger deals).
There are no listing costs; you will only be charged if your website sells, and FE International has a 94.1% success rate, indicating that your website will most likely sell.
Flippa
Flippa collects a listing fee as well as a commission on successful sales. The listing price for established websites is $49, with commissions ranging from 10% for firms under $50,000 to 5% for those above $100,000.
Final Words
Empire Flippers
Pros
- Deal flow has been thoroughly scrutinized
- Deals aren’t made public unless there’s proof of funding
- The buyer is given a due diligence period during which they can check the assets
Cons
Takeaways: Empire Flippers is advised if you seek an approved deal flow of over $100,000.
FE International
Pros
- Has several brokers on hand to help with the sales process
- Provides accurate estimates
- Connects merchants with customers all across the world
- Compared to other similar businesses, they have a high sales success rate
Cons
Takeaway: FE International is a good place to look for mid-market offers.
Flippa
Pros
- Access to a substantial deal flow
- The size of an asset might range from zero to seven figures
- Content, e-commerce, SaaS, domains, and mobile apps are all available for purchase
- Teamed up with Escrow.com to provide a secure environment for completing the transfer after the sale
- All sellers are subjected to identity verification
- Websites for sale are verified to be the seller’s property.
Cons
- There are many low-quality (and occasionally misleading) listings out there, and you need to know how to sift them out
- Flippa frauds should be avoided at all costs
- There is no fundamental screening of website data, P&Ls, or other financial documents. It’s up to you to double-check everything
- In terms of consumers bidding the price up over market assessments, Flippa auctions can get out of hand
Takeaway: If and only if you know what you’re searching for, Flippa is an excellent public website marketplace for finding deal flow.