uk domainer £4 million house

Nothing seen Ultra Fussy Barry 😉
 
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For God's sake, can't even watch the telly without Barry being involved 🤣
 
Inspirational to be able to purchase and maintain a four-million-pound property. Does this prove the real money is in .com and not .co.uk? Stamp duty alone on a four-million-pound property is £393,750 as a normal purchase.

Although I own a large portfolio of domain names, primarily 85% .com and 15% .co.uk and other extensions.. it was actually the sale of my domain parking platform to 123-REG that gave me the freedom I enjoy today. That said, none of it would have been possible without the domain industry and all of you, so I remain deeply grateful. I still have a genuine passion for domains and continue to be actively involved in the space, both buying and developing. For example, I'm currently building a new platform that I hope fellow domainer's and affiliates will find useful, so I plan on being more active..

With regards to the question: "Does this prove the real money is in .com and not .co.uk?". I think if you own a truly great domain, whether it’s a .com or a .co.uk.. you can still command strong prices. That said, .com domains consistently fetch significantly much, much, much higher values on the global stage! .co.uk domains absolutely still hold solid value, particularly within the UK market, but I think we all know the big money has 'always' been in .com. Just look at the sales reported by the likes of James Booth, Andy Booth, Drew Rosener, Braden Pollock, and others, they’re regularly closing 7- and even 8-figure .com deals. Whereas you rarely hear about .co.uk domains selling at those levels. That doesn’t mean high-value .co.uk sales aren’t happening, they certainly are I'm sure.. but they’re far less frequent and not nearly as widely reported as .com sales.

Edited (note added) > The real money in domains comes from developing them or building software that provides real value to the community.
 
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It was really good to see a domainer who's genuine and grounded — a real family man, not the stereotype the media so often paints. Refreshing, honestly.
Out of curiosity, did you truly want that final home they showed you… or was it a case of “you snooze, you lose”?
 
It was really good to see a domainer who's genuine and grounded — a real family man, not the stereotype the media so often paints. Refreshing, honestly.
Out of curiosity, did you truly want that final home they showed you… or was it a case of “you snooze, you lose”?

Thanks for the kind words, they really mean a lot! Weirdly, I was a bit anxious before the show aired, which is unusual for me as I’m generally a pretty confident guy. But not knowing how it would all be pieced together, or how I might come across on TV, definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, haha! That said, I felt totally fine during the actual filming though (loads of funny banter was cut out, plus our 20+ minute tennis game, lol). Thankfully, the feedback from friends and family has been really positive, which put a big smile on my face.

Hmm, regarding the last property, I loved the size and the grounds, but I felt most of the rooms, especially the kitchen needed modernising and a freshening up. When I went back for a second viewing, I estimated I’d need to throw at least £300k at it. So rather than go in at the £3.2m I initially considered, I offered closer to £3m. Ironically, the other buyer’s sale fell through, and I’ve just been told it’s come (or is coming) back on the market.. The third property also had two rental units on the grounds too, with a guaranteed rental income of around £5k a month, which was appealing. That said, we’d likely keep them vacant in case one of our parents needed looking after in the future, or I fancied using one as an office which is what they were currently being used as, etc. None of the houses were quite to my taste decor-wise (though I did like parts of Property 1), but I never stress about those things as they are always easy to change.

Paul Laskos, Andrew Bennett, Peter Colman, and a few others have popped round for coffee a few times, so they know just how picky I can be… haha!
 
Four million? Imagine the publicity when Ryan floats for 100 billion in 2029 and buys Scotland with the proceeds...

On a related note I see that energydollar.com still resolves to a Domain Manage sales lander.
 
Although I own a large portfolio of domain names, primarily 85% .com and 15% .co.uk and other extensions.. it was actually the sale of my domain parking platform to 123-REG that gave me the freedom I enjoy today.

well done what year did u sell the platform to 123 and for how much, did u get a big tax bill
 
well done what year did u sell the platform to 123 and for how much, did u get a big tax bill

Thank you, Jerry! I exited to 123-REG / Webfusion in 2008. The deal was life-changing, but unfortunately, I’m under NDA, so I can’t disclose the figures. Ironically, it was Jim Davies who drew up the contract on behalf of 123-REG, as he was acting as their legal counsel at the time. I’ll have to dig out the paperwork to double-check whether the confidentiality clause was set for 5–10 years or if it was perpetual.. As for the tax bill, hell yeah! LOL… grr! Thankfully, I’d already lined up some of the best tax advisors at the time. They were that good I also pointed Philip Orchard (still uses them today) and a few others in their direction too.

Note added : I forgot to mention: after the sale, I didn’t just exit and walk away. I went on to work closely with Thomas Vollroth (CEO), Tobias Mohr (CFO), and Andrew Bennett (Head of Domains at the time) to help drive year-on-year revenue growth at 123-REG. It was a rewarding experience to stay hands-on and contribute beyond the deal itself.

What’s crazy is, when I just said “2008” out loud, it hit me that nearly 20 years have passed, and that the domain monetisation space hasn’t evolved much at all. Hopefully I’ll bring some life and freshness back into the space, helping people not just park their domains, but actually build on them, monetise them, and make some nice sales.
 
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@BG Thats my thoughts on developing DomainUi to help people monotise there domains. As you know it is coming on leaps and bounds now with all the featues coming :).
 
the sale of my domain parking platform to 123-REG
Hey Barry - nice one, surprisingly I never heard about this event.
why nobody of us used your parking platform? 2005-2007 was all about Namedrive or SEDO as far as I remember =)
What was its name and what did 123-reg do with it? just pointed to monetize their own hosted domains or was it something bigger?
 
what r u thinking JB
I am a little skeptical about how BG is depicted by this program. A guy that 'Made his millions' buying dot com domains in the mid 90's and selling them, making millions, I was around back in the day and I am confident I would have had an inkling if it was factual, however, BG has clarified his route to mega wealth which was via a sale of a company that I can find no trace of. Again, I was familiar with most of the parking platforms 20 years ago, such as GoldKey, Name Drive, Park, Parking Panel, etc. Maybe BG owned one that I missed. I know TV shows want to glamorise and spice things up for better viewing, but the show made little sense in what it was trying to get the audience to swallow. I believe the Porsche 911 Turbo belongs to BG, as the number plate indicates this to be the case. Too many gaps for me to swallow the narrative hook, line, and sinker. There are too many tossers associated with our exclusive little industry, especially in the UK, so I sincerely hope BG is the real deal. That's what I'm thinking Jerry.
 
he's legit.
But what was the parking platform?

I bet that the acquisition improved his somewhat unrosy view of 123-reg from the past 🙂


I remember that 50p a minute line, the cheek of it!!!
 
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No need to be skeptical — Barry’s the real deal. He was the poster boy, the David Beckham of the domain world! We've done business and spoken on the phone over the years, but never actually met in person or at any of the early meetups. Great to see he still bears a strong resemblance to his avatar!🙂
 
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