Some domain investors lose money because they buy bad names. Some lose money because they wait too long for the perfect buyer.
I’ve watched both happen for years. But those waiting for the perfect buyer have almost a bigger probablem that is harder to recognize. Smart people. Solid portfolios. Reasonable acquisition costs. And yet nothing moves. Not because the market is broken, but because expectations quietly drift away from reality.
Somewhere along the way, the idea of the “perfect buyer” became a trap. The unicorn end user. The venture-backed startup with a massive budget. The marketing team that instantly understands the value of the name and happily pays full retail without blinking. That buyer exists sometimes. Just not often enough to build a healthy business around.
The uncomfortable truth is that waiting for the ideal buyer often costs more than it pays.
Every year you hold a domain, you’re making a decision. You’re choosing to pay the renewal. You’re choosing to keep capital locked up. You’re choosing to delay liquidity. Most investors frame this as patience. In reality, it’s often indecision dressed up as discipline.
Renewals add up. Even modest portfolios bleed quietly over time. A hundred domains at ten dollars a year does not feel painful in isolation. Over five or ten years, that same portfolio can swallow the profit from several good sales. The math is boring, which is why people avoid it, but it matters.
There is also opportunity cost. Capital tied up in stagnant inventory cannot be redeployed into better names, new trends, or cleaner opportunities. Liquidity gives you options. Illiquidity forces you to hope.
The myth of the perfect buyer convinces investors that every decent domain deserves a premium outcome. That mindset blurs an important distinction. A good domain does not automatically deserve a great buyer. It deserves the best buyer the market will realistically produce within a reasonable timeframe.
Most real buyers are not perfect. They are bootstrapped founders. Small agencies. Side projects. Regional businesses. Developers building quietly, not loudly. They care about utility more than status. They value speed and clarity over brand theater.
These buyers may not pay top dollar, but they pay consistently. And consistency is what builds a real domain business.
I’ve sold plenty of names that never would have attracted the mythical ideal end user. No venture round. No press release. No big logo reveal. Just a practical buyer who needed a name that worked and was willing to pay a fair price to stop thinking about it.
Those sales matter. They pay renewals. They create momentum. They fund better acquisitions. They keep you in the game long enough to catch the occasional larger win.
Liquidity is not a consolation prize. It is infrastructure.
One of the most dangerous assumptions in domaining is that holding longer always increases value. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn’t. Markets change. Language shifts. Trends cool. A name that feels obvious today can feel dated in three years. The buyer you are waiting for might never arrive because the use case moved on without you.
The “good enough” buyer solves a different problem. They convert potential into reality. They turn theoretical value into cash. They validate that the domain had demand at all, not just in your head.
Experienced investors learn to segment their portfolios. Some names are long-term holds where patience is justified. Others are working inventory. They are meant to move. Treating every domain like a future flagship asset is a fast way to build a portfolio that looks impressive and performs poorly.
Pricing plays a big role here. If your pricing only makes sense for a perfect buyer, you are filtering out everyone else by default. Fixed pricing, reasonable ranges, and clarity invite action. Ambiguity invites hesitation. Most buyers do not want to negotiate for weeks just to feel like they won something. They want to solve a problem and move on.
There is also a psychological element. Selling to good enough buyers trains discipline. It forces you to confront what the market will actually pay, not what you hope it should pay. That feedback loop sharpens your acquisition strategy over time. You start buying names that are easier to sell, not just easier to justify.
Ironically, liquidity often leads to better outcomes long term. Investors who sell regularly can afford to wait on the rare name that truly deserves patience. Investors who never sell are always waiting, whether the name merits it or not.
The perfect buyer is a nice story. It makes holding feel noble. It turns inaction into strategy. But domaining is not a fairy tale business. It is a capital allocation game with carrying costs and uncertain timelines.
Good enough buyers are not settling. They are the engine.
If you want to stay in this industry for the long haul, stop building your portfolio around who you hope might show up someday. Start building it around who actually shows up, pays, and moves on with their business.
Liquidity compounds. Hope doesn’t.
That lesson took me longer to learn than it should have, which is why I share it. I see newer investors making the same mistake now, just with different buzzwords attached. The sooner you let go of the perfect buyer myth, the sooner your portfolio starts working for you instead of against you.