How to Win the Wire Race
Updated on February 2, 2022
The money is sent.
The minutes grow long on the clock. You have spent hours executing your due diligence, and now you have finally sent in the money to purchase the website. Perhaps you looked at several different websites before ultimately finding the one that pulled on your heartstrings and made you send the purchasing wire over.
The search is over, but now the wait begins.
Did you beat out the competition? Or did someone else send in a wire just before you without you even knowing it, grabbing the site you had longed for.
If you plan on building out a portfolio of websites, it is inevitable that one day you will get an email saying that someone has beaten you to the punch. Instead of a “Congratulations” email, you will get a “We are sorry to inform you” email.
This can be incredibly frustrating. But why does it happen? Are we crazy because we didn’t take your money? What is really going on here?
It is a little something we like to call the Wire Race, and we are going to give you some advice on how to win it.
Let Me Introduce You to the Wire Race and How to Play It
When someone purchases a website, they are not quite out of the woods.
They still need to wire the money.
Even after they’ve wired the money over to the brokerage, they have not won that website just yet, because there might be other competitors in the race who are also wiring in money to purchase the exact same website. This process can be exciting or depressing, depending on whether you win or lose the race.
Even if you are the first to send the wire, it might be delayed for numerous of reasons (which we’ll get into). Since the first wire that shows up for a listing is the one that wins the race, even a small delay could cause the website to go to someone else.
It can be very frustrating to do due diligence on a website, pull the trigger and send the wire, only to find out that you lost the wire transfer race.
We are going to talk about how you can make sure that it never happens to you by first going over a few of the limiting factors that you just cannot get around.
How Do You Win the Wire Race to Purchase as Many Websites as You Want?
Depending on where you are, it could take several business days before your wire reaches its destination, especially if you live in another country and you are sending the wire to a U.S. bank account. If you are sending wires from the USA, it means your wire is likely going to be running through FedWire which means it could be delayed since FedWire often has cut-off date early in the afternoon.
Another thing to watch out for is knowing that some banks use different routing numbers. While not always the case, many banks will have a routing number specifically for wires. This is often something that causes confusion and could lead your wire being sent back to you instead of on its way to claim a website with us.
If you requested the wire towards the end of the bank’s business hours, it might push when the wire actually gets sent to the following business day.
Finally, you may have sent the first wire but you did not win the Wire Race unless your wire was the first one received. That is why it is important to make sure everything is lined up such as the right routing numbers, and to get the wire in as early as possible. Check with your bank to see when their cut off times are, since in addition to Fedwire cut off hours each bank usually has their own set of rules when it comes to processing wires. Big banks will process the wire same day typically, but smaller banks could take longer.
If you use a 3rd party wire sending service to avoid the larger fees the bank asks for, you could push your wire back by as much 5 business days instead of 24 hours. That could be the difference between being the proud owner of a new website, or losing out on the deal altogether.
There is not a whole lot you can do to win the Wire Race when you look at these kind of factors, however there are strategies that you can employ to beat out other would-be buyers and win your website.
Say you sent a wire in and someone else snatched the website up.
The website was $40,000, and now that money has been wired out to the brokerage (hopefully you chose us here at Empire Flippers – we have an awesome marketplace if you haven’t yet checked out our current inventory). You might think the only important thing is getting your $40,000 dollars back.
But there is another option that can be pretty advantageous if you are planning on buying more sites. Instead of getting the wire reversed, you can keep the money with the web brokerage, so you can make an instantaneous purchase when the time arises.
Many website buyers do this because they know timing is very important. When they come on the market, really good websites are primed to create some stiff competition, and smart buyers know they need to have a head start if they want to win the Wire Race.
If you know you’re going to buy a site and you’ve kept a balance with your broker, you’re a sure winner.
The money isn’t even part of the Wire Race… it is already with the brokerage.
What Are Some Other Advantages of Leaving Investment Money with a Good Broker?
First of all, if you are planning to take this route to win the Wire Race, please make sure you’re using a reputable broker. The last thing you want is having your money tied up with someone who does not have your best interests at heart.
Four Ways to Decide if a Business is Reputable
While we would love to just say that businesses have your best interest at heart, this is not always the case. Instead, we want to give you a few ways to do a bit of due diligence before you start any business with a company.
These tips can be used both for evaluating business brokers you might want to leave money with, or any other kind of business dealings.
1. How Long Have They Been Around?
If a company has been around longer than 3-4 years, that is usually a pretty good sign. A scammy or shady company usually cannot pull off a “long con,” as their reputation would be totally ruined by this point.
If a company is brand new, that obviously doesn’t mean it’s not a good company. However, you’ll want to tread more carefully because they have a shorter track record.
2. What Are Their Customers Saying?
Are customers happy with their products or services? Did the broker do a successful job in creating a deal that both the buyer and the seller were happy with? Do they have a fanatical following or are people upset with them?
Some Google searches can bring back a lot of information; you can also see what people are saying on social media or relevant forums. The company itself might have a testimonial page for you to look at, and those who have posted might be people you want to reach out to personally for more information.
3. Do They Look Professional?
Look at their website: does it look professional, or thrown together? There is nothing wrong with a thrown-together website, but if you are going to send a wire of several to potentially tens of thousands of dollars to a brokerage, you probably don’t want their website to look like someone just whipped together a little wordpress site in less than an hour.
The second point here is the actual content on that site. Does the content reflect the company’s expertise in this subject matter? Are they thought leaders, or are they just rehashing the same old tired pieces of content that have been done to death.
4. Are They Alive?
Are the website owner’s hiding behind logos, or are there actual people showing their faces on the website. Do they have an email you can contact someone with? Or even better, a phone number?
If they have a team, check out who their team members are and see if they are legitimate people that actually work for the company.
Many scammy companies try to hide who is behind the operation. This can mean making up fake team members or other shady things that can be found out with some deeper diving into the company’s claims.
If you are super concerned, you can even check out their individual facebook pages to see if these figures are real people. The best route is to call the company, set up an appointment, and talk with them.
If during your research you find anything that sends up a red flag, such as the company lying about who their team members are, you will want to challenge the company on the phone about this.
At the end of the day, if you don’t feel comfortable with the company, or if there is any uneasiness, you might want to look elsewhere to do business.
At Empire Flippers we protect both the interests of the buyer and the seller. We have an accounting team that marks all wires that are being used specifically for this purpose so that the money is earmarked for when you’re ready to start buying websites and winning the Wire Race.
We have several buyers who do leave money with us so they can purchase websites at a later date without the need or hassle of having to participate in the Wire Race.
Also, with our unlock process, leaving credit on file is an option more and more buyers are choosing.
Win the Wire Race, Win the Website
If this is something you are looking to do for your online business investing strategy, adding funds to your credit on file can easily be done by navigating to the “Wallet” tab in the sidebar of your Empire Flippers account. Click on “Add Funds” and you will be able to easily add funds to your account.
Once the funds are approved, you’ll be able to quickly unlock businesses to do as much research and due diligence into the business and how it works as you want. If you fall in love with one, you will be ahead of everyone else competing in the Wire Race, because your money is already with us.
How cool is that?
They say money follows speed, and if you want to make sure you are always going to win the Wire Race, it is not a bad idea to leave a chunk of your website investing budget with a good, reputable broker to make sure you begin the race with a head start.
After all, nothing is faster than instant.
