The .com your company should own is usually already registered. We find out by whom, and get it to you.
Imsa Search is a small advisory in Chicago. We search for, acquire and transfer exact-match .com names for operating companies, and we hold a private portfolio of names ready to transfer. Funds never pass through us; every transfer settles through licensed escrow.
What the name of the firm means
Imsa Search is a search practice for domain names. A company tells us the name it ought to be trading on. We establish who holds it, whether it can be bought, at what number, and then we run the transfer. Where we already hold the name, the search is over before it starts.
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Private sales from the portfolio
We own the names on the ledger. If one belongs with your business, we agree a single figure, sign a short purchase agreement with a title warranty, and settle through Escrow.com. No auction, no broker layered on top of the owner.
See the representative names -
Buyer representation
When the name you want is held by someone else, we approach the holder without disclosing who you are. The price then reflects the domain, not your balance sheet. You see every offer and counter before it goes out.
How an anonymous acquisition runs -
Brand and email protection reviews
A company trading on a .net, a .co.uk or a hyphenated name is sending part of its mail to a stranger. We map where the exact-match .com and its close variants point today, and what closing each gap would take.
What a review examines -
Portfolio custody and consolidation
Registrations accumulate across founders, agencies and departed IT staff. We bring them under one hardened registrar account with registry locks, funded renewals and an inventory your auditors can read.
Custody standards
How a transfer settles
The same five steps whether the figure is four digits or six. The domain and the money travel in opposite directions through Escrow.com, and neither party is exposed at any point in between.
Agreement
A short purchase agreement names the domain, the price, the escrow agent and the inspection period.
Funding
The buyer pays Escrow.com. Imsa Search never holds buyer funds at any stage.
Handover
On cleared funds we unlock the name and release the authorisation code, or push it into your registrar account.
Inspection
You confirm the name sits in your account, under your organisation, on your nameservers.
Release
Only you can approve release. Escrow.com then pays us and issues the record to both sides.
Sarah Caldwell
Sarah directs the Imsa Search portfolio and takes every enquiry herself, from the first reply to the escrow record. She has spent more than ten years in digital brand strategy, premium domain portfolio management and intellectual property acquisitions, most of it in conversation with founders and boards.
She will tell you what a name is worth and why, whether a name we do not hold can be bought, and when a different route, such as a UDRP complaint, is the better answer. If the honest answer is that you do not need the name, she will say so.
- sarah@imsasearch.com
- Based
- Chicago, Illinois (Central Time)
- Settlement
- Escrow.com, licensed escrow
- Confidentiality
- Mutual NDA available
Insights
Short notes for the finance, legal and IT people who end up involved once a domain purchase is on the table.
Exact-match .com or the country code you already have?
When a ccTLD is enough, when it is not, and why the answer usually changes the year a company starts hiring outside its home market.
SecurityThe mail you are not receiving
What actually arrives at the .com when a company trades on example.net, and the two ways to stop it.
FinanceHow a domain price is reasoned
The three inputs behind every number we quote, and why we show the comparables rather than the appraisal tool.
LegalWhen a UDRP is the better route
The three elements a complaint has to prove, where complaints fail, and when negotiating is the cheaper option.
Tell us the name.
If we hold it, we will quote a figure and explain it. If we do not, we will tell you who does, whether it can be bought, and what that is likely to take.