I don’t need an automated payment solution or things like that, here’s how everything will work:
1) the buyer or the seller signs up for an account, provides the name and email address of the other party and initiates the transfer (as the escrow company, I will receive a fee and the person who initiates the transfer has three options: buyer pays fees, seller pays fees and fees are split 50% – 50%)
The party which initiates the transfer needs to provide the following information:
a) the domain name
b) the price
c) who pays the fees (buyer, seller or if the fees are split 50% – 50%)
d) the name of the seller
e) the email address of the seller
f) additional instructions (this will be optional, they don’t have to fill in this form unless they want to)
2) the system emails the other party and that person needs to click on a link, sign up for an account and confirm the transaction
3) after the other party signs up and confirms, the transaction starts and I will be communicating with both the buyer and the seller through a “chat style” interface. Of course, there will be a separate interface for the buyer and a separate one for the seller, one party should definitely not see what I’m talking with the other. The system will send the buyer an email whenever I post a message on the buyer interface and the system will email the seller a message whenever I post a message on the seller interface
4) the buyer sends the money (I don’t need an automated solution for this, I will simply let him know where to send the money using the buyer interface) and after I receive it, he gives me the necessary information to transfer the domain to the seller (once again, he gives me this information through the buyer interface)
5) once the domain has been transferred, I’ll release the funds to the buyer and close the transaction
That’s basically it, simple yet effective.
I should have an admin area where I can see all of the transactions, where I can see the contact details of the buyer/seller etc.
Another feature I want implemented is the “forgot your password” option. If someone forgets the password, that person can go to the “forgot your password?” page, enter the email address used when signing up and the system will send the password via email