How a Deal Works on Investors Club: Who Does What

Investors Club is a marketplace. Buyers and sellers meet here, and the deal itself happens between them.

That one sentence answers a lot of the questions our support team receives. It’s also why a DIY sale costs nothing, why there’s no success fee on one, and why nobody is locked into an exclusivity agreement.

Below is how the pieces fit together, section by section, for both sides of a deal.

Who’s on the other side of a listing

Every listing on Investors Club carries a label: for sale by owner or managed by broker. It’s worth reading before anything else, because it tells you who you’ll be dealing with for the rest of the process.

If you’re buying

For sale by owner means a private seller listed the business themselves. There is no intermediary. Every question, every document, and every payment arrangement goes directly between you and that person.

Managed by broker means a professional is running the sale on the seller’s behalf. They’ll usually handle the paperwork, coordinate the transfer, and keep the process moving.

A broker is engaged by the seller and paid when the sale closes. That makes them a party with their own interest in the deal happening, not a neutral one and not your advisor. Some brokers vet what they take on and prepare a data pack; others do very little. Don’t assume the business has been checked because a broker is involved. Ask what they verified, how, and what evidence they saw, and treat anything they can’t answer as work still on your plate.

Neither label is better than the other. They tell you how much process to expect and who to expect it from.

If you’re selling

Which label your listing carries depends on how you listed. If you signed up and created the listing yourself, you’re for sale by owner. If a broker listed your business for you, it shows as managed by broker.

DIY and Full Service

Sellers choose between two options when they list, and they work quite differently.

DIY is the free option. No listing fee, no commission, no success fee, so the seller keeps 100% of the sale price. In exchange the seller runs the whole process: negotiation, paperwork, escrow arrangements, and the asset transfer.

Full Service carries a 5–20% fee, and the sale is brokered rather than run by the seller. Legal documents, support on buyer and seller calls, asset migration, and escrow are all part of that package.

If you’re buying

Most listings on Investors Club are DIY, which means the seller is handling everything personally and there is no service layer behind them. Whichever you’re looking at, the verification work is yours either way.

If you’re selling

Pick the option that matches how much work you want to do. DIY costs nothing and gives you complete control, including the freedom to list elsewhere at the same time. Full Service costs a percentage and takes most of the work off your plate.

If you started with DIY and later decide you’d rather have help, get in touch and we’ll talk it through.

What our listing review checks

Every submission is reviewed by a person before it goes live. We check it against our minimum criteria, look for signs of fraud, and ask for evidence when something doesn’t add up. We also reject listings for poor writing or unhelpful descriptions, and listings we don’t think we have buyers for, since listing those would only waste the seller’s time.

We reject a lot. In 2025, 68% of submissions did not make it through.

If you’re buying

Approval means the listing cleared our checks and the seller provided evidence we found credible. It does not mean we have audited the business, verified every number, or can vouch for how your deal turns out. We screen for quality and for obvious problems. We do not perform due diligence on your behalf.

We work hard to keep bad actors out, and we can’t promise you’ll never meet one.

If you’re selling

Approval usually takes around 36 hours, though it can run from two hours to five business days depending on our backlog and how complicated the review is. We may ask you for evidence before approving, so expect that as a normal part of the process rather than a sign something is wrong.

Due diligence

If you’re buying

Every buyer is expected to run their own due diligence, and nothing in our review process substitutes for it. What to actually check is a longer subject than this article can hold, so work through our website due diligence checklist.

Premium members can see due diligence reports on all listings, and both free and Premium members can request on-demand reports. Those are a useful head start rather than a verdict.

If this is your first acquisition, three things matter more than anything else on this page.

Get someone experienced involved. Find someone who has bought and transferred an online business before.

Don’t spend more than you can afford to lose. Your first deal is the one where the unfamiliar problems show up.

Pay someone independent to check the numbers. That means someone who is neither the seller nor the seller’s broker, and whose only job is to tell you what’s actually there.

Fraud is not the only way a deal goes wrong, and it may not be the most likely one. The commoner problem is that things break during the transfer, and most of them are the same handful of things.

Ad network and affiliate accounts generally can’t be handed over. The buyer has to apply in their own name, approval isn’t guaranteed, and the site can earn nothing in the gap. Affiliate links may need replacing across the whole site, and commission rates can reset to a lower tier than the seller was on.

Domains can be locked after a registrar transfer or a change of registrant, which blocks further moves for a period and can strand the asset mid-handover.

Supplier terms, pricing, and payment arrangements are often personal to the previous owner and don’t automatically carry across.

None of that requires anyone to behave badly. It’s why the migration plan belongs in the agreement, and why it’s worth confirming what actually transfers before you agree a price.

If you’re selling

Due diligence questions come to you, not to us. We don’t answer questions about your business on a buyer’s behalf, we don’t vouch for your figures, and we don’t mediate when a buyer wants something verified. Whatever a buyer needs to see, they’ll ask you for directly, and it’s your call what you’re willing to share and at what stage.

What’s hidden on a listing, and why

If you’re buying

Business URLs are not shown publicly. Publishing them would hand competitors a list of assets to copy or attack, and would announce to anyone the seller hasn’t chosen to tell, including partners, freelancers, and advertisers, that the business is for sale.

What you can see depends on your membership. A free account lets you browse every listing and view the business data the seller supplied, including traffic, revenue, expenses, team, and supporting documents. Premium adds the business URL, price history, seller details, due diligence reports, and verified traffic data on the listings where we have it. Free members who want the URL have to ask the seller. A smaller number of listings require an NDA before the URL is revealed, depending on the privacy package the seller chose.

Anything beyond what’s on the listing is up to the seller. Some will give you analytics access on the first call, others will want an NDA or some sense of who you are before they go further.

If you’re selling

You control how much is visible. By default the public sees only a generic headline and a brief summary, with the detail reserved for signed-in members. Optional privacy packages let you restrict things further, including requiring an NDA before your business name and URL appear.

NDAs and confidentiality

An NDA is the seller’s decision, and sellers have every right to ask for one.

If you’re buying

If a listing asks for an NDA, that’s a normal request from someone protecting a business that is still operating. Signing one is standard practice in this market.

If you’re selling

You can require an NDA before confidential details are released. For Premium members the process is either fully automated or routed to you for manual approval, depending on your settings. Free members can’t access NDA-gated details at all.

Whether to require one is a real trade-off. It filters out casual browsers and protects sensitive information. It also adds a step, and some buyers will move on rather than take it.

Talking to each other

There is no messaging system on Investors Club, and that’s by design.

When a buyer fills in the “Request Information” form on a listing, that message goes straight to the seller’s email inbox. The seller replies directly. From there the conversation is a normal email thread between two people, and it can move to a call, a video meeting, or any other channel you both prefer.

If you’re buying

You’re not doing anything wrong by continuing the conversation off-platform. There is no platform conversation to continue. You also don’t need to copy us on anything.

You need to be signed in to see the contact form. On a new listing there’s also a wait: for the first 7 to 14 days, only Premium members can contact the seller. Free members can see the listing during that window but have to wait before making contact.

If you’re selling

The first email from an interested buyer lands in your inbox, not in a dashboard you have to remember to check. Reply from there.

Because there’s no in-platform thread, a buyer suggesting you move to email or a call is not a warning sign. It’s how the platform is built. There are things worth being cautious about in a deal, and this isn’t one of them.

We don’t need to be copied either. If you want our input on something specific, email us directly and ask.

Listing the same business in more than one place

DIY listings carry no exclusivity agreement. Sellers can list with us and with anyone else at the same time.

If you’re buying

If you spot the same business somewhere else, whether that’s another marketplace, a broker’s own site, a newsletter, or the seller’s social media, that is normally just the seller listing in more than one place, which they are free to do. Prices and descriptions may differ from one place to another, which is worth noting when you negotiate, but the situation itself is not a red flag.

The exception worth checking for is a copied listing. If the same business appears elsewhere under different contact details, or the person you’re talking to there gives a different name or payment arrangement, one of those listings may not belong to the owner. Confirm you’re dealing with the same person before you go any further, and tell us if something doesn’t line up.

If you’re selling

Many brokers lock sellers into exclusivity periods lasting up to six months, during which you can’t list elsewhere even if you cancel. We don’t. List wherever you like, at the same time, and take the best offer you get.

Price and negotiation

Asking prices are set by sellers. We don’t set them, we don’t take part in negotiations, and we don’t influence what a business ends up selling for.

If you’re buying

Everything is negotiable. The asking price is what the seller would like to receive, and most sellers are open to offers. Use the contact form, open the conversation, and negotiate directly.

If you’re selling

You set your price and you decide what to accept. We may reject a listing at review if we don’t think we have buyers at that price, because listing it would waste your time rather than sell your business. Beyond that, the number is yours.

Legal documents and the purchase agreement

The asset purchase agreement (APA) is the document that defines the deal: what’s being sold, for how much, on what timeline, with what warranties, and what happens if something goes wrong.

On a DIY listing

Buyer and seller agree the paperwork between them, and for a deal of any meaningful size that’s worth putting in front of a lawyer.

We don’t draft or sign anything, but we’re happy to send you an APA template to start from. Email us and ask. We’ve also written a full explainer on what an asset purchase agreement is and what belongs in one.

On a Full Service listing

Legal documents are included in the package and the broker handles them.

Escrow and how the money moves

We’re not a party to your agreement. We didn’t negotiate the deal and we aren’t named in the APA, so we have no standing to hold money against its terms or decide when it should be released. That work belongs with a licensed escrow provider.

We never send payment instructions. We never send you an escrow link.

If a message appears to come from Investors Club and contains wiring details or a link to an escrow site, treat it as fraudulent and forward it to us. When you and your counterparty choose a provider, verify it independently. Type the provider’s address into your browser yourself rather than clicking a link someone sent you, confirm the company is registered and licensed where it claims to be, and be skeptical of any service you hadn’t heard of before this deal.

On a DIY listing

Payment runs directly between buyer and seller, normally through an independent escrow service that both sides agree on. Arranging that is up to the two of you.

Ask us and we’ll recommend providers and talk through how to structure the payment side of your deal. What we won’t do is hold the money ourselves.

On a Full Service listing

Escrow is part of the package and the broker arranges it. The funds still sit with a licensed escrow provider.

Earnouts, milestones and staged payments

Some deals split the payment into stages, with part released on transfer of the assets and the balance once a specific condition is met.

It’s entirely a matter between buyer and seller. Define each milestone precisely in the APA, including what event triggers each release and what happens if a condition is never met, then have your escrow provider hold and release against those terms.

Nothing on the Investors Club side triggers, withholds, or arbitrates a release. We don’t see your payment schedule and we have no mechanism to enforce it. For a staged structure to hold up, it has to live in your agreement and with your escrow provider.

If you’re buying

Staged payment is a reasonable way to manage risk on a business with something unresolved. Be specific about what “resolved” means. Milestones that depend on a third party’s decision, such as a platform reinstating an account or a network re-approving a site, are the ones that most often turn into disputes. Write those clauses with a deadline and a defined outcome if the deadline passes.

If you’re selling

A staged structure can justify a higher total price, and it means you’re carrying risk after you’ve handed over the assets. Make sure each release condition is something you can actually verify, and agree a backstop date rather than leaving a payment open indefinitely.

Buyer protection

We don’t offer buyer protection. The reason is the same one that makes a DIY sale free: we’re not in the deal. The transaction happens between buyer and seller, and we provide the marketplace where they found each other.

If you’re buying

What protects you is less convenient and considerably more effective:

Due diligence you performed yourself, or paid a professional to perform
An asset purchase agreement that specifies what you’re buying and what happens if it isn’t as described
A licensed escrow provider holding funds until the transfer conditions are met
A payment structure that doesn’t hand over everything before you have control of anything

We make no warranty about the accuracy or completeness of what sellers tell you. Verify the claims.

If you’re selling

Buyers will ask what protects them, and the honest answer is your paperwork and a licensed escrow provider. Agreeing to proper escrow and a clear APA costs you nothing and removes the main reason a serious buyer walks away.

Calls, meetings and asset migration

On a DIY listing

We don’t join buyer and seller calls, and we don’t perform the asset transfer.

Moving the business is the buyer’s and seller’s job. Every asset has its own transfer process and its own timetable, and some accounts can’t be transferred at all and have to be opened again in the buyer’s name.

If you get stuck, email us. We’ve done a great many transfers and we’re glad to tell you how to sequence it. What we won’t do is log into anything or do the work for you.

Buyers: agree the migration plan before you sign, not after. Which assets move, in what order, who holds what during the transition, and what the seller does if something breaks in the first few weeks. This is the stage where clean deals go wrong, and the fix is a written plan.

Sellers: before you list, check which of your accounts can actually be transferred and which ones the buyer will have to open in their own name.

On a Full Service listing

Two separate things are included, both from the broker. The broker takes part in buyer and seller calls, which is part of getting the sale agreed. They also assist with the migration afterwards, meaning they help the two of you move the assets rather than doing the whole transfer for you.

Support after the sale

Most sellers offer at least 30 days of support after closing. That’s convention rather than a rule, and it only binds anyone if it’s written into the purchase agreement.

If you’re buying

Decide what you need and negotiate it before you sign. How many hours, over how many weeks, covering what, and reachable how. Get it into the APA, because a verbal promise of help is not enforceable.

If you’re selling

Think about what you can realistically deliver and offer that. A clearly scoped 30 days you actually honor is worth more than an open-ended promise you come to resent.

What Investors Club costs

On a DIY listing nothing is charged when the deal closes, on either side. No commission, no success fee. Full Service carries a 5 to 20% fee, paid by the seller out of the proceeds, which covers the brokerage.

Buying and selling on the platform are otherwise free. Each side has its own optional paid extras.

If you’re buying

You can browse, contact sellers, and complete a purchase entirely on a free account. Premium is optional and lets you contact sellers immediately on new listings instead of waiting 7 to 14 days. It also adds the business URL, price history, seller details, due diligence reports, verified traffic data where we have it, and up to ten on-demand due diligence reports a month. Free accounts include one on-demand report a month.

If you’re selling

Listing is free, with no cap on the number of active listings. Optional paid extras are available: visibility add-ons and listing ads, plus privacy packages if you want tighter control over what’s shown. None are required.

On a DIY listing where neither party bought an add-on, the transaction costs nothing on the platform at all.

When to contact us, and what we can help with

Most of this article covers what sits outside our role, so here is what sits inside it. This list applies to buyers and sellers equally.

Please email us to:

Report a listing you believe is fraudulent, or a message impersonating Investors Club
Report a seller who has stopped responding. We suspend non-responsive sellers, and we rely on buyers telling us
Flag information on a listing you believe is inaccurate
Request an APA template
Ask for escrow provider recommendations
Ask for a second opinion on how a deal is structured, or on something you’ve run into during a transfer
Ask about switching from DIY to Full Service
Ask anything about how the platform itself works

We can’t:

Hold or release your funds
Draft or sign your legal documents on a DIY listing
Join your calls or perform your migration on a DIY listing
Enforce terms agreed between you and your counterparty
Verify a business on your behalf, or guarantee an outcome

That trade is what keeps the marketplace free, non-exclusive, and direct. You deal with each other, and we take nothing out of the price.

Get in touch whenever you need us on the things we can help with.