Empire Flippers Review: Legit Marketplace?

When you want to buy or sell an online business, you have to be careful to avoid avoid scams when you are buying or non-serious suitors when you are selling. You also want to buy or sell at the right price and that’s where Empire Flippers comes in.

Empire Flippers links up buyers and sellers of online business to enable both parties to get a good deal.

In this Empire Flippers review, we take a look at how the company works, who is behind it, and you can decide whether it is worth getting involved with if you are planning to buy or sell an online business.

Before I start…

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Empire Flippers Review: Legit Marketplace? 7

Empire Flippers Review

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What is Empire Flippers?

Empire Flippers is a company that acts as a middleman between people selling and buying online businesses. It is effectively a marketplace in the online business industry for buying and selling those businesses.

It was formed in 2013 by Joe Magnotti and Justin Cooke, and has since sold millions worth of online businesses of different kinds.

You can sign up here and list your online business for sale

Empire Flippers Review

Empire Flippers seeks to remove the friction from buying and selling websites. They have buyers and sellers from across the world and have fine-tuned their process and team to ensure you have a safe, secure buying and selling experience.

The kinds of websites that are flipped on EF are Affiliate Marketing WebsitesAmazon FBA websites, and other kinds of online selling websites that can turn a profit.

After selling more than a thousand online businesses, they the team at Empire Flippers has grown familiar with the selling process. They know how to deal with non-serious “buyers” and handle the transfer process in a seamless way that saves on time and resources.

The Empire Flippers marketplace works for sellers because it gives them access to serious buyers and helpful online tools that allows them to handle their sale better. It reaches thousands of hungry buyers that receive weekly emails when the company lists new sites.

It also works for buyers because because they are assured that they are working with legit sellers who are not lying about the value of their online business. Empire Flippers achieves this by doing the vetting itself and putting up protections for both parties.

The Empire Flippers team also creates helpful content touching on topics like SEO preparing an online business to be flipped, and others that have to do with the subject. They also cover how to get a business ready for sale.

What sets Empire Flippers apart from other competing companies is its intensive background vetting process. Prioritizing this vetting makes your life much easier if you decide to buy from this particular marketplace.

Since the EF exchange is full of high-quality listings, the vetting must be thorough. Otherwise, it would be too easy for people to pretend that they’re interested in an offer or manage an exchange in an uncommunicative way.

EF’s comprehensive done-for-you service when selling a site sets them apart, as well. From the promotion of the sites they sell, the personal broker every seller receives and the management of the handover, sellers get a helpful, premium service when selling via Empire Flippers.

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Who is Behind Empire Flippers?

Empire Flippers was founded by Joe Magnotti and Justin Cooke.

Joe Magnotti was an engineer and was working for a startup in San Francisco in the nineties before moving onto the mortgage business.

Joe Magnotti Empire Flippers

He now lives most of his life in Manila, Philippines and travels often with frequent trips to the rest of SE Asia. In his free time, he enjoys boxing, basketball and playing poker. At Empire Flippers most of what he does is oversee sales, accounting, and IT/software development.

Justin Cooke is the other founder at Empire Flippers. He is the company CMO.

Justin Cooke Empire Flippers

He hosts the Empire Flippers podcast and is the brand ambassador of the company. Like Joe, he also regularly travel s through SE Asia, Europe, and the US.

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How to buy Online Businesses on Empire Flippers

If you find a good business that interests you on the website, you need to pay a 5% deposit on the listing in order to gain access to the URL, P&L and Google Analytics.

The 5% deposit is fully refundable. They charge it to discourage people who are not serious and also to avoid over-exposure of URLs and businesses.

Examples of Business Listings on Empire Flippers

When you pay the deposit, you will be given an Excel document with details concerning income streams of the business, as well as expenses. There is data for users and page views for each month, which you can confirm with Google Analytics.

Business Details on Empire Flippers

You need to go through all the relevant details about the business to make sure you are purchasing a desirable asset. If you like the business and want to strike a deal, a conference call will be set up that allows an Empire Flippers representative to link you to the seller. During this call, you can ask any questions that arose when looking through the business figures along with any other business questions.

When you strike a deal to purchase the business, you can either purchase the business at its listing price, meaning once you wire the money to Empire Flippers the business is marked as sold and no other buyers can make an offer.

Alternatively, you can counter offer with a lower price. When you counteroffer, you can shave off some of the money you will have to pay but you risk losing the business to another bidder. This happens because when you start bargaining and your counteroffer has been agreed to by the seller, the offer is circulated to any other parties interested in that listing. Any other buyer has 24 hours to submit an offer that is 10% greater than the agreed upon offer to purchase the listing.

This arrangement gives the seller the upper hand because they can potentially get more money even when they’d already agreed to a price with you that was lower. If the business is in demand, you risk having it snatched away by someone else who’s more eager to buy it.

If there are no counteroffers or if you had already settled for the listing price and the money has been transferred to the Empire Flippers account, the sale is closed and migration begins. Ensure that your bank or investment company knows about the purchase to hasten the transfer.

Migration is a process where the website transfers ownership to you. It can be a lengthy process taking weeks depending on the complexity of the transferring revenue streams, social media accounts, and other resources. Since Empire Flippers is a “Done-For-You” service, they take care of all account migrations between the seller and buyer. They ensure that the process is seamless and the income that the online business makes is going to the new owner (you, as the buyer).

If somewhere down the line you find out that some of the information about the business was not reported accurately, you are protected by Empire Flippers. Additionally, if the business makes less than 50% of what was reported, the sale can be reconsidered.

These considerations make the whole process more reassuring to you as the buyer.

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Selling Your Online Business on Empire Flippers

If you are a seller, the first step you should take is find out the value of your business. Empire Flippers have a valuation tool that does this for you.

You can check it out here

Selling your business on Empire Flippers

The tool on the Empire Flippers website will give you an estimation of what your website or business is worth. Here is how the tool looks like on the first step:

Empire Flippers Valuation Tool

Here is the second step:

Empire Flippers Valuation Tool

The Third step:

Empire Flippers Valuation Tool

And the Fourth and final step:

Empire Flippers Valuation Tool

If you want to go ahead with the deal, you will be connected with a business specialist to begin the vetting process. There is a vetting fee of $297 if it is the first time you are listing a business on the platform. They charge this fee to ensure that they are only dealing with serious people. Note that this fee is 100% refundable if your listing gets rejected.

Before your business is listed, the team over at Empire Flippers will inspect all aspects of the website or business. During this process they verify site ownership, traffic figures, earnings reported, and other details. They also inspect all other assets.

They do all that to ensure that they only list legit business as they do not want junk or scam listings to tarnish their reputation. The intensive verification process also ensures that a buyer is purchasing a quality asset. The verification process can take around a week.

They publish new listings once a week on Monday’s at 7am EST. They also send out an email blast to over 45,000 people with the newly available listings.

The advantage of handing over the selling process to a platform like Empire Flippers is that you don’t need to buy software or even contact your webhost. They do everything for you. They also hide the URL of your site and don’t reveal specific information to potential buyers who have not unlocked the listing.

The problem with making all those details public from the jump is that dozens of copycats pop up to cash in on the niche and website structure. By hiding the URL, you eliminate the risk of that happening. You make more money with us than if you sell your website or online business on your own.

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How The Business Value is Calculated

To determine the value of the website, they take the average of the last 6 to 12 months’ of net profit and then multiply that figure by a multiple ranging from 20X to 60X+, depending on several factors.

[6-12 Months’ Average Net Profit] x (20 to 60+) = Listing Price

All this is factored into the valuation tool so this is done automatically.

Requirements to Sell A Business on Empire Flippers

If you want to sell your online business on Empire Flippers, there are a couple of requirements you need to meet before you can be accepted onto their marketplace. They include:

  • Your business should be making $2,000 per month or more in net profit over a 12-month average.
  • There must be no evidence of actively manipulating with penalizations, deleted accounts, 301 redirects short-term earnings. If there are 2 instances or more of these, the website/business will immediately be rejected.
  • If your business offers a service, it must derive over 50% of its income from multiple clients, can’t just be relying on a single customer.
  • They will not allow any business related to pornography, gambling, payday loans, hacking, illegal substances, any form of criminal activity, or sell physical products that are CBD or hemp oil-related. If your site is promising cures through herbal remedies/other dubious claims, or anything that leans in the direction of these categories, it will be rejected.
  • Empire Flippers does not accept businesses in the “adult” niche. Businesses in the sexual wellness space may be considered if they believe they have the buyer pool.
  • If your website has fake SEO, IG/Facebook/Twitter followers, it will immediately be rejected.
  • You need to have Google Analytics on the website for at least 3 months (Clicky is also acceptable).
  • Your business must have a solid track record of at least 12 months of revenue/earnings
  • If you have an Adsense/Amazon Associates/Affiliate/Advertising site, it must have been on the same domain for the previous 12 months.

They can also reject any business they deem as being unfit for their marketplace or if they don’t believe they have the buyer pool for the business.

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How Much Commission Do You Pay?

The commission structure is created in a way that the commission rates are stacked on one another based on the value of the business. Here’s the breaks down:

  • Under $700,000: commission is a flat 15% on the sale price.
  • The value of the business between $700,000 and $5M: commission is reduced to 8% on the amount above $700,000 and below $5,000,000.
  • The value of a business above $5 million: commission will further be reduced to 2.5% on the amount above $5,000,000.

If you want to find out how much commission you could pay, you can do so via the commission calculator.

Awards and Achievements

The company has earned several awards. For example, it made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies four years in a row.

Empire Flippers Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies

Additionally, it has received awards from the International Business Brokers Association.

Empire Flippers International Business Brokers Association Awards

The company was also featured in many established publications like Forbes, Business Insider, and The Huffington Post.

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Pros of Selling via Empire Flippers

A ready supply of buyers

You get to reach thousands of buyers that receive weekly emails when they have new listings. This means that every time they send out an email, they get more interested buyers and hundreds of visitors flooding the marketplace.

High success rate

Their sales success rate is 73%, which means that websites sell most of the time. They’ve sold many online businesses and have brokered 2,000+ online business transactions. With such a high success rate, you can be confident they will close the deal.

You find buyers faster

Empire Flippers already has a connection to interested parties, so they can easily help document the information needed to prepare for a sale and tailor recommendations to buyers they know are looking for a particular type of business. Makes the process faster if you have a business deemed ideal for the platform.

When you sell your business on Empire Flippers, it will sell within a few days to a few weeks after being listed on the marketplace.

You protect yourself from non-serious people who’ll waste time

You never hear from jokers and scam artists. Empire Flippers handles all communications between you and the buyer, so you have more time to focus on running and growing your business. New buyers must unlock a listing before they get specific info on your site or business.

Protection of important information

You don’t have to worry about people stealing your business idea because the company hides the URL of your site and never reveal specific information to potential buyers who have unlocked your listing. As we mentioned before, public sales attract copycats who pop up to cash in on the niche and business structure.

You can get new ideas to get a better deal

You get the benefit of a broker that can negotiate and “massage” a deal. Empire Flippers will provide you with new ideas and deal structures that may be unfamiliar to you, so the deal doesn’t fall through because of an issue with numbers.

It is a done-for-you service

Empire Flippers handles the process of transferring the website or business over to the buyer. It is a Done-For-You Service and they have migrated over two thousand different websites & online businesses. You don’t need to buy software or contact your web host to move the website to the buyer’s hosting account. They take care of everything for you.

You don’t leave money on the table

With their valuation tool, you are sure to sell at the actual value that the business is worth. If a buyer bargains, Empire Flippers opens the door for another buyer who is willing to offer more money than the initial buyer.

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Cons of Empire Flippers

If you are a buyer, offer circulation is a disadvantage

Empire Flippers circulates any offer that is under the listing price for 24 hours. This favors the seller because they can get a better offer even when they had already agreed to the deal. As a buyer, even if you have cash at hand, you have to wait 24 hours to have your offer officially accepted and the bidding process will potentially induce stress because of the uncertainty over whether the deal will stay put. It also goes against an unwritten rule in business that if a seller accepts a lower offer, then their decision is final and that they understood the ramifications of taking a lower offer.

Is Empire Flippers Legit?

Empire Flippers is legit. The company has been featured on Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Entrepreneur, Shopify, Moz, and other outlets, which proves that they have a solid track record. As I write this, these are the stats: They have sold 2,065 business for more than $400 million.

Empire Flippers Stats

Whether you are looking to purchase an already established website that is proven to earn money or want to sell your website Empire Flippers will help you out. They have an intensive business background vetting process that protects buyers and ensures that only genuine sellers are on the market place.

Another thing that makes Empire Flippers transparent as a company is that each year they share the companies financials along with Google Analytics reports, customer satisfaction ratings, email list analytics, and other stats and you can go through them if you wish. This goes a long way in earning trust with future buyers and sellers.

Empire Flippers

The company also has good reviews on Trust Pilot where they have a 4.6 out of 5 star rating from more than 67 people. This means that a majority of their testimonials are positive. This means that they do a good job for both the buyer and seller in each transaction.

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Conclusion

Empire Flippers is a legit marketplace for buying and selling profitable online businesses. It is a fast-growing company that has featured on the Inc. 5000 list of companies that has been quite successful at working with buyers and sellers from all over the world. It has helped its clients to buy and sell over $400 million worth of online businesses.

Empire Flippers is often described as a great option compared to its competitors because it puts a lot of care into its listing process. It has created a reputation of ensuring reputable, legit listings and taking care of its clients’ needs.

The company has a team that works diligently to ensure that each client has full protection and the necessary tools to formulate their business plan. The marketplace is a reliable option for people, who own profitable websites and want to list those properties online. It is also a marketplace for website flippers, who want to purchase or invest in an online business that is already profitable.

On top of that, it is a resource for people who want to know the value of their online company. It has a great support team that makes it easy to get in touch.

Get started listing your online business for sale with Empire Flippers

Before you leave

If you’re tired of scams and want a real solution for making money online check out my no.1 recommendation.

It’s helped me earn over $300,000 in the last 12 months alone:

Go here to see my no.1 recommendation for making money online

(This is a 100% free training)

Empire Flippers Review: Legit Marketplace? 7

David Fortune has been the editor NoBSIMReviews.com since 2019. He is an expert at writing content on stock advisory services, side hustles, reviewing online business opportunities and many more topics. You can learn more about David on our about us page.

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