What is the best way to change the owner of a domain name? I am mostly concerned with not getting ripped off. There are a few unusual things to mention:
* The current owner lives in Korea and I am in the US
* The current registrar is OpenSRS - I want to transfer to GoDaddy
* I don't currently have a GoDaddy account (I currently use Register.com, but they are too expensive for me)

My questions:
* How do we properly ensure that neither one of us is ripping the other off?
* At what point do I try to send him the funds?
* What is the best way to pay someone across international borders? PayPal? Do I pay him in US Dollars? How is this typically handled?
* Do we need to fax signed and notarized documents to GoDaddy?

Thanks in advance. I know there are a lot of experienced domain name tsars out there, so please share the knowledge!

Don't change ownership and registrars at the same time. After you have control of the domain name in the OpenSRS system, then transfer it to GoDaddy if you want to.

In the Domain Manage interface at OpenSRS, you can simply move the domain to a new profile - then you control the domain. Ownership transfer complete.

-t

escrow.com (http://www.escrow.com)

i have used them a few times and they have been great.
they protect both the buyer and the seller.