Suppose I decide the ideal domain name for my next project would be foo.com. I check what’s currently there, and get a 404. I check whois for contact info and send e-mail offering to buy the domain, and it bounces with no such address. I check whois again and it says the domain is due to expire in a couple of months.
What’s the best next step? If I wait until the expiry date will I be able to pick up the domain then? Unless the current owner renews it, presumably. How likely is it for a domain that currently points to a 404 to be renewed?
What else am I missing?
There are services that allow you to “backorder” a domain, meaning that the provider will buy it for you should it become available.
There might be lots of reasons why someone has reserved that domain, even if there is no publically available HTML content or a mail server hooked up.
This seems quite a long shot, maybe worth thinking of a new name for your project!