Escrow exists for one stretch of every sale: the time between the buyer paying and the buyer receiving the animal. For that stretch the money sits with a neutral, licensed party, which pays the seller only once the agreed conditions are met. On Everybarn, that party is always a licensed third-party escrow provider. Everybarn is never the escrow provider, never a party to the payment, and never touches the money. This guide walks through what happens, in order.
When escrow applies
Every sale on Everybarn runs through a licensed third-party escrow provider, at any price and for every species. On eligible listings priced at $25,000 or more, Concierge adds hands-on help. Eligibility is set per species. Dogs, cats, and rabbits never go through Concierge at any price; horses, livestock, and the other species can qualify. A listing that qualifies shows a Concierge section with the fee for that listing and an Ask about Concierge button.
Concierge is optional for both sides. Today it is run with hands-on support: a person on our team coordinates each step in the listing's Concierge thread, rather than an automated workflow. Without Concierge, the same steps run in the listing's message thread, between you and the seller.
1. Open the thread
From the listing, message the seller, or choose Ask about Concierge where it is offered. If you are not signed in, you sign in with an email link first. The thread opens between you and the seller, with our team in it on a Concierge sale. Everything from here, the questions, the terms, and the dates, is written into that thread, so every party can read the same record later.
2. Agree the terms in writing
Before anyone pays, buyer and seller agree the terms of the sale in the thread: the price, what is included, how the animal will travel, and the conditions the sale depends on. For a horse or any other high-value animal, the condition that matters most is a pre-purchase exam, performed by a veterinarian the buyer chooses and pays for, within an agreed window. The terms should also say what happens if the findings fall outside what was agreed, whether that means renegotiating or ending the deal.
Read the listing's Papers against the terms. Documents on file are the seller's uploads, not records Everybarn has confirmed with the clinic, lab, or registry, so open each one and check it yourself. Anything not on file is worth writing into the conditions by name.
3. Open the transaction with the escrow provider
The escrow transaction is opened with the licensed provider, and both parties accept the provider's own terms directly with the provider. Those terms set out the provider's fee and who pays it, the inspection period, and how the provider handles a dispute. Read them before any money moves. Everybarn charges the buyer nothing at any step; the provider's fee belongs to the provider and appears in its terms first.
4. The buyer pays the escrow provider
The buyer pays the escrow provider: not the seller directly, and never Everybarn. The provider confirms receipt to both parties, so the seller knows the payment is there without seeing any of the buyer's bank details.
Check where you are sending money, every time. Payment instructions come from the escrow provider, through the provider's own site, not from a message, a forwarded email, or a link in a text. If payment details change in the middle of a deal, stop and confirm them with the provider before sending anything. Changed wire instructions are one of the most common ways a large payment goes to the wrong place.
5. Exam, transport, and handoff
With the payment at the provider, the conditions run. The pre-purchase exam happens inside its window. If it clears, transport is booked, and the animal travels with its health certificate and whatever tests the destination state requires; our guide to transporting an animal across state lines covers that paperwork. If the exam does not clear, the deal follows the remedy written into the terms, and the provider acts on what the parties agreed.
At handoff, check the animal against its records: the microchip number, the markings, and every document that was promised.
6. Confirm, then release
When you have the animal and it matches what was agreed, you confirm handoff, and the escrow provider releases payment to the seller. You have 72 hours to raise a dispute with them first. Use those hours: a vet check in the first days, a look at every document, a scan of the chip. If something is wrong, raise it with the escrow provider inside the window. Disputes are decided under the provider's own process, because the payment sits with the provider. Everybarn supplies the record, meaning the thread, the Papers records, and the timestamps, and never decides the outcome.
How long it takes
Most of the time in an escrow sale is spent on the animal, not the money. Agreeing terms usually takes a few days of back and forth in the thread. A bank transfer to the escrow provider can take one or two business days to arrive. The exam window is set in the terms, often a week, and transport depends on distance and the destination's paperwork. From the first question to the release of payment, two to four weeks is common for a horse, and nobody should rush a step to save a day.
If the deal does not go ahead
Deals end for ordinary reasons: an exam finding, a change of plans, transport that cannot be arranged in time. When that happens, what happens to the payment is decided by the terms the parties agreed and the escrow provider's own rules, which is why both are written down before any money moves. Read the section of the provider's terms on cancellations before you pay, and make sure the sale terms in the thread say plainly what ends the deal.
Settle these before you pay
- Which escrow provider is running the transaction, and have you opened the provider's own site yourself?
- How long is the exam window, and which findings end the deal?
- Who books and pays for transport, and when does the animal travel?
- Where and when does handoff happen, and who will be there?
What it costs
- Buyers: $0 to Everybarn, ever.
- Sellers: 4% of the closed sale price when the sale closes through Concierge, charged by Everybarn as an ordinary seller fee after the close, never deducted from the payment. A Concierge listing pays no listing fee.
- The escrow provider: its own fee, set out in its terms before anyone pays.
What escrow does not do
Escrow controls when money moves, and nothing else. It is not an inspection of the animal, a statement about its health, or a promise about its future. The pre-purchase exam, the documents you have checked, and your own judgment do that work. What escrow gives you is time: the payment waits with a neutral party until you have seen the animal and confirmed it arrived as agreed.