How does escrow work on a six-figure transfer?

What is escrow actually doing in the deal?

Escrow removes the question of who moves first. Without it, either the buyer sends six figures to a person they met online and hopes the domain follows, or the seller hands over the code, the customer list and the brand and hopes the payment follows. Neither party will reasonably do that at $120,000, so a regulated third party holds the money while the assets move, and releases it when the buyer confirms receipt.

The agent is independent of both sides and of the platform. Indiemaker is non-custodial: the funds go to the escrow provider, and the platform never holds them at any point in the transaction.

What is the sequence on a $120,000 close?

The sequence is fixed, and every step has to finish before the next one starts. On a typical transfer of a micro-SaaS at that price, it runs like this.

1. Terms are agreed and the asset schedule is written, item by item, with a completion test for each.
2. Both parties open the escrow transaction with the independent agent and accept its terms, including the inspection window.
3. The buyer deposits the full $120,000. Nothing moves until the agent confirms cleared funds.
4. The seller begins the transfer and works the schedule, ticking items off as each lands.
5. The buyer inspects each item against its test: registrant records, repository ownership, account logins, customer data.
6. The buyer confirms completion with the agent inside the inspection window.
7. The agent releases $120,000 to the seller in a single payment.
8. The handover period runs afterwards, covering questions, introductions and anything the schedule did not need to cover.

Step three is the one people try to reorder. A seller who wants assets to move before funds are with the agent, or a buyer who wants access before depositing, is asking the other side to carry the whole risk of the deal.

Who does what, and when?

Each stage has one party acting and one thing that has to be true before it can happen.

Identity checks are worth expecting rather than resenting. A regulated agent will ask both parties for identification and, above certain thresholds, for source-of-funds information. Budget a few days for it at the start rather than discovering it on the day you meant to deposit.

What does escrow cost, and who pays?

Fees at six figures are a small fraction of a per cent of the transaction value, which makes escrow one of the cheapest lines in the deal. Wire and disbursement charges sit on top and are usually modest. Who pays is a negotiated point, commonly split or carried by the buyer, and it belongs in the letter of intent rather than in a conversation on deposit day.

Compared with the professional fees on the agreement itself, escrow is rarely the number worth arguing over. Agree it early and move on to the schedule, which is where the real money is decided.

What is the inspection window for?

The inspection window is the buyer's time to check each asset against its test before the money releases. It should be long enough to cover the slowest item you genuinely need on completion, which in practice means checking registrar transfer locks and processor migration timelines before you agree a length. Five working days suits a clean software transfer where the domain is unlocked and the code moves in an afternoon.

Set it too short and you confirm under pressure. Set it too long and the seller is carrying an open-ended commitment, which sours the handover before it starts.

What has to be written down before funds go in?

The asset schedule, with a test per item that a third party could apply. The exact list varies by business, and the discipline does not: a domain is complete when the public record shows the buyer as registrant, a repository when it sits under the buyer's organisation with the seller's access removed, a processor when the buyer's own account is charging the customers.

Also settle who pays the escrow fee, how long the inspection window runs, what happens if a third party delays an item outside the seller's control, and where the handover period starts. Ambiguity in any of these is what turns a routine transfer into a fortnight of email.

What can go wrong with escrow itself?

The arrangement is straightforward, and the failures are almost always in the paperwork around it. Vague completion language is the common one, where the buyer thinks an item is outstanding and the seller thinks it was delivered. Missed inspection windows are next: some agents treat silence as acceptance, which is a detail worth knowing in advance rather than discovering afterwards.

The other failure is choosing the counterparty badly. Use an established, regulated escrow provider, and reach it through its own domain rather than through a link you were sent. Impersonated escrow sites exist precisely because this is the moment the money moves.

Does the platform hold the money?

No. Indiemaker does not hold, touch or route funds at any point, and the escrow agent is an independent regulated provider with its own terms, its own identity checks and its own dispute process. That separation is the reason the arrangement works: the party holding the money has no interest in whether the deal closes.

For context on the band, Indiemaker carried 112 businesses listed between $50,000 and $150,000 as at 14 September 2026. At that size, one upfront deposit released against a written schedule is the ordinary shape of an ownership transfer, and buyers at six figures expect it.

Related: escrow, what-if-a-seller-doesnt-complete-the-transfer, how-to-take-over-hosting-domains-and-payments