Buying a store is not a checkout. It runs through a six-stage pipeline with documents, escrow and an identity check, and both parties drive different parts of it.
Your deals live at /account/deals. No organization
is required to buy.
Making an offer
An offer is verified by email OTP before it reaches the seller, which is what stops a listing from collecting anonymous noise. The seller sees it in their dashboard and can accept, reject or counter.
An accepted offer opens a deal thread: a shared timeline carrying the messages, the documents and the stage.
The pipeline
| From | To | Who advances it | Requires | |---|---|---|---| | Under offer | LOI signed | Seller | A signed LOI on the record | | LOI signed | Diligence | Seller | — | | Diligence | APA signed | Seller | A signed APA and buyer KYC above $10k | | APA signed | Escrow funded | Either party | — | | Escrow funded | Transferring | Seller | — | | Transferring | Closed | Buyer | — |
Two rules explain the whole table.
A transition reads a fact, it never writes one. The signature timestamps come from actually signing, not from clicking "next stage". A stage cannot manufacture its own evidence.
The party who bears the consequence performs the transition. Closing
marks the listing sold and credits the seller's public track record, so
it belongs to the buyer: a seller who requests it gets a 409. The
label is a confirmation of receipt, not a "next" button: it is the
declaration that makes the sale public.
Escrow funding stays open to both parties because it only opens the 14-day dispute window, so a seller declaring it can never trap a buyer.
What this replaced
Before this model, all six transitions belonged to the seller and each one stamped the fact it named. Six clicks produced a signed LOI, a signed APA, a funded escrow, a released escrow, a closed deal and a sold listing — with no signature, no payment and no buyer involved at all.
An honest limit
escrowFundedAt is a declaration, not a proof. No escrow provider
is wired in yet, so nothing verifies that money moved. The day one is
connected, the requirement in that table gains a check on the escrow id.
Plan your transaction accordingly.
Next
Deal documents & KYC covers the NDA, LOI and APA, and the identity check above $10,000.