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Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media. Last reviewed 29 July 2026.
The common escrow mistakes are all versions of one mistake: letting something move before the money is committed. Handing over store admin early as a goodwill gesture, funding partially, agreeing a vague list of what counts as delivered, skipping the inspection window, and using an escrow service the other side found are the five that cost real money. Run those steps out of order and escrow protects nothing.
Almost every horror story starts politely. A buyer asks for admin access early to check something small, or a seller ships the domain first to show good faith. The asset has now left and the money has not arrived. Nobody set out to defraud anyone, and it does not matter. Escrow only protects the steps you actually run through it.
Escrow releases on conditions, so a condition nobody wrote down cannot be met or disputed. Name every asset: store account, domain, registrar, ad accounts and their pixel history, email platform and list, supplier logins, socials. If the agreement says the seller transfers the business, the escrow agent has no way to tell whether that happened, and you have replaced a contract with a conversation.
A link to an escrow service sent by the counterparty is the oldest fake in this market: the site looks right, the funds go nowhere. Pick the provider yourself, reach it by typing the address rather than clicking the link, and confirm it is licensed where it operates. On Kairos this is not a decision either party makes under pressure, because the deal settles through the platform's provider.
Every item that has to change hands, named. This is what the escrow agent will later check against, so vagueness here becomes a dispute later.
Type the address in, never follow a link the other side sent. Confirm the company is licensed where it operates before a cent moves.
The whole purchase price sits with the provider first. No partial funding, and no assets moving early as a courtesy.
Work the named list in order. An asset that is not on the list is not part of the deal, and now is when to say so.
Log in, run a real order, check payouts land and the domain resolves. This window is the only cheap moment to raise a problem.
Confirmation is the release trigger, so confirm only what you have actually checked. Any agreed holdback stays behind on its own schedule.
Kairos Due Diligence works on any deal - Flippa, a broker, a private sale. A person reads the store's raw numbers and writes you a report. If the deal is bad, the report says walk away. From EUR 1.5k, no account needed.
When the doors open, verified stores go to the waitlist first. You have done the reading part. The list is the part with a queue.