How escrow works

Three steps

Step 1 — You pay into escrow

You pay the listing price plus a 1% escrow fee. The money settles into 9jaRealtor's merchant balance, tagged to your transaction — not sent to the seller yet.

Step 2 — You inspect and confirm

Book an inspection before paying if you haven't already. Once you're satisfied the deal is as agreed, you confirm it from your dashboard. Nothing is released before that.

Step 3 — The seller gets paid

Confirming triggers a single split payout: the seller's share, any agent commission, and the platform fee all move in one operation. If you raise a dispute instead, the transaction freezes for admin review rather than auto-releasing.

What each status means

• Pending — You've started payment; the provider hasn't confirmed it yet.
• Funded — Payment confirmed — your money is held in escrow.
• In review — A dispute was raised. Our team is looking into it before anything moves.
• Released — You confirmed the deal. The split payout has gone out.
• Refunded — The transaction was cancelled and you've been refunded.

The fee

9jaRealtor charges a 1% escrow protection fee, shown on top of the price before you pay — never hidden until checkout. This rate doesn't change based on how you pay or whether the deal is split into installments: a transaction settled by bank transfer (Special Request Payment, for deals above ₦5,000,000) or spread across an installment plan still carries the same 1% fee on the full price.

Separately, 9jaRealtor reserves 5% of the listing price itself at release — sellers receive 95%. If the listing was posted by an agent, their 2% commission is carved out of that 5% reserve, never an extra deduction from the seller.

Installments

You don't have to pay in one go. A listing can be bought on an installment plan: a reservation deposit of at least 50% of the price, paid upfront, holds the property for you — then the remaining balance is paid across up to three further installments. Each installment sits in escrow exactly like a lump-sum payment would, held until the plan reaches 100% and the full payout fires once.

If something goes wrong

You can report a problem on any transaction from the transaction itself. Raising a dispute freezes the transaction instead of letting it auto-release, and it goes to our team for review. Refunds on a rejected or failed payment go back strictly to the account the money was sent from — never to a different account named at refund time.

Questions about a specific transaction? See our Terms of Service or get in touch from your dashboard.