An escrow is a financial agreement in which a third party controls payments between two parties and only releases the funds involved once a contract's terms are met. This third party temporarily holds money, paperwork, or other assets for a transaction on their behalf.
Escrow agreements can be used in many different types of transactions, you can have an escrow agreement for services, such services or products or construction projects, there are several providers of escrow services like upwork, worknhire, fivrr and many others use escrow services or acts as an escrow service, escrow is often used in home buying and its most popular use is the purchase of items like homes, large auction items, cars and other large transactions where you need lower cost and mre protection than using a credit card or paying cash
How do you get paid with escrow?
When you enter into escrow, which basically means by "enter" is you decide to use escrow to buy something, or pay for a service, or if your the receiver of money, it means someone has decided to pay you via escrow. You must follow the terms of the escrow.
However what are the terms of your escrow?
normally the terms of your escrow will be via whats called an Escrow agreement, and you and your attorney will need to read this agreement to know for sure (which is recommended) , however generally speaking the escrow is released when either the entire object/asset/service has been received by the buyer, or alternatively via whats called milestones, milestones are common in construction (often called draws) and in work contracts, most popular online contract worker resources like worknhire, fivrr and upwork as well as many others often encourage payment via milestones.
milestones are smaller pieces of the project which must be completed to release the portion of the money from the project which has been assigned to that milestone as the payment amount. Basically in this form of escrow you must complete that portion of the larger job, in order to receive that portion of pay for that portion of the larger job. Basically milestones allow you to work, and get paid more often as you finish the work, instead of one large lump sum after a very long project is completed.
SummaryEscrow agreements outline the terms and conditions of large transactions. The transaction is mediated by an independent escrow agent, who holds all funds and documents until both sides have fulfilled their promises.Escrow agreements are used in mergers and acquisitions, certain issuance of stocks, real estate, and legal settlements.
Escrow accounts are meant to protect buyers and sellers. The 3rd party (escrow company/holder of the money) will release money to the seller or receiver of the money, if they follow the terms of the agreement the buyer and seller agreed to, this is the agreement that the escrwow company should follow in most cases to determine when to pay you