Equimeta Deal Room
Secure horse-sale payment in a documented workflow.
Buying or selling a $5,000–$150,000 horse from someone you have never met should not run on a wire transfer and a handshake. Equimeta runs the workflow — agreement, document signing, payment, document exchange — in one shared record. Buyer pays the seller through Stripe inside the Deal Room; both sides see every milestone on the same record.
- Documented agreement before payment
- Seller contact details protected until payment confirmed
- Stripe-processed payments — no card data on Equimeta
- Sellers paid out on their normal Stripe payout schedule
The riskiest part of a horse sale, on rails.
Inspection still happens in person under your agreed terms. Payment, paperwork, and timing run inside one documented workflow so neither side is asked for blind trust.
Documented before money moves
Checkout cannot start until both sides have signed the purchase agreement inside the Deal Room and the seller has connected their Stripe payout account. The deal terms — price, contingencies, parties — are recorded before any payment is initiated.
Payment processed through Stripe
When the buyer is ready, they check out through Stripe. The charge goes directly to the seller's connected Stripe account; Equimeta is paid a platform fee on the same charge. No direct wires to a stranger; no cashier-check rendezvous in a parking lot.
Seller contact protected
Seller contact details are not released until the payment is confirmed in the Deal Room. That removes the most common off-platform fraud route — a fake buyer extracting a phone number, then disappearing to a different platform with no payment trail.
Run on Stripe Connect
Payment infrastructure runs on Stripe Connect — the same rails used by Lyft, Shopify, and thousands of other platforms. Equimeta does not store or process card data; sensitive payment information is handled by Stripe.
Standard Stripe payouts
Once the charge clears Stripe, the seller is paid out on their normal Stripe Connect payout schedule (usually 2 business days for ACH, longer for new accounts). The Deal Room then advances to the document-exchange milestone.
Disputes use the Deal Room record
If a disagreement comes up, the listing record, the agreed deal terms, the signed purchase agreement, and the Deal Room conversation all stay archived. Card-network chargebacks and refund decisions are between the buyer, the seller, and Stripe; Equimeta is not the merchant of record.
Optional holding deposit on the same record
When both sides want to lock in serious intent before the inspection window, either party can propose a holding deposit. Both parties e-sign a deposit addendum on the deal, the buyer pays the deposit through Stripe to the seller's connected account, and that amount is automatically credited against the balance owed at the Payment milestone. Refund conditions (PPE outcome, seller withdrawal, buyer withdrawal) are captured on the addendum — Equimeta does not custody the funds and does not refund unilaterally.
What buyers and sellers ask about the payment workflow.
- Is this escrow?
- No. Stripe processes the charge directly to the seller's connected account; Equimeta does not take custody of funds. Full workflow details live on the Deal Room page.
- Who pays the Equimeta fee?
- Buyers pay $0 Equimeta Deal Room platform fee. Sellers pay the tiered Deal Room fee from proceeds on completed marketplace deals, disclosed before checkout. The full schedule and policy live on the payment policy page.
- How fast does the seller get paid?
- Once the charge clears Stripe, the seller is paid out on their normal Stripe Connect payout schedule — typically 2 business days for ACH, longer for newly verified accounts or first payouts. Cross-border transfers (US ↔ Canada) are supported; bank-side currency conversion fees are outside Equimeta's control.
- What happens if the horse fails a pre-purchase exam?
- If a PPE contingency is in the agreement and the horse fails, the buyer should not start checkout. If payment already cleared, refunds run through Stripe under the seller's policy and the documented Deal Room terms — see the payment policy page for the long form.
- Can a seller take a holding deposit before the PPE?
- Yes. Once both sides have agreed on price, either party can propose a holding deposit with an amount, a balance-due date, and refund terms (PPE outcome, seller withdrawal, buyer withdrawal). Both parties e-sign a deposit addendum on the deal record, then the buyer pays the deposit through Stripe to the seller's connected Stripe account. Equimeta does not custody the deposit. The amount is automatically credited against the balance owed at the Payment milestone, and the seller Deal Room fee is allocated proportionally so the total seller fee matches a single-payment deal.
- What happens to the deposit if the deal is cancelled?
- Refund decisions are governed by the deposit addendum the parties signed — typically refundable on PPE failure or seller withdrawal, non-refundable on buyer withdrawal. Once both sides have requested cancellation, the deal page surfaces a refund panel to the responsible party prefilled with the addendum's terms, but the actual refund is a manual action through Stripe on the seller's connected account. Equimeta does not refund unilaterally — the same posture as the rest of the payment workflow.
- Can I see the deposit flow in a demo?
- Yes — open the demo deal at /account/deals/00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000d311?demo and append &depositState=proposal, &depositState=signed, &depositState=paid, &depositState=balanceDue, or &depositState=refunded to step through every state of the deposit flow on a single URL. The demo never touches Stripe and never moves real money.
- Can I use the Deal Room workflow on a sale I started off-platform?
- Yes — the Deal Room can be opened on a sale that started elsewhere as long as both parties have Equimeta accounts, the listing exists on the platform, and the seller's Stripe payout connection is verified. Equimeta also offers a separate offline records / ownership transfer flow for closed off-platform sales (see the payment policy page).
- What if there is a dispute?
- Equimeta keeps the listing record, the agreed deal terms, the signed purchase agreement, and the full Deal Room conversation archived for both sides — that paper trail is what disputes typically come down to. Card-network chargebacks and refund decisions are handled by Stripe under the seller's policy. Equimeta's support team can help you organize and present the Deal Room record; we are not arbitrating the underlying contract.
Stop wiring strangers. Run the sale through the Deal Room.
Pick the horse you want, then move into a Deal Room. Both sides agree on price and terms in the same record, the buyer pays the seller through Stripe inside the workflow, and every milestone is documented.