Completing a purchase

How a purchase completes on Haubot depends on the listing type. An ordinary sale listing, an auction and a deal wrapped in an optional service all close differently. This guide is the map.

Ordinary sale listings

For a standard For sale listing, Haubot provides the platform — the listing, the document vault, search, and messaging — and the buyer and seller run the transaction between themselves.

The usual sequence:

1. Inquiry. You contact the seller through the in-platform messenger from the listing. Ask your questions, request any restricted documents (see Requesting document access), and confirm the essentials — location, condition, what's included.
2. Negotiation. Price and terms are agreed directly between you and the seller.
3. Settlement and handover. Payment, invoicing, collection or transport, and the transfer of any title or documents are arranged between the parties.

For ordinary listings, Haubot is not the seller, does not hold the money, and does not arrange the handover unless an optional service is added. That is by design — but it also means the buyer's due diligence is the buyer's responsibility.

Auctions

Auctions are a separate flow with binding bids and a defined settlement process. The mechanics — Seller Managed vs Haubot Managed, deposits, payment deadlines, the 3-round dispute process — are covered in full in the Auctions section.

The one thing worth repeating here: a bid is a binding offer. If you win, you are obligated to complete. Read Bidding rules and Winning and payment before you place a first bid, not after.

Optional services that change the shape of a deal

Any listing — auction or ordinary — can have an optional Haubot service layered on. These are opt-in, quoted in advance, and they change what Haubot is doing in the transaction:

• SecureTrade — a managed transaction-protection workflow: funds placed into a protected holding mechanism, released against agreed milestones. Useful for high-value, cross-border or unfamiliar-counterparty deals. See /solutions/securetrade.
• Inspections — an independent on-site condition report before you commit. See /solutions/inspections.
• Logistics — transport coordination, which can be ordered standalone or wired into the transaction. See /solutions/logistics.

None of these are mandatory on an ordinary listing. They exist for the deals where informal trust isn't enough.

What "Sold" means

For an ordinary listing, the seller marks the listing sold once the transaction is complete between the parties. For an auction, the listing moves to Sold when the settlement conditions for that auction mode are met — payment received in Haubot Managed, seller confirmation in Seller Managed. Until then the listing sits in a post-auction state, and your buyer dashboard shows exactly where it is.

A practical checklist

Before you treat a deal as done, regardless of listing type:

• You've verified the documents that matter, not just read them.
• You know where the equipment physically is and what collection or transport involves.
• You know who you're paying and on what terms — and, for cross-border or high-value deals, whether SecureTrade should sit in the middle.
• For auctions, you've read the auction-mode rules and you understand the payment deadline.

The platform gives you the listing, the documents, the messaging and — where you choose — the services. The decision to close is still yours.