system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What exactly is escrow?
gpt
Escrow is like a third party referee who makes sure that payments are made as agreed to.

If you're buying a property, you'd put the money into escrow, and this guarantees to the seller that if everything else proceeds as planned, they will be paid. You wouldn't give the money directly to the seller, because there may still be other things to take care of before the sale is finalized.

The escrow prevents the buyer from changing his mind in the middle of the process.