How DriveHaus works — the full briefing

This is the complete picture — for buyers who want to know exactly how protected they are, for sellers deciding whether to list, and for anyone explaining DriveHaus to someone else.

1. The people involved

• Buyers browse, save, chat, make offers and review sellers. Buying on DriveHaus is free.
• Sellers — private owners and small dealers — list vehicles, answer enquiries and offers, and pay a success fee only when a vehicle sells to a DriveHaus buyer.
• Mechanics are independent professionals the team works with. They inspect vehicles on request and publish a report on the listing. Nobody can sign themselves up as a mechanic.
• Affiliates share listings with their own tracked links and earn the reward a seller offers when the vehicle sells through them.
• The DriveHaus team reviews listings, checks identity documents, assigns inspections, confirms invoice payments, handles reports and answers support.

One account buys and sells. Create it with an email address, or sign in with your Vibe account.

2. A sale from start to finish

1. The seller verifies (Level 2). A government ID (driver's licence, passport, UMID, PhilSys, SSS or PRC) and a selfie holding it, optionally with a proof of address. The team checks that the name matches the account, the ID is valid and the selfie matches. Documents are private and never shown on the site.
2. Listing and review. The seller adds the category, brand, model, year, price, mileage, specs, papers status and up to 12 photos. A person reviews every listing before it goes live and rejects stock photos, bait prices ("₱1", "call for price"), misleading papers, duplicates and contact details in the description. A rejected listing shows the reason and can be fixed and resubmitted. Later edits to photos, specs or the description are checked again; price changes go live at once.
3. Discovery. Buyers search and filter, save vehicles and are told when a saved vehicle's price drops or it sells. Sellers can share tracked links and QR codes and see which channel brings clicks.
4. Contact (Level 1). Chatting and making offers need a confirmed email and phone number, so sellers deal with reachable people. Messages and photos arrive instantly and stay on record.
5. Offers. A buyer offers an amount; the seller accepts, declines or counters; the buyer can accept a counter or withdraw. Offers expire after a set number of days (7 by default). An accepted offer records the agreed price — it is not a contract.
6. Inspection (optional). The seller requests an inspection (buyers can ask them to). The team assigns an independent mechanic nearby, who checks 22 points across the engine, drivetrain, brakes and suspension, electrics, body and frame, documents and a road test, takes photos and publishes the report with a verdict: Passed, Passed with notes, or Failed. The report cannot be edited afterwards, and a failed report is still published.
7. Viewing, papers and payment. Buyer and seller meet in a public place and check the vehicle and the papers: the OR/CR matching the chassis and engine numbers, a notarised deed of sale signed by the registered owner, and a release of chattel mortgage if it was financed. The buyer pays the seller directly. DriveHaus does not hold or process the money.
8. Marked sold. The seller picks the buyer from their chats and enters the final price (an accepted offer is filled in). The buyer can then review the seller, once. The ownership transfer is done at the LTO within 30 days.
9. Success fee. For a sale to a DriveHaus buyer an invoice is created: the success fee, the listing & translation fee and any affiliate reward the seller offered. The seller pays it by GCash, Maya or bank transfer, enters the reference, and the team confirms it. Overdue unpaid invoices stop new listings until they are settled. "Sold elsewhere" closes the listing with no fee.

3. What it costs

• Buyers: nothing. Browsing, saving, chatting and offers are free.
• Sellers: listing is free. On a sale to a DriveHaus buyer, a success fee (3% of the sale price by default, shown on the Sell page and every invoice) plus a listing & translation fee (1% by default).
• Inspections: a fixed fee (₱1,500 by default), shown before you request one and invoiced when the report is published.
• Optional: featured placement for a set number of days, and an affiliate reward the seller chooses.

Example: a motorbike sells for ₱100,000 to a buyer who found it on DriveHaus. With the default rates the seller's invoice is ₱3,000 success fee + ₱1,000 listing & translation fee = ₱4,000. The buyer pays nothing to DriveHaus.

4. How it compares with other ways to buy a vehicle in the Philippines

Facebook Marketplace, buy-and-sell groups and classified sites. A huge choice and no fees, but anyone can post. Bait prices, "reservation fees" requested before you have seen the vehicle, open deeds of sale, unpaid bank loans and flood-damaged vehicles described as clean are all common complaints. Sellers are rarely verified, and chats vanish.

Used-car dealers and lots. You get a business to go back to and sometimes a warranty, but prices include the dealer's margin and the choice is limited to their stock.

Bank repossessed sales and auctions. Prices can be low, but vehicles are usually sold as-is, with little history and little chance to inspect.

DriveHaus keeps the direct, private-seller prices of the groups and adds the checks: verified sellers, listings reviewed by a person, optional independent inspections, offers and chats on record, and reviews from real buyers — while buyers still pay nothing to DriveHaus.

5. What makes it safer

• Verified sellers. Publishing a listing needs a checked government ID and selfie, and buyers who chat or make offers have confirmed their email and phone.
• Reviewed listings. A person checks every listing and every significant edit, and rejects bait prices, stock photos and misleading papers.
• Independent inspections. A 22-point report with photos, by a mechanic who works for neither side and may not quote repairs on the same job.
• A record of everything. Chats, photos, offers and counters stay on DriveHaus — your evidence if something is disputed.
• Real reviews. Only a buyer a vehicle was actually sold to can review the seller, once.
• Reports that are read. The Report button covers scams, misleading listings, wrong prices, suspected stolen vehicles and more. Serious reports pause the listing while the team looks, and repeated valid reports lead to a suspended account.
• Private documents. ID documents are only visible to the review team.
• Plain safety advice. Never send a deposit to hold a vehicle, meet in a busy public place, check the OR/CR against the vehicle, and pay only when the vehicle and the papers are in front of you.
• Help that answers. The support assistant answers at any hour from these guides and your own account; a person from the team takes over when needed, and every question is tracked until it is answered.

6. Good to know (the honest limits)

• DriveHaus does not hold payments, offer escrow or process LTO transfers. If anyone offers "DriveHaus escrow", report them.
• Verification proves who a seller is, not a vehicle's history: always check the papers yourself.
• An inspection is a professional snapshot on the day, not a warranty.
• An accepted offer records a price; it is not a binding contract.

7. Getting help

Press the chat button in the corner of any page. The assistant reads the help centre and — when you are signed in — your own listings, offers, invoices, inspections and verification status (it can look, never change anything). If it cannot solve it, press Talk to a person: it writes your question up clearly for the team and tracks it until it is answered. With a Vibe-linked account a team member can also join the chat live, and the assistant keeps helping until they do.