Guide
Buy now, inquiry or application?
The three ways buyers can reach you from a listing, and what each one switches on.
Each listing chooses how buyers contact you. Which choices a listing offers depends on the kind of animal and the kind of listing: groups of young take inquiries or applications, and stock listings offer buy now plus inquiries (and, for some animals, applications).
Buy now
Buyers pick a quantity and pay by card straight away, then you get an order to prepare. It's for stock listings, needs card payments, and uses no form. Good for animals you sell often, in quantity, to anyone who meets your terms.
Inquiry
Buyers send a short message, and you reply in your inbox. Good when buyers usually have a question or two first.
Application
Buyers answer your full request form before you talk. Good when you choose homes carefully. You can write your own questions: see Request forms and saved replies.
Inquiries and applications both arrive as requests in your inbox, where you approve, decline, waitlist, ask for payments and mark them completed. See Handle a request.
Deposits, contracts and the gone home photo
- Groups of young (and rescue listings) always allow all three on requests.
- Stock listings have them off by default, since stock rarely needs them. Turn each on per listing under When buyers inquire or apply: Deposits (ask for a deposit on a request), Contracts (send a contract to sign) and Gone home photo (ask the buyer if you can show a photo in your gone home gallery).
Your defaults
Buyers and paperwork › Request forms sets which form new listings use and the starting contact choice for each kind of listing.
Updated October 19, 2026
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- Photos and videos on listingsHow many you can add, what happens to them, and how videos are converted.
- Quantity, stock and editing many listingsHow quantity drives availability, what buyers see during checkout, and how to edit or import many listings at once.
- "Still available?" emails and paused listingsWhy PerfectPal asks whether an untouched listing is still available, and what happens if you don't answer.
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- Rescue listingsHow registered rescues list an animal for adoption, and how adoption fees are reviewed.