Multi posting is against the forum rules, and this is the appropriate section for your post, the other is wrongly placed.
I like the idea of an escrow service, to mediate transactions, especially if it's trustless, as that's one of the major objectives of Bitcoin.
You mentioned a smart contract being one of your long term goals; what should users trust on till then, before putting your funds at stake one needs a certain level of assurance or some sort of collateral. Basically, why should I trust you or your website?
I am working on a multi-sig system, basically i am trying to make it as simple as possible, even for new users, it takes a lot of work but i will get there as soon as possible.
If you have any ideas on how to make it easier for users, i am open for that.
You mentioned using/developing smart contract for this in the future, what stops you from doing it now and have it decentralized and also trustless? I could contribute ideas in that area even though I may not have the required skills in smart contract development.
I think we need an automated, decentralized, permissionless, trustless & open escrow system anyone can simply plug into & use safely to do business with peers from anywhere in the world. I wonder if something like that exist yet.