My title company won't dry fund the double close the buyer is asking for

Question

Contract at $182,000, buyer at $221,000, so $39,000 gross. Buyer's agent saw the assignment amount on the draft statement and now they want a double close so their client isn't staring at my fee. Fine with me in principle, except the seller's title company won't do a dry close, so I need actual funds on the A to B side. Transactional funding quote is 2% of purchase plus a $1,200 fee, call it $4,840, and the second set of settlement charges runs about $4,300 on my two estimates. That's roughly $9,100 off the top.

On top of that my dispo partner's agreement says 30% and the agreement doesn't say 30% of what. My earnest money is $5,000 and it went hard when inspection ended.

Options I see: eat the $9,100, go back to the seller for a price reduction, or push the buyer to accept the assignment. Which of these actually gets picked in practice, and am I missing a fourth?

Rena Expert · Accepted Answer

Start with the 30%. If your partner's fee is 30% of gross, that's $11,700 and your net after $9,100 of double close cost is $18,200. If it's 30% of net after costs, it's $8,970 and you keep $20,930. That single undefined word is worth about $2,700 on this deal and you need it settled in writing before you pick a closing structure, because your partner has an incentive to prefer whichever structure keeps the gross number high.

On the choice itself, the question is what the buyer is actually objecting to. If it's the price, a double close doesn't fix anything and they'll come back at $210,000 once they've had a contractor in. If it's the optics of a $39,000 line item on their statement, the double close does fix it, and you're paying $9,100 for that. Going back to the seller is the cheapest fix on paper and the most likely to detonate, since you'd be asking for a reduction with no inspection issue to hang it on, and a seller who calls their own agent about it may discover the resale price. Sale price visibility varies by state and about a dozen don't make it public at all, which changes how exposed that conversation is where you are.

Your $5,000 hard earnest money is the number that should drive the decision. If this buyer walks you're carrying that plus a live contract, so I'd verify the transactional lender's timeline against your closing date in writing before spending another day negotiating fee mechanics. Also confirm which side the seller's title company will insure, because some closers will fund A to B and then refuse to insure the B to C in the same file, and that surfaces two days out.

luis_carrera · Answer

The fourth one people mention is splitting it, assign at a smaller fee and take the rest through a separate agreement for something else. I've read enough about that going wrong that I wouldn't be the one to recommend it.

The part I'd chase first is the title company. A refusal to dry fund is sometimes a state practice thing and sometimes just that particular escrow officer's policy, and buyers can bring their own title company on the B to C side while the seller keeps theirs on A to B. Two closers, two files, funds actually wired. Have you asked whether the objection is to the same-day structure itself or only to closing without funds in the account?

My title company won't dry fund the double close the buyer is asking for

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