Everybody says the spread has to be big enough to eat both closing costs, and I believed that until my third deal

In Cleveland last fall I ran a double close on a property I had under contract at 61k. End buyer came in at 74,500. That is a 13,500 spread and the conventional wisdom in rooms like this is that you need at least that or you are wasting the structure. Transactional funding quoted me 1,100 for the day. Both sides of closing came to about 2,900 combined. So I netted right around 9,500, which felt fine, confirmed the math, moved on. Then in February I had a deal where I was in at 48k and out at 57k. Nine thousand dollar spread. Everything in me said the structure would not survive it. I ran the numbers anyway because I was already two weeks in. Funding came in at 950 because the loan amount was smaller. Title ran me 2,200 total because I used the same company from the fall and they did not charge me a full double rate on the second transaction. Net was just over 5,800. That deal would have paid me maybe 8,200 as an assignment in that market, because the end buyer's attorney pushed back hard on assignment language and I would have had to cut the fee to get it closed. I actually came out ahead by doubling down on a spread I thought was too thin. The variable nobody seems to talk about is what the assignment alternative actually costs you in a specific deal with a specific buyer, and that number is not fixed.