Underwrote a 35k spread, took home 9,800, and knew about every dollar lost
Underwriting is what I do all day, which makes this one embarrassing. A-B at 224k, B-C at 259k, same day double close, cash on both ends. I put 35k in the spread column and built the rest of the month around it.
Where it went.
Two sets of closing costs, because a double close is two real purchases and each one has its own settlement fees, title work and recording. That was about 9,600 combined, and I had budgeted for one set out of pure habit.
Funding came in at 3 points plus a 1,900 fee, so 8,620, because I went to the funder eleven days out instead of a month out and took the first quote. A friend later showed me paperwork at 2 points on a comparable file.
Deed transfer tax on both conveyances, which in my state is charged on each transfer, so I paid it going in and it was collected again going out. About 4,100 total.
A 1,200 rush fee to get the payoff cut same day, and 680 of miscellaneous I didn't itemize well enough to explain.
35,000 minus roughly 24,200 leaves 10,800, and after a small credit I gave the end buyer for a water heater I was at 9,800.
Nothing here was hidden. I have written about closing cost duplication in my own notes. I just carried an assignment mindset into a structure that has two of everything, and I did not build a line-item sheet for the second closing until the numbers were already fixed.
What I'd do differently: I build the funding quote and both settlement estimates before I sign the seller contract, not after, and I get at least two funding quotes in writing. If the spread doesn't survive that sheet, it isn't a double close.