Used a 6 hour purchase money note to the seller instead of transactional funding
This is my first time actually putting any of the paper stuff I've been reading about for months to work, so push on it.
Deal shape: 1970s three bed on a slab, tired but dry, seller had inherited it and was carrying a small mortgage on it that I paid off at closing. My contract was 96k. End buyer at 127k, cash, closing five days after I signed.
Instead of taking transactional funding for leg one, I asked the seller to carry. At closing on leg one I brought 6k cash, paid off her existing loan, and gave her a purchase money note for the balance secured by a first position deed of trust, due in full in 30 days, no prepayment penalty, plus 1,500 to her for agreeing to it. Leg two closed the same afternoon and her note was paid off out of my buyer's funds. She was in the money in about five hours, same as if I'd used a funder.
Why she said yes: she'd already had one buyer fall out on financing and what she wanted was a signed deed and a date. The 1,500 helped.
Costs against the 31k spread: 1,500 carry fee, 6k of my own cash in and back out, two sets of closing costs and recording at about 2,900 combined, transfer tax on both legs, small title search fee. Ended around 24,600.
The hard part was the closer. Two said no outright to recording a note and a release the same day. The third had done it before and their underwriter signed off. Whether same-day recording of a note and its release works at all depends on your state's recording practice and the insurer, and I had an attorney draft the note and review the whole sequence before I made the offer. That was 1,100 well spent.
What I'd keep: the attorney, and asking the seller before I assume I need a funder.