My JV partner brought the seller, I brought the buyer, and now the title company wants one assignor on the contract

Three weeks is enough time to fix this, but the assumption doing the most work in your current situation is that the one-page agreement is enforceable as written if the named assignor walks or stalls. It may be, but "covers the split" without naming whose name controls the contract leaves you with a document that answers a different question than the one you now have.

On the structural question: putting one name on the contract and backstopping the other partner with a written co-assignment agreement or a separate fee-sharing agreement is the most common field fix for exactly this. The title company gets their single assignor, and your JV partner gets a signed, dated document that obligates you to pay their 50% from the assignment proceeds at closing. That document needs to be specific: property address, the $22,500 gross fee, the $11,250 split, payment timing tied to the HUD-1, and what happens if the deal falls. This is a contract question that touches on enforceability, so a real estate attorney reviewing that one document before you sign is worth the cost given what is at stake.

The LLC idea is not dead, but a two-member LLC formed three weeks from closing creates its own title seasoning and assignment questions. The existing contract would need to reflect the LLC as assignor, which means going back to the seller, and that re-opens the deal. A direct co-assignment agreement is cleaner at this stage.

The risk you have not named: whichever name goes on that contract as assignor is the party the seller can pursue if the deal collapses for reasons on the buyer side. Your cash buyer's proof of funds and their willingness to close on the existing timeline is the variable I would be pressure-testing right now, not just the internal JV paperwork.

Whose name were you planning to put on, and does your buyer have a hard close date in writing?

The assumption doing the most work here is that the title company's request is a structural problem when it may be a documentation problem. Many title companies will close with a single assignor name on the purchase contract and a separate, signed fee-sharing or co-wholesaler agreement attached to the HUD or closing statement directing proceeds to two parties, so long as both documents are in front of the closing attorney before the wire. Georgia is an attorney-closing state, which actually helps you: the closing attorney has more flexibility than a title officer in a non-attorney state to accommodate supplemental disbursement instructions if they are in writing and signed by the relevant parties before closing day.

The real exposure in your situation is that your one-page agreement is silent on what triggers each party's right to their share. If his name goes on the assignment contract, he is the contractual party and your 50/50 claim rests entirely on that side agreement. The question worth asking your closing attorney right now is whether they will honor a written disbursement instruction directing half the assignment fee to you at closing, treated the same way a referral fee or commission split might be handled, so that your payment is baked into the closing rather than dependent on him cutting you a check afterward.

The LLC conversation is probably not the fix at three weeks out anyway, since you would need to re-execute the assignment contract under the LLC name, which reopens the seller relationship and the buyer relationship simultaneously. Whose name is already on the purchase contract with the seller?

The LLC can be formed same-day in Georgia, $100 online, and title companies accept them regularly.

Three weeks is not the constraint, your partner's willingness to put something in writing is.

$22,500 on a $136,500 assignment is a 16.5% fee, and I'm seeing cash buyers in Decatur push back hard above 12% right now, so what did your buyer say when they saw that spread?

Have the name on the contract assign to a jointly held escrow instruction or a co-assignee addendum both parties sign.

The title company's real concern is a clean chain of title from seller to end buyer, and the assignor line is how they trace it. If your partner's name is already on the seller contract, the cleanest path is a co-assignment addendum that adds you as an equal assignee before closing, signed by all three parties: seller, your partner, and you. Most title companies will accept this because it does not alter the purchase price or the buyer, it just clarifies who receives the assignment proceeds. Ask the title officer directly whether they will accept a co-assignee addendum rather than a contract replacement, because replacing the contract restarts the clock on seller signatures and you do not have that time to spare.

The one-page JV agreement you have does exactly one useful thing right now: it documents the 50/50 split if you ever need to litigate. It does nothing to protect you at the wire because your name is not in the chain of title. The addendum fixes that without touching the existing contract mechanics.

The LLC idea is not dead in three weeks, but it cannot be the entity on a contract that was already signed by an individual, without getting the seller to consent to an assignment of the seller-side contract to the new entity, which is a separate signature event and a potential renegotiation moment you do not want to create with this seller at this stage.

What does your one-page agreement say happens to the fee if one party disputes the split after the wire clears?

The one-page agreement you have is actually your leverage here, not your problem. What it needs is a single addendum that names one of you as assignor of record, then references the JV agreement as the controlling document for how proceeds split, so the title company gets their clean assignor and your 50/50 claim has a paper trail that survives any dispute between you two.

Which of you holds the original purchase contract right now, meaning whose signature is already on the seller-side paperwork? That determines whose name goes on as assignor with the least friction, because rewriting that contract with a new signatory three weeks out opens a conversation with the seller you probably do not want.

The LLC is not what protects you here, the written assignment of beneficial interest from the named assignor to both parties is.

Whichever name goes on the seller contract, have that person execute a separate written assignment of their beneficial interest in the earnest money and the closing proceeds to the two of you in the percentages your one-page agreement already specifies. That document, signed by both of you and dated before closing, converts your handshake exposure into a written claim against the proceeds sitting at the title company, and it does not require amending the purchase contract or alarming the title company with a name change three weeks out. The title company's concern is chain of title and a clean 1099 name for the assignment fee, not how you two split the check internally. What your one-page agreement is missing is that it names the split but does not name which proceeds it attaches to, and that is the sentence you add now.

The LLC protects future deals. It does not rescue this one faster than a two-page addendum to your existing agreement does, and Georgia same-day formation still leaves you with a fresh entity that has no operating agreement, no bank account, and no history at the title company, which creates a different set of questions at the closing table.

Whose name is on the purchase contract with the seller right now?