Title refused the assignment three days out and the contract had no fix in it

Deal was 118k on a 3/2 in a first ring suburb, going out at 133k, fee 15k, split 60/40 to my partner because he brought the seller and I brought the buyer. My first real fee and I was already spending it in my head.

Three days before closing, the buyer's title company came back and said they wouldn't handle it as an assignment. Their reasons were about the language in the original purchase agreement, which named an individual as buyer with no "and/or assigns" and had a clause requiring seller consent in writing for any transfer of the contract. My partner had never gotten that consent because in his usual title company nobody asked.

So the options were a double close, which needed transactional funding neither of us had lined up on 72 hours notice, or getting the seller to sign a consent. The seller's daughter had by then decided we were flipping her mother's house for profit and told us no. The buyer moved to another deal on day two of that scramble and never came back.

Cost to me: 340 in a lender's fee I'd prepaid for the buyer's proof letter, plus six weeks and the buyer relationship, which is the expensive part. My partner lost the contract, which expired.

What I'd do differently. Read the seller's purchase agreement myself before I show a deal to a single buyer, specifically the assignment language and any consent requirement. Ask which title company the seller's contract is going through and whether that company handles assignments in that state, because both the practice and the disclosure rules differ state to state and you can't assume your partner's usual closer sets the standard. And have a transactional funding source pre-approved before I need it, so a refused assignment becomes a double close instead of a dead deal.