Would you put a 1.4M distressed estate under contract with no buyers lined up?

Two schools of thought among operators at this tier argue this constantly, and it is worth seeing where the room lands. The first says you tie it up the moment the seller says yes. Deals above a million show up maybe twice a year in a given market, the seller's willingness is the perishable thing, and if two weeks go to polling a buyer list the seller has talked to an agent and it is gone. Control it, then go find the buyer, and if none turns up, use the inspection period and walk. The cost of being wrong is the deposit and a reputation with one seller. The second says that is how you burn the only asset you actually have. At this price point the buyer pool is thin enough that the same twelve names see everything, and bringing them a deal that has not been priced against real feedback marks you as a tourist. That camp will not sign until at least one buyer has given a number on that specific property. It loses deals doing it. It would rather lose the deal than the relationship. Both approaches have closed at this tier and neither camp has convinced the other in years. The deposits involved are not small and the walk away is not always as clean as the first camp makes it sound, which is where the lean goes, and it is still a genuinely open question.