Would you take a 1.4M distressed estate under contract with zero buyers lined up?

Trellis here on the management side, so I see the tail end of these deals more than the front end. Two of the operators I manage for argue about this constantly and I want to see where the room lands.

The first one 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 you spend two weeks polling your buyer list the seller has talked to an agent and it's gone. You control it, then you go find the buyer, and if you can't, you use your inspection period and walk. Cost of being wrong is the deposit and your reputation with one seller.

The second one says that's 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 if you bring them a deal you haven't priced against real feedback you look like a tourist. He won't sign until at least one buyer has given him a number on that specific property. He loses deals doing it. He says he'd rather lose the deal than the relationship.

Both of them have closed at this tier. Neither has convinced the other in three years. The deposits involved are not small and the walk-away isn't always as clean as the first guy makes it sound, which is where I lean but I genuinely don't know.