$2,400 and four months on a sub-to that died at the insurance step

This was my first attempt at anything creative and I want to write down where it fell apart while I still remember the order.

Seller was an older man, loan at 3.25%, balance about $158k, payment $1,240 all in. House probably worth $195k. He wanted $12k for equity and he understood the loan would stay in his name. I explained the due-on-sale clause and he said he'd rather take the risk than keep making the payment.

I paid an attorney $1,100 to draft the documents, $400 for a title search, $650 to a closing agent who had done one of these before, and about $250 in miscellaneous. Four months of driving out there and phone calls.

It died two weeks before we were going to sign. I could not get a policy issued that named me as the insured with his lender listed as mortgagee. Two carriers declined once I explained the structure. The third would write it, then came back and said their underwriting wouldn't take a dwelling policy where the named insured is not the borrower of record. I did not have a fourth call lined up because I honestly thought insurance was the easy part. I'd spent all my worry on the due-on-sale clause.

By the time I found someone who said they could probably do it through a non-admitted carrier, the seller's daughter had talked him into listing with an agent. He sold in three weeks. I don't blame him.

What I'd do differently: get the insurance answer in writing before I pay an attorney a dollar. Not a phone call, an actual quote with the named insured spelled out. And I'd have a second seller in conversation so four months of one relationship isn't the whole pipeline.