Discussion
I am closing in on my first mezz position, somewhere between $180,000 and $220,000 behind a $1.4M senior on a mixed-use conversion in Nashville. The senior lender has their own co…
Discussion
A case worth studying: contract price 485,000, 30-day escrow, inspection contingency releasing on day 10. Buyer's agent sent the signed repair amendment on day 11 at 6 p.m. Seller…
Discussion
Transaction coordination is a good test case for VA economics because the output is measurable: a file either closes on time or it does not, and every missed deadline has a cost y…
Win
A standard contract-to-close file has a predictable shape: purchase agreement, contingency dates, lender milestones, title, close. A construction loan file has that shape plus a d…
Story
Happened last week. One of my three agents missed a deadline on an inspection contingency, went unreachable for about six hours during the window. The deal survived but barely, an…
Happening Now
Rehabbing door 8 right now and my GC handed me his standard agreement at the start of demo. His template, his terms. I signed it without thinking but now I'm wondering if that doc…
Poll
I've got a raw acreage purchase under contract, cash, no lender, 90 day due diligence with a survey and a well test in it. My agent offered to put her coordinator on it at $350 an…
Win
I came at this from tools, not paperwork, so the pitch I made was narrow. A guy doing light cosmetic flips, four to six a year plus the occasional wholesale, kept blowing up on th…
Happening Now
I've been coordinating files part time for two agents at a flat $425 per closed file, mostly resale with financing, average 34 days contract to close. That number works because th…
Discussion
An agent running four or five deals a month offering $350 a file for contract to close work raises a fair question: is that the market rate, or a number set because the person on…
Poll
Two patterns show up consistently in transaction coordinator engagement letters. The first caps the coordinator's liability at the fee paid, disclaims responsibility for missed de…
Poll
I've been looking at how people get into TC work and there seem to be two doors. Door one is take an in-house role, salaried or hourly, coordinating for one brokerage or one team.…
Poll
Transaction platforms have gotten good at the mechanical parts of the file. The date calendar builds itself off the executed contract, disclosure packets assemble from templates,…
Discussion
Most of what I buy is raw acreage, cash, no appraisal and no loan. The deadline list that a coordinator would normally run against is largely the lender's, and there isn't one. Wh…
Happening Now
Take an investor closing nine files in a year: 5 assignments, 2 double closes with transactional funding, 2 straight retail resales of finished flips. Average time from contract t…
Poll
When bringing on a transaction coordinator for the first time, a common intake question is whether the coordinator should be introduced to the client as part of the team, with dir…
Happening Now
Take a transaction coordinator's client agreement with three clauses worth reading closely before signing. First, if the scope exhibit says the coordinator provides calendar remin…
Discussion
Working through the numbers on a coordination practice that's at capacity. Say 34 open files at any time, 13 closings a month, flat $400 per file, so about $5,200 a month gross fr…
Happening Now
Take an investor with 11 doors, buying 4 to 6 a year, mostly small multifamily off market, financed with a mix of cash and DSCR loans, who has run contract-to-close paperwork out…
Discussion
I've been pricing out what a one-person contract-to-close setup costs before I quote anyone. What I've found so far: a dedicated transaction management platform, e-signature, some…
Win
The paperwork I own as a passive investor isn't the same as an agent's. Subscription docs, entity formation confirmations, insurance certs, lender condition lists that the sponsor…
Poll
Property managers considering adding coordination as a service line often get inconsistent answers when they ask agents what a TC actually does, half describe a calendar and half…
Loss
I ran the experiment I'd been talking about for months. Two agents, one small investor, 14 files over about five months, flat $300 per file, paid at close. Nine closed, three fell…
Loss
Take a small duplex purchase, financed rather than cash. Hiring a transaction coordinator is a common step for exactly this kind of file, since a TC takes the signed contract and…
Discussion
Take a buyer under contract on a 4 unit whose agent mentions in passing that her transaction coordinator charges $450 and that it will appear on the closing statement. Most buyers…
Discussion
Building out a list of who I'd need if I actually start buying, and I've got two names for what looks like one job. The title company has a closer who handles the settlement state…
Win
A small team lost their in-house coordinator with two weeks' notice in the middle of their busiest stretch. I picked up 11 active files at $325 each, flat, invoiced at close, on a…
Win
I'm still waiting on my license number, so I asked around first about whether I could take fee-for-service coordination work without one. Where I am the answer was yes as long as…
Discussion
Take a wholesaler keeping 9 to 11 files open at once, mostly assignments with a few double closes, paying a coordinator $500 a file. She is good. She is also, over time, doing thi…
Discussion
In a rural market where the typical sale price is under $100k, the flat fee model deserves a hard look. Take a $95,000 sale at 2.5 percent to the listing side. That is $2,375 gros…
Happening Now
I'm three weeks from my license exam and two agents I know from a local investor meetup have both asked if I'd coordinate their closings. Neither of them has ever used a TC. They…
Win
A case worth studying on the coordination side of a small acquisition run, because it is the part most buyers get right by accident. Take an investor who buys six small residentia…
Poll
First deal with a TC involved and I got confused at the closing statement stage. My agent's coordinator charges $425. On the estimate it showed up as a line item against me as the…
Poll
I've got a coordinator taking my acquisitions at $395 and she's carrying somewhere around 38 open files across four clients. Two of mine went sideways last quarter in the same way…
Loss
First deal, a two unit in an older working class neighborhood, $5,000 earnest money, 30 day financing contingency. I hired a coordinator at $300 a file because someone in a local…
Discussion
Here is a numbers problem that breaks a lot of transaction coordination practices. Take a coordinator opening right around 40 files a quarter, with roughly 7 of them cancelling be…