First double close closed this morning, 96k in and 121.5k out

96 to 121.5 with no work done in between is the part that makes me squint. Did the end buyer walk it? I've seen guys pay that spread on a house with a bad roof and then come back angry six weeks later. Not saying you did anything wrong, just curious what condition it was in and whether he had his own eyes on it.

The fee you paid is priced on certainty of repayment. The lender's money is out for a few hours and the payoff is the end buyer's cash, which their condition required to be sitting in escrow first. That's why it behaves like a flat service fee rather than an interest rate, and why the fee doesn't fall much when the hold shortens.

The assumption your whole result rests on is that the end buyer was cash. Once the end buyer is financed, their lender's underwriting sits on top of your timeline, and some lenders impose title seasoning or want an appraisal that accounts for your A-B price. Any of that turns a same-day resell into a hold you didn't fund for. Before you commit to a funder on a financed end buyer, get that lender's written position on back-to-back closings.

On the cost side, your 480 in doubled transfer tax is the line most people miss. Transfer tax treatment on the second leg varies by state and sometimes by county, and roughly a dozen states don't publish sale prices at all, which changes how visible your A-B number is to the end buyer. Confirm both points with your closing agent for the specific county before you sign the B-C contract, in writing.

One more thing worth pinning down for next time: what the funder's document says happens if the second leg fails after they've funded the first. You want that written before you need it, not discovered on the day. Whether taking title this way satisfies your state's rules on unlicensed brokerage is a question for your attorney, and the answer differs by state.

Congrats. The doubled transfer tax got me for 1,900 on a bigger one last year and I still think about it. Ask your closing agent whether your county gives any relief on a same-day resell, some do and some look at you like you're speaking another language.

Dumb question from someone still on the tools. When you say you took title, do you mean your name was actually on the deed for like an hour? Does that show up anywhere or is it just a line in the county records that nobody notices?

@pike the document I'd go back and read now that it's over is the funder's escrow instruction letter, specifically the order of operations it dictates. Most of them say the A-B deed records first and their payoff comes off the top of the B-C proceeds before anything reaches you. Fine when everything lands the same day. If your closing agent modified that letter to get it signed, you want to know what they changed, because that's your protection and you probably never read the final version.

Does any of this work on a small multifamily? I keep wondering whether a funder cares that there are four tenants and estoppels and a rent roll to verify, or whether it's the same two hours to them either way. My guess is the end buyer's diligence stretches out and that's what breaks the same-day part.