Does a double close still need transactional funding if the end buyer's money is already in escrow

Using the end buyer's money to fund the A-B leg is what people call a pass-through or dry close, and whether it happens comes down to two documents rather than to arithmetic. First, the title or escrow company's own policy. Plenty of them won't disburse one buyer's funds to acquire title for someone else's purchase, and some states have escrow rules and funding-timing requirements that make it a non-starter, so this genuinely differs state to state and even company to company in the same city. Second, and this is the one people skip, the end buyer's lender writes closing instructions. Those instructions routinely say loan proceeds may only fund that borrower's purchase from a seller who already holds title. Read that page and the question answers itself for that file. So a funder is needed because the escrow officer says no, or because the end buyer's lender says no. If both say yes and it's a cash buyer, the fee can be skipped. Ask the specific title company what they'll do before assuming either version.