Priced the same deal both ways. The funded double close won.
I've spent a year trying to work out which lane I belong in and this deal finally gave me a real comparison instead of a hypothetical.
Contract at 205,000 on a tired but clean four bed in an inner-ring suburb. End buyer, a flipper I'd sold nothing to before, at 227,000. Assignment fee would have been 22,000, disclosed on the settlement statement like it has to be in my state.
I ran it both ways. Assignment: fee shows on the statement, buyer sees it, and this particular buyer had already told me he renegotiates when the number embarrasses him. My guess was he'd come back at 14 or 15 and I'd take it, because at that point the seller is under contract and I've got no leverage. Call it a 7,000 haircut with maybe a 30 percent chance of no haircut at all.
Double close with transactional funding: funder at 0.93% on 205,000, so 1,900. Extra title work and second closing 1,350. Transfer tax on the second leg 1,025 in my county. Wires 90. Total mechanical cost 4,365 against a 22,000 spread, so I kept 17,635 and the buyer never saw my purchase price. My state is one where recorded prices are public, so he can look it up next month, but by then the deed is done.
What nearly broke it: the funder wanted the end buyer's cash in escrow two days ahead and he wired one day ahead, which put the closer in the position of deciding whether to proceed. She did, because the wire had cleared.
What I'd keep: running both versions on paper before I pick. Whether an assignment is even permitted the way I described depends on your state's rules and mine changed recently, so that part is an attorney question.