First remote deal: do you assign the contract or double close it?

Assign. I double closed my first one because someone on a podcast told me the fee would "blow up the deal" if the buyer saw it, and it cost me about $3,100 in extra closing costs and funder points to hide a number the buyer had already worked out for himself. He knew what the house was worth. He wasn't confused.

@cobalt the part you'll trip over is title company willingness, and it's not consistent even inside one state. I've had two closers in the same metro, one who handles assignments every week and one who wanted the funder wire and a full second file. Ask the question before you sign anything, not three days out. "Do you close assignments, and what do you need in the file" is a two minute call.

Naive question from someone with a list and no contracts. If the title company won't do the assignment, can you just switch title companies mid-deal, or is the seller's signature tying you to that one?

@bramble depends how the contract was written and who chose the closer. Sometimes the seller picked it and won't move.

On the main question, the thing that pushed me toward wanting a double close on paper is that a few states have added rules about advertising property you have under contract rather than own. That's the piece that varies most and the piece I'd want confirmed locally before I sent a single text.

Who funds the first leg on a double close? Is that a hard money lender or is there a specific product for one-day money?

@plumb transactional funding. It exists for exactly this, usually priced as points or a flat minimum, and it wants proof the end buyer's money is real before it wires anything.

I've done both. Assignment on a small single family, fee was $9,000 clean. Double close on one where the seller was touchy about who ended up owning it, purchase $61,000, and the second set of closing costs plus the funder minimum ran about $3,400 out of a spread I'd priced at $12,000. Both closed. I assign unless something in the file forces the other.

$3,400 on a $12,000 spread is 28% of the deal. That's the number I'd want in front of me before I chose. @keystone did you know that going in or did it come out at the table?

Knowing it going in is the whole trick, @tally. Get the funder's fee schedule and the closer's estimated settlement statement in writing before you're committed. I got a funder quote once that was "2 points" and the actual invoice had a $1,500 minimum plus wire fees, which on a small deal is a very different number than 2 points.

Assign, every time, and I'd add one thing. Disclose the fee in writing to both sides in the contract from the start. I do thin deals fast and the only ones that have died on me died because someone found out about a number late. Nobody has ever walked because the fee existed.

On land it leans different. Small lots where the whole purchase is $9,000 to $20,000, double closing costs eat the deal outright, and the buyer pool is investors who fully expect a middle. Assignment or nothing there.

Assignment. Fewer moving parts, no extra lender, one closing to go wrong. @cobalt if you're doing your first one from a distance I'd take the version with the shortest list of people who can drop the ball.

What does the seller actually get told, and when? That's the part I'd want settled before I worried about cost. If I'm the seller and a document appears on closing day showing a fee I never heard about, I'd be upset regardless of whether it was legal, and disclosure requirements differ by state anyway.

@cobalt one thing from looking at the funding side of these. Transactional funders underwrite the end buyer more than they underwrite you. If the buyer's proof of funds is soft or their lender is slow, the funder pulls out and you're holding a purchase contract with no money behind it. On an assignment, a buyer falling apart costs you the deal. On a double close it can cost you the earnest money too.

Worth asking an attorney in each state whether repeated assignments start to look like brokering to that state's regulator, because that line sits in different places and it's the thing that would actually end a business rather than cost a fee. I'm going through the licensing material now and the definitions are broader than I expected.

From the buyer's chair: I price the property. If the numbers work at my purchase price I don't care whether you assigned, double closed, or wore a costume. What I do care about is whether you can perform on the date you said. The operators who hide the structure are usually the ones who can't.

Same as @sextant from the trade side. My crews get scheduled off the closing date. Two closings on one day means two chances for the date to move, and a moved date is real money to me.

So on a double close, who's on the phone with the seller that morning, given you're a thousand miles away? Is that the closer's job or do you need your local person sitting there?