Happening NowWholesaling (As Service)

Sourcing for a client who keeps moving the buy box after I already have a property under contract

Happened twice now in the same zip code, 76011, both times the client changed the max ARV he'd accept after I had the seller locked at a number that only worked inside his original parameters. First time I let it go, ate the earnest money, $1,200 out of my own pocket because I didn't want the argument. Second time I pushed back and he said the market shifted and I should understand that. I don't understand it. If the box changes, the deal I sourced inside the old box is still a deal. My agreement says I get the fee at close and there's no language around what happens if he decides mid-contract that he doesn't want the asset anymore. That's the gap I'm staring at right now. I've got another property in that same area, off-market owner, motivated, numbers fit what he told me two weeks ago. I don't want to put it under contract until I figure out whether I need a kill fee clause or something that locks the parameters for a defined window, like 30 days from the date I send him the address. Has anyone actually written that into a sourcing agreement and had it hold up when the client pushed back?

vikram_sethi8SC4BPRO18

2 replies

I went through almost this exact thing in 2023, different zip, client in DFW kept telling me sub-70 ARV on flips under 200k, I locked a seller in Mesquite at 148k on a property that comped at 215, perfect inside his stated box, and then he came back saying he'd tightened to sub-65 because lumber was up. Lost $900 in earnest and two weeks of follow-up time with a seller I'd built real trust with. What I finally did after that was add a parameter lock addendum, one page, that lists the specific buy box criteria the client gave me on a named date, and says if he walks from a property that was sourced inside those criteria, he owes a kill fee equal to my assignment fee or $2,500 minimum, whichever is higher, within 15 days. I had an attorney in Tarrant County look it over for about $400 and she changed three sentences but kept the structure. Not every client signs it, and the ones who won't sign it have told me something important about themselves before I spend a dime on earnest money.

ximena_pCG1C

The piece that's going to matter most in any kill fee clause is whether you can prove what the original buy box was, email, text, a signed one-pager, something with a date on it. Without that paper trail the clause is basically unenforceable because he'll just say the parameters you're citing aren't what he agreed to.

What does your current agreement actually say about how the buy box gets amended?

jenn_mcallisterAO1C

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