The seller signed at 114k and the buyer's MAO is 108k, and I am watching people try to negotiate the gap instead of dissecting where it came from.

The repair estimate gap you described is real, but the assumption doing the most work in that framing is that both parties used the same ARV. When a deal is priced from photos, the buyer's ARV and the wholesaler's ARV frequently differ by 5 to 15 percent on properties with deferred cosmetic work, because buyers who have not walked the property tend to haircut the after-repair value on anything they cannot confirm, not just the repair cost. So the spread between 114k and 108k might actually be a compounded error: 3k from repairs and 5k from a more conservative ARV assumption, which looks like a 6k gap but closes entirely if the buyer walks the property and agrees on the finish level the ARV assumes.

The number I would want to know is what comp the buyer used and whether it matches the comp in the original underwriting, because if they are pulling from the same sale, the gap is almost certainly in the scope, and a joint walkthrough with a single contractor solves it in an afternoon. If they are pulling from different sales, the negotiation needs to start with ARV alignment before anyone touches the repair line, and that is a different conversation than adjusting the assignment fee by 3k and hoping it lands. What did the buyer say when you asked them to share their underwriting?

The breakdown you laid out is worth understanding if you are new to wholesaling, so let me define the terms before anything else.

ARV means after-repair value, the price a house should sell for once it is fixed up. MAO means maximum allowable offer, the most a buyer will pay given their costs. The formula most fix-and-flip buyers use is roughly: ARV multiplied by their target margin, minus estimated repairs, minus the fee they expect to pay you.

So if ARV is $160,000 and the buyer targets 70% of ARV as their all-in cost, they want to spend no more than $112,000 total. Subtract a $10,000 assignment fee and they land at $102,000 as their ceiling before repairs even enter the picture. Add $30,000 in repairs and nothing pencils.

The point this thread makes is correct: when a contract and a buyer's number do not match, the disagreement is almost always in the repair estimate, not the fee. Two people looking at the same house can get contractor bids that are $10,000 apart without either of them being dishonest.

The thing worth knowing before you get here is that your repair estimate needs to come from someone who has walked the property, ideally before you lock in your contract price. A per-square-foot guess from photos is one of the most common reasons deals fall apart at assignment.

I am not certain how the repair gap shook out in your specific situation, so I would ask: did your buyer walk the property before submitting their offer, or did they price it remotely? That changes what options you actually have.