My wrap seller is now asking me to close in 14 days and I have not seen the underlying payoff statement yet

The instinct to pause and demand documentation is exactly right, and the attorney move was the correct one. Let me add some structure around what you are actually looking for and why each piece matters.

A payoff statement is a written letter from the lender that says, as of a specific date, here is the exact balance owed, the per-diem interest (the amount that accrues each day), and any fees required to pay off the loan. It is not an estimate. "Around $198,000" is not a payoff statement, and in a wrap the buyer's entire deal is built on that number being accurate.

The second document you need is the note on the underlying loan. A note is the contract between the seller and their lender. It tells you the interest rate, whether that rate is fixed or adjustable, and when any adjustments happen. A rate that sits at 4.875 percent for five years and then resets changes the spread you're buying into significantly. If the seller has not shown you the note, you do not know what you are wrapping around.

The third thing worth confirming through title is whether any second lien exists, a home equity line of credit (a HELOC) is a second mortgage a lender extends against equity in the property and it would sit ahead of your position in a default.

On the 14-day pressure: a seller who has had since early March to pull a payoff statement and has not done so is not being slow. Slow is two weeks. Three requests over several months is a pattern. The extension request is sensible, and your read on what a refusal signals is reasonable. I would not characterize it as proof of anything, but it is a data point worth weighing with your attorney.

One thing to have your attorney confirm specifically: Maryland's treatment of the due-on-sale clause in wrap structures. A licensed real estate attorney in Maryland is the right person for that, not a title agent.

What is your attorney's read so far on the seller's response to the extension request?

The extension request was the right move, and the seller's response to it is going to be more informative than any document he could produce at this point.

Here is the structural problem: the entire economics of this deal rest on the underlying balance. You have modeled a spread of 2.375 points on roughly $198k of float, which gives you a carry of around $4,700 annually before any servicing costs. If that balance is $221k instead, your carry shrinks but the deal still works. If there is a HELOC behind the first, you may be in second-position exposure without knowing it, and the wrap note you hold becomes worth considerably less under a default scenario. That is the assumption doing the most work in your current underwriting, the actual payoff number, and you do not have it.

The ARM question is the risk you did not fully name. If the underlying is a 4.875 percent ARM that resets after year five, your spread is not fixed for the life of the deal. It could compress or invert, and you would still be contractually obligated to take the buyer payments on a 7.25 percent note while your cost of carry has risen. On a small retail strip in Frederick you need to confirm the underlying note type in writing, not in conversation.

Due-on-sale is always present in a wrap, but I want to flag something specific to your position as the buyer. If the seller's lender calls the note because the transfer triggered the clause, you are the one left holding a property you do not own free and clear, with a wrap note that just became a problem. Your attorney needs to confirm how the wrap note addresses that scenario and what remedies you have, not what the seller intends to happen.

The seller refusing to extend is data. A seller who cannot produce a payoff statement after three requests in two months, and who is pushing a 14-day close on a $410,000 commercial transaction, is either disorganized in a way that will define the entire servicing relationship or motivated by something you have not identified yet.

What does your attorney have in the extension request as the consequence if the seller declines, specifically?