Double closing vs assignment of contract: which one fits the deal

Two structures, one sentence each

An assignment of contract is a sale of your position as buyer: you transfer your rights under the A to B purchase contract to the end buyer for a fee, and the end buyer closes directly with the seller. A double closing is two separate closings on the same property, usually on the same day: you buy from the seller on the A to B leg, then sell to the end buyer on the B to C leg.

Everything else follows from that difference. In an assignment you never own the property, so there is one deed, one closing and none of your money at the table beyond the deposit. In a double close you own it for hours, so there are two contracts, two deeds, two title searches and two closing statements, and somebody has to pay the seller before the end buyer pays you.

Wholesaling is the business, not the structure. A search for double closing vs wholesaling is really a search for double closing vs assignment, because those are the two ways a wholesale deal reaches the closing table.

Assignment of contract, attribute by attribute

Read this list against the next one. The attributes are the same and in the same order, so the differences line up.

• Who takes title: the end buyer, directly from the seller. You are never on title, and there is one deed.
• What the end buyer sees: the assignment and, through it, your A to B contract and price, plus your fee as a charge on their side of the settlement statement.
• Closing costs: one closing, one set of title and settlement charges, one deed to record and one documentary stamp tax bill in Florida.
• Funding needed: none from you beyond your deposit. The end buyer brings the purchase price and your fee.
• What the seller must agree to: a contract that permits assignment, or written consent to this one. On the Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS form, a blank assignability box means the buyer may not assign.
• When it fails: the contract forbids assignment and the seller will not consent, the end buyer’s lender will not accept an assigned contract, or the end buyer balks at the fee once it is in front of them.

Double closing, attribute by attribute

The same six attributes, for the structure where you take title.

• Who takes title: you do, for hours, through your entity. There are two deeds, recorded in order: seller to you, then you to the end buyer.
• What the end buyer sees: you as the seller and their own price. Your A to B price is not on their statement, although once both deeds are recorded they sit in the county’s official records, which Florida requires to be indexed on a public website.
• Closing costs: two closings, two sets of title and settlement charges, two deeds and two stamp tax bills. The standard AS IS form puts the deed stamp tax on the seller, and on the B to C leg the seller is you.
• Funding needed: the full A to B price, from your own cash or a transactional lender, in the closing agent’s account before the seller can be paid. Many title companies will not let the end buyer’s money pay for your purchase.
• What the seller must agree to: nothing beyond an ordinary sale to you. No consent to assign is needed, because nothing is assigned.
• When it fails: the end buyer’s lender will not finance a property the seller acquired that day, the closing agent will not run both legs, the spread cannot carry two sets of costs and a funding fee, or the end buyer’s money does not arrive on the day.

Contracts you cannot assign, and how to check

Some contracts make the decision before you do, and each one says so in its own paperwork. Read the clause in the document you were handed rather than trusting a forum answer about the seller in general.

Where assignment needs consent, get the consent in writing before you market the deal. Where the contract forbids it outright, a double close may still work, but check that nothing in the contract or the deed restricts a resale.

• HUD homes. HUD’s sales contract, form HUD-9548, says the contract is assignable only by written consent of the seller, which is HUD. The same contract lets the purchaser designate the closing agent, so a double close can keep both legs with one agent.
• Agency and bank owned REO. Fannie Mae’s own REO contract (Form 001) says the purchaser shall not assign it without the seller’s express written consent, while the seller may assign at its discretion. An older addendum from HomeSteps, Freddie Mac’s REO program, goes further: an attempted assignment is void and a material breach. Bank REO addenda are drafted by each seller, so find the assignment clause in yours.
• Short sales. For a short sale of a loan Fannie Mae owns, its servicing guide requires everyone involved to sign a short sale affidavit, says the purchaser must not receive any funds from the sale, and requires a deed clause barring any resale for 30 days and any resale above 120% of the short sale price until day 90. The deed clause rules out a same day double close, and an assignment fee sits badly with the funds rule.
• Listed properties. On the Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS contract, paragraph 7 offers three boxes: assign and be released, assign but stay liable, or may not assign. If no box is checked, the buyer may not assign, and Florida Realtors advises listing agents who receive an assignable offer to ask the seller whether they will allow it.

How an assignment fee shows up on the settlement statement

In an assignment there is one closing, and your fee is money the end buyer pays at it. It appears as a charge on the end buyer’s side of the statement, payable to you or your entity, and the closing agent pays it to you out of the end buyer’s funds. The seller knows the contract was assigned, but in the usual setup only the end buyer’s statement shows the fee.

That split is possible because the American Land Title Association’s model settlement statement comes in four versions: combined, seller, buyer and cash. Each side can be handed a statement showing only its own figures. The form has no line labeled assignment fee, so ask the closing agent where yours will sit.

Two things follow. Everyone who signs an ALTA statement certifies it as a true and accurate statement of all receipts and disbursements, so the fee belongs on it rather than paid outside closing. And if the end buyer is borrowing, their lender will see it too. A business purpose loan is outside the federal consumer disclosure rules, so for an investor borrowing to buy, the settlement statement is where their lender will see the fee.

Why end buyer lenders often refuse assignments

A lender sizes its loan on a price agreed between a seller and its borrower. An assignment puts two prices in the file, your contract price and the end buyer’s total with your fee, plus a party in the middle who is being paid. Published lender rules handle that in three ways, and you only learn which applies by asking the end buyer’s lender.

Other lenders set their own terms. A cash end buyer removes the question entirely, which is one reason cash buyers are worth more to a wholesaler than their offer suggests.

• Prohibited by regulation. For an FHA insured loan, the property must be purchased from the owner of record and the transaction may not involve any sale or assignment of the sales contract. That is federal regulation, 24 CFR 203.37a, not a lender preference.
• Prohibited by guideline. One national lender’s DSCR product profile lists assignment of contracts as ineligible; a DSCR loan is an investor loan sized on the property’s rent rather than the borrower’s income. Another non-QM lender’s guidelines allow only an individual assigning to an entity they own.
• Allowed, but the fee is not financed. A third non-QM lender’s guidelines underwrite on the original purchase price in the purchase agreement and require the borrower to pay any assignment fee, so your fee becomes cash the end buyer brings on top of the down payment.

Why the same lenders may balk at a double close

Switching to a double close does not get you past the end buyer’s lender. It trades the assignment question for the flip question, because on the B to C leg the seller, which is you, acquired the property that morning.

The first two of those lenders require flip transactions to be arm’s length, with no identity of interest between buyer and seller. Read the definitions below against your own price increase, not the one in the example.

• FHA: if the end buyer’s sales contract is signed 90 days or less after the seller acquired the property, measured from the seller’s settlement date, the property is not eligible for FHA insurance. A double close fails that test by design, so an FHA buyer cannot use either structure.
• One DSCR program: a resale within 365 days of the seller’s acquisition at more than a 10% increase is a flip with added requirements.
• Another non-QM program: a resale within 180 days at more than a 20% increase is a flip.
• A third non-QM program: more than 10% within 90 days, or more than 20% within 91 to 180 days, is a flip, and the underwriter may add requirements if the appraisal does not support the value.

A worked decision, with Florida numbers

Say you have a single family house in Hillsborough County under contract at $200,000 on the AS IS form, with the box allowing assignment checked, and an end buyer at $235,000. That is a $35,000 spread. Here are three versions of the same deal.

The end buyer pays cash and does not mind seeing your fee. Assign. One closing, no funding, and the seller pays the stamp tax on the single deed under the form’s default. A double close would add a second closing, a funding fee and stamp tax on the B to C deed, which at 70 cents per $100 on $235,000 is $1,645 before anything else. Paying that to hide a fee the buyer does not care about is waste.

The end buyer is borrowing on a DSCR program that lists assignments as ineligible. Assignment is out. A double close is possible, but $235,000 against $200,000 is a 17.5% increase on a same day resale: a flip under a 365 day, 10% definition, and not one under a 180 day, 20% definition. Get the lender’s answer before you order title. If it is no, you need a cash buyer or a different lender, not a different structure.

The same numbers on a HUD home. The contract is assignable only with HUD’s written consent, so plan the double close, keep the end buyer off FHA financing, and put the $1,645 stamp tax, the second closing and the funding fee into the spread from the first day.

The pattern holds across all three. The contract and the end buyer’s money decide the structure, and your preference about privacy only gets a vote when both structures are genuinely open.

Simultaneous, back to back, concurrent: same thing or not?

In wholesaling, simultaneous closing and back to back closing are usually other names for a double closing: the same A to B then B to C structure, with you on title in between. A Florida law firm and a multistate title company both define them that way.

Outside wholesaling the words drift. Title companies also use back to back closing, concurrent closing and chain closing for a homeowner who sells one house and uses the proceeds to buy the next on the same day. In Florida title insurance, simultaneous issue means an owner’s policy and a lender’s policy issued together on the same land, which is a premium rule rather than a deal structure. Concurrent closing has no settled wholesale meaning, so treat it as a question rather than a term.

The version that causes trouble is a simultaneous close where the end buyer’s money pays the seller, sometimes called single source funding. A title company general counsel describes it as a request that raises red flags for escrow officers, because you do not yet own the property and the sale to the end buyer cannot close first. Whatever word someone uses, ask the question that settles it: whose money pays the seller?

Questions that pick the structure for you

Run these in order. The first hard no usually settles it, and the rest tell you what the chosen structure will cost.

The choice has legal and tax consequences that depend on the deal, so confirm yours with a Florida real estate attorney or your closing agent. If the answer is a double close on a Florida investment property, Entrusted Capital is a direct lender for the A to B leg: same day funding, priced per transaction, no credit pulled for that leg, and proof of funds on request against a real deal.

• Does the A to B contract allow assignment, or will the seller consent in writing? If not, double close.
• Is the end buyer paying cash? If so, both structures are open, and assignment is usually the cheaper one.
• If the end buyer is financing, does their lender accept assigned contracts, and will it finance the fee? Get the answer from the lender, not the buyer.
• If you would double close, how does that lender treat a same day resale at your price increase?
• Will one closing agent run both legs the same day, and has it confirmed that in writing?
• Does the spread survive two closings, the B to C stamp tax and a funding fee, with room left for a late wire?