How to double close a wholesale deal, step by step

The whole sequence on one page

A double close, also called a simultaneous closing, has six stages, and every delay you will have traces back to one of them.

• Contracts: signed A to B and B to C contracts whose dates and terms fit together.
• Title: one closing agent, told on day one, with a file for each leg.
• Funding: a transactional lender approves the A to B leg and sends written closing instructions to the agent.
• Pre-closing: both settlement statements in draft, wires confirmed by phone, signatures collected.
• Closing day: end buyer funds in, lender funds in, the A to B leg disburses and records, then the B to C leg.
• Payout: the lender is repaid from the B to C proceeds and the rest, after your costs, is wired to you.

Stage one: two contracts that fit together

The double close is built in the contracts. The A to B closing date must not arrive before the end buyer can close, so set the B to C date on or before it.

On the Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS form, time is of the essence, and a buyer who fails to close on time can lose the deposit to the seller as liquidated damages. On the A to B leg the buyer is you, so an end buyer who slips puts your deposit at risk unless you have a written extension first.

Check the title box on both contracts. On the AS IS form, whoever pays for the owner’s policy designates the closing agent: paragraph 9(c)(ii) gives that to the buyer, which you want on the A to B leg, and 9(c)(i) gives it to the seller, which you want on the B to C leg. The Miami-Dade and Broward regional option gives it to the buyer, which on a B to C contract hands the choice of agent to your end buyer.

On the B to C leg the end buyer’s deposit goes to the escrow agent, by default within 3 days of the effective date. Make it large enough to matter.

• The A to B purchase contract, fully signed, with every addendum.
• The B to C purchase contract, fully signed, naming your entity as seller.
• The escrow agent’s receipt for the end buyer’s deposit.
• Your entity’s formation documents and proof of active status. Florida dissolves an entity that has not filed its annual report by the third Friday of September, at the close of business on the fourth Friday.

Stage two: order title and say double close in the first email

Send both contracts to one closing agent together and say in the first line that this is a same day double close with transactional funding. Each leg has its own contract, deed, title search and closing statement, so the agent opens a file for each and checks what its underwriter needs to insure both.

Telling the agent late is how double closes die. Many title companies require the A to B leg to be funded on its own before the property is resold, and an agent who learns that on day ten has to rebuild the file, if it will do it at all.

Two clocks start when title is ordered. Florida title firms commonly quote a routine residential search at between a few business days and about three weeks, longer for estates, old unreleased mortgages or complicated legal descriptions, and municipal lien searches run on their own timetable. If there is a homeowners or condominium association, Florida law gives it 10 business days to issue the estoppel certificate the agent needs, and it may charge extra for an expedited one delivered within 3.

• Both contracts and all addenda, sent together in one email.
• The seller’s mortgage details, so the agent can order a payoff statement.
• Association contact details for the estoppel request, if there is one.
• A request for the agent’s written confirmation that it will run both legs the same day.

Stage three: the funding request, and what comes back

Transactional funding works by the lender wiring the A to B purchase money into the closing agent’s escrow account on the closing day and being repaid from the B to C proceeds hours later. Send it both contracts, the A to B title commitment, proof of the end buyer’s funds or their lender’s clear to close, the agent’s confirmation and your entity documents.

Then read what comes back. Under Florida law, money a title agent holds in trust may be used only in accordance with the instructions under which it was accepted, so your lender’s written closing instructions control its wire once it lands.

The lender may also want a closing protection letter from the title insurer, which Florida’s insurance code allows and which covers the lender if the agent is dishonest with the funds or ignores written closing instructions.

• A funding approval for the A to B leg, tied to the property, the price and the closing date.
• Written closing instructions to the agent: what must be true before the wire is used, and how the payoff comes back.
• The payoff figure the agent will return from the B to C proceeds: principal plus the fee.

Wires, cut-offs and collected funds

A double close is five wires in a fixed order, and the order only works inside banking hours. The Federal Reserve’s Fedwire Funds Service runs from 9:00 p.m. Eastern the evening before to 7:00 p.m. Eastern, with a 6:45 p.m. deadline for customer transfers, and treats every Saturday, Sunday and Federal Reserve holiday as a holiday.

Your bank’s own cut-off is earlier, and it is the one that binds you, so ask everyone in the chain for theirs, the closing agent included.

In Florida, a title agent may not disburse funds until they are collected, meaning finally settled and credited to its trust account, with narrow exceptions for items such as cashier’s checks. A wire that has been sent is not collected until it lands. Wire fraud targets this exact moment, and the CFPB’s advice is to confirm instructions using contact details you already trust and never to follow wiring instructions from an email.

• End buyer, or their lender, to the closing agent: the B to C purchase money.
• Transactional lender to the closing agent: the A to B purchase money.
• Closing agent to the seller and the seller’s mortgage holder: the A to B proceeds.
• Closing agent to the transactional lender: principal plus fee.
• Closing agent to your entity: the spread, net of your costs.

The order of signatures and funding on the day

Signatures can happen in any order, often on different days. On the Florida AS IS form, closing occurs when all funds are received and collected and all documents are delivered, so documents signed early are held until the money arrives. Florida allows online notarization and witnessing by audio video, so nobody has to share a room.

Money and recording happen in one order only, because you cannot sell what you do not yet own.

• The end buyer signs their B to C documents, and their funds, or their lender’s, arrive in escrow and are collected.
• The seller signs the deed to your entity in front of two witnesses, whose names and addresses are printed under their signatures, and acknowledges it before a notary so it can be recorded.
• You sign both sides: buyer and loan documents on the A to B leg, the deed to the end buyer and seller documents on the B to C leg.
• The closing agent confirms the end buyer’s money in writing, and your lender releases the A to B wire.
• Once that wire is collected, the A to B leg disburses: the seller’s mortgage is paid off, the seller is paid, and the deed to you is recorded first.
• The B to C leg disburses next: the deed to the end buyer records after yours, the lender is repaid, and your net is wired to you.

Two settlement statements, and what appears on each

Each leg gets its own settlement statement, and you sign both: as buyer on the first and as seller on the second. On the American Land Title Association form, every signer certifies the statement as a true and accurate statement of all receipts and disbursements, so everything that moves belongs on it.

In Florida, the settlement agent also certifies in writing that it has reviewed the statement and the lender’s closing instructions, and every buyer, borrower and seller signs a written approval of the title agency holding and disbursing the funds. You sign that approval twice.

The lines below use a $200,000 purchase and a $235,000 sale outside Miami-Dade, with the AS IS form’s default cost split. Your contracts may shift costs, so read each draft against its contract.

• A to B, seller’s side: the $200,000 price, the payoff of the seller’s mortgage, prorations, and documentary stamp tax on the deed at 70 cents per $100, which is $1,400 and falls on the seller.
• A to B, your side: the $200,000 price, your deposit as a credit, the recording fee for your deed, and the balance due, which is what your lender’s wire covers.
• B to C, your side as seller: the $235,000 price as a credit, then your lender’s principal and fee in the payoffs section, $1,645 of stamp tax on the second deed, your settlement charges and prorations. What is left is your net spread.
• B to C, the end buyer’s side: the $235,000 price, their deposit as a credit, their loan if they have one, and their own costs. Your purchase price does not appear.

How the transactional lender is repaid

The lender is repaid at the B to C table, not by you. The end buyer’s money is already in escrow, and when the B to C leg disburses the closing agent sends the lender its principal and fee from those proceeds. The ALTA form has a payoffs section on the seller’s side, with lines for principal and additional fees, for exactly this kind of debt.

Your spread arrives last: whatever remains after the payoff and your costs, wired to your entity subject to the agent’s outgoing cut-off. Give the agent your wire details in writing, confirmed by phone, before the closing day.

If the B to C leg does not close the same day, the lender’s money stays out and your loan agreement decides the cost; a lender may charge per diem for each extra day. Know the answer before you sign.

A realistic timeline, typical rather than guaranteed

Treat every date here as the shape of a clean file with an association, not a promise. Run the title search and the estoppel in parallel, and a clean file typically needs two to three weeks from ordering title to closing.

• Day 0: A to B contract signed.
• Days 0 to 3: B to C contract signed and deposit delivered; title, the estoppel and the seller’s payoff ordered, with the double close disclosed.
• Roughly days 3 to 15: title search back. The association’s estoppel is due within 10 business days of the request.
• At least 5 days before closing: title commitment delivered, the AS IS default for a cash buyer, or 15 days if the buyer is financing.
• Three to five days before closing: funding request in, with the commitment and proof of the end buyer’s funds.
• Two days before closing: both settlement statements reviewed in draft, every wire instruction confirmed by phone.
• Closing day: signatures done and end buyer funds collected in the morning, then the lender wire, the A to B leg, the B to C leg, and your spread wired before the cut-off.

When the end buyer is late

The rule on the day is simple: the A to B leg does not fund until the end buyer’s money is in escrow and collected. If it is not there, nothing moves, and the cost is a moved date. The expensive version is the one where the A to B leg funded first and the end buyer then failed, leaving you owning a house on money meant to be out for hours.

Before the day, the question is your A to B date. If the end buyer needs more time, ask the seller for a written extension before the date passes, because time is of the essence and your deposit is what the seller can keep if you do not close. Tell your lender the new date the same day.

If the end buyer walks away, your usual remedy is their deposit, which on the AS IS form the seller can elect to keep as liquidated damages, and on that contract the seller is you. Then you need a new end buyer inside your A to B window, an extension, or a longer term loan to close and hold.

When a wire misses the cut-off

A wire sent after the sending bank’s cut-off arrives the next business day, and in Florida the closing agent cannot pay anyone from it until it is collected. On a Friday that means Monday.

Which wire is late decides who is exposed. If the end buyer’s wire is late, stop, and do not let the A to B leg fund. If your lender’s wire is late, the seller waits, and your A to B date may need a written extension that day. If the payoff or your proceeds wire is late going out, the deal has closed and the cost is a day’s delay.

Front load the day: end buyer funds in by the morning, and no double close set for the last hour before a cut-off or the day before a holiday.

When title finds a defect on the day

A defect found on closing day, such as an unreleased old mortgage, a lien or an heir who never signed, stops both legs, because the end buyer’s title runs through yours. The agent will not record the deed to the end buyer until the deed to you is good, and your lender should not wire into a title the agent will not insure.

The contracts give the seller time. On the AS IS form, the seller has 30 days after the buyer’s notice to make reasonable, diligent efforts to cure, and the buyer can then extend the cure period by up to 120 days, accept title as it is, or cancel and take back the deposit. You hold that right against the seller on the A to B leg and owe it to the end buyer on the B to C leg, so notify the seller the moment the defect appears and ask the end buyer for a matching extension in writing.

The double close checklist

If you need the A to B leg funded in Florida, Entrusted Capital is a direct lender for it: same day funding, up to 100% of the purchase price, priced per transaction, with no credit pulled for that leg, for business purpose deals only.

• Both contracts signed, dates aligned, the agent designation box on each checked in your favor, end buyer’s deposit receipted.
• Entity active on the state register, with documents and signer identification ready.
• One closing agent, told on day one and confirmed in writing to run both legs the same day.
• Title search, lien search, seller payoff and any estoppel ordered on day one.
• End buyer’s lender, if any, asked in writing how it treats a same day resale.
• Funding request in with the commitment and proof of the end buyer’s funds; closing instructions read.
• Both settlement statements reviewed in draft two days out, each against its contract.
• Every wire instruction confirmed by phone on a known number, every cut-off written down, and no Friday afternoon closing.