This episode reveals how to structure double-close economics without formal option contracts by strategically timing broker soft-marketing during the title review period. A 26K South Carolina purchase generated a 65K pre-close offer through broker outreach to existing buyer networks, effectively creating a simultaneous close situation despite taking title first (still riskier than true double-close but far less risky than holding for typical 30-45 day listings).
Key Takeaways:
- Soft-Market During Title Review for Pseudo-Double-Close Have brokers reach out to existing buyer networks while title commitment is pending, framing the property as “going through paperwork with attorney” to generate offers before you take ownership (bridges the gap between option contracts and equity holds).
- Strategic Information Flow Protects Deal Structure Brokers can truthfully say sellers are “working through paperwork” without disclosing you don’t yet own the property, maintaining buyer confidence while you finalize purchase (timing and phrasing matter more than formal contract structures).
- Pre-Close Offers Validate Underwriting Before Capital Deployment Securing a 65K conventional-financed offer on a 26K purchase before closing proves pricing assumptions and significantly de-risks the equity investment (if financing falls through, you still have validated market demand before capital commitment).
This technique works best when you have strong broker relationships and properties where sellers won’t accept options, providing a middle ground between true double-close and pure equity speculation.
(Podcast transcript below)
Hi, Chris Duff over at Serious Land Capital, vacant land funding partner. A quick one today. Just wanted to share kind of a quicker tip regarding how you can set up or basically set up a double close situation, even in situations where you’re not able to get a, know, novation contract or
You know the option to market a property on behalf of a seller In order to set up a double-closer transactional deal so
In certain situations when we’re already looking at funding a deal, mean, we always try to do this whenever possible. just not, it doesn’t always work out in such a way where there’s definitely already perceived opportunity to invest from an equity perspective.
And, we were looking at this property in South Carolina, like a 26K buy, pretty small deal, at least for us. but seemed like should be a double, pretty conservatively. It was pretty far out rural wise. Like I didn’t feel the best about it. but you know, local broker visited a few times, had other connections within his brokerage.
Seemed indicate. Yeah, there’s probably going to be activity out here and could list closer to 70 K so you have a lot of room to work with from You know exit potential and margin perspective But you know, we hadn’t closed on the deal yet because we’re always looking to identify
a realtor and get boots on the ground prior to any purchase. That’s a requirement. We don’t fund any deals without a site visit and getting local expert opinion. just a key piece of us being able to operate nationally without ever having to go visit these properties and being able to quickly enter new markets and still feel confident about
purchases that that we’re pursuing and So, know while we’re waiting here for a pretty slow attorney to sort out title commitment But the rest of our diligence was done, you know We’ve just been in touch with the broker and seeing okay, you know Okay, can you do any soft outreach? You know, he was mentioning that yeah I think I might have some people that were looking for land like this already chatting with other
members of his brokerage or you know kind of associated brokers in the area and Seeing okay. What what might people what might we be able to put together here and You know within a couple days of him starting to do some outreach had already gotten an offer You know, he was already soft selling. Hey like the 69k is a list price they wanted
To make a bid for 60k and this is conventional finance. So effectively a cash deal for us, you know Pending appraisal and pre-approval, which was no problem And we were able to settle in at 65k. I went back to the realtor and said, you know, it’s This is already like a solid deal here, especially we can basically make it a double-closed situation with equity economics on On the deal, know, nothing’s guaranteed right things can fall through
Especially when it comes to conventional financing, but seems pretty good So just tell like these possible buyers who seem pretty hot on the deal, you know, if they get up to 65k, we’ll sign it and That came back really quickly You know figured that that that would likely work work out there and so, know, you kind of have to thread the needle from a timing side because you don’t
You know, a lot of these buyers, they’re not that sophisticated. They’re not going to like dive super deep. Okay. Who is this seller and everything and the broker, you know, is also being strategic in terms of.
You know what level of info he’s providing to these buyers. So, you know, he’s not saying, these guys, you know, don’t own it yet. They’re just, they’re still in title and anticipating purchasing, you know, within the next couple of weeks. our timing, we’re pretty much, you know, all set to close outside of getting the attorney to prep that title commitment and then set up a, closing with the seller.
And so he was just mentioning to these prospective buyers, Hey, you know, these guys are, they’re out of state. They’re just working through some paperwork with the attorney so we can start to get the closing process set up. So, you know, it’s just a bit more strategic, like nothing, nothing untoward here because, know, we’re dead set. I’m purchasing this property, obviously, you know, if there was some crazy title issue that comes up, that
you know, indicates that the title is not clean. We don’t expect it to be this in this case, then we can always back out. And, you know, that’s also good. We figure that out before any possible buyer might look at the property anyway. So it’s just kind of arranging the order of operations in terms of how the information is handled in such a case. So
But that gives us a lot more confidence that, okay, we’re buying this at the right price. Let’s close on it. And then let’s anticipate selling that right away to this buyer. So as soon as we close, we get the listing agreement with the broker and then they prep offer. And they can actually prep an offer prior to us fully owning it. That paperwork is fine to do anyway.
So that’s just an additional strategy. You know, it doesn’t work every time because it’s not like, you know, some brokers are just like getting people out of the woodwork to, you know, off market to come take a stab at a property here. But when you can figure it out, it is an excellent opportunity to pursue. And so this can be useful for, you know, times where
Hey, you’re not confident you can get the seller under a, you know, again, novation or option contract. They’re not comfortable with that. You still think the economics are good enough for equity, but it still allows you to set up basically double close. It’s still riskier, right? Cause you have to take title prior and then go through, you know, the whole process, even if it’s still holding for like another 30, 45 days, there’s still more inherent risk to that versus like the same day or, you know,
one or two business day close timeline that would be more typical for a double close. So there’s still more inherent risk there. Or, know, maybe the possible buyer is back out for whatever reason or the financing falls apart again, especially in this economy, you just never know. So there is still more risk there. Again, from an equity perspective, but very, very
Handy type of strategy to use whenever possible. So we’re always asking, you know brokers. Hey, do you have any other type of off-market list? know, know who are people you might be able to reach out to and so forth Start pre-marketing the deal and say more than half the time Brokers that that we reach out to our work with Tend to have that and yeah, yeah success rate is it’s a mixed bag, right? It’s not always gonna work But in this case it does and I mentioned this again to to at least share a little bit more optimism
in a wild macro economy that we’re in, and we’re in a pretty risk-off position at the moment, being much, much more careful of deals that we’re pursuing, but there is still market movement. The entire economy hasn’t shut down. So, you know, just be cautious, but, you know, use more, you know, de-risk, de-risking type.
Disposed strategies in combination with your acquisition, especially in you know more difficult markets like this. So hopefully this is helpful If you’re looking for funding and serious land capital and then land daily diligence Facebook group for zero cost review of your land deals and remember on April 17th next Thursday at 1 30 p.m. Central myself Dave Denniston and Justin Sleba
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