Assignments that die at the closing table

Failure one: the contract was never assignable

The original purchase agreement has to permit assignment or the seller has to consent to it. The usual wording is the buyer's name followed by 'and/or assigns'. If that is missing and nobody got consent, the assignment can fail at the table, which is the worst possible place to discover it - the buyer has funds wired, the seller has movers booked, and there is no time to fix anything.

Catch it at signing

Read the assignment clause before you sign, not before you close. If it is not there, get a one-line consent from the seller at the same time as the contract, when everyone is agreeable, rather than three weeks later when they have had time to wonder what you are making.

Failure two: title was opened too late

The estate that was never probated. The ex-spouse still on the deed. The municipal lien that does not show in county records. All of them are fixable given weeks and none of them is fixable given days. Open title the day you go under contract and you convert most of these into paperwork.

The seller who changes their mind

Less common but it happens, usually when the seller learns what the assignment fee is and decides they were underpaid. Disclosure up front is the defence: a seller who knew from the start that you are assigning has far less to be upset about at the end, and in several states telling them is required anyway.

What to have ready

The full purchase agreement, proof the earnest money was deposited, the assignment agreement, the seller's consent if the contract needed one, and the title company's file number. A deal with those five things ready closes. A deal missing two of them is a deal somebody is chasing on the morning of.

The buyer who cannot actually fund

The other way an assignment dies is a buyer whose money was never where they said it was. Proof of funds dated inside thirty days, in the name of the entity that will sign, is not bureaucracy - it is the single check that separates a buyer from somebody who intends to find a buyer. Ask for it before you take the deal off the market, not on the day.

Extensions are cheap before they are needed

If the closing date is tight, get a signed extension while the seller is still content rather than the day before it expires. A seller who has already agreed to move a date once will usually do it again. A seller being asked at the last minute, by somebody who now clearly needs it, has every reason to renegotiate instead.

Earnest money that was never deposited

A contract says earnest money was paid. Nobody checks, and at closing the title company finds no record of it. Now the seller has grounds to argue the contract was never properly formed, and they are usually raising that because they have found a better offer. Get the receipt from the escrow holder when you sign, and keep it with the contract.

Two names, one signature

Married sellers in some states both have to sign regardless of whose name is on the deed, and an estate needs whoever the court actually appointed. A contract signed by one of two required parties is not enforceable, and that is discovered at the table more often than anywhere else. Ask who has to sign on the day you write it up.