Step 9: Assign or Close

Step 9.1 — What assignment really is

An assignment transfers your rights under the purchase contract to another buyer, who steps in and closes with the seller at the contract price plus your assignment fee. You never take title. The fee is earned for finding the deal, negotiating it, and delivering a ready buyer — real work, priced openly. Use a written assignment agreement, disclose as your state requires, and make sure the original contract permits assignment or the seller consents in writing. Surprises at the title company destroy assignments; paperwork agreed in the open protects them.

Step 9.2 — When closing yourself is the better door

Close when the spread is large enough to justify ownership, when no buyer matches at a fair assignment fee, when you want the house as a flip or rental yourself, or when assignment is restricted and the deal is still strong. Closing means real money: purchase funds, closing costs, holding costs from day one, and the rehab and exit work of Steps 11 through 13. Run that full math before you choose this door, with the funding plan from Step 10 already identified. Owning by accident — because an assignment failed at the last minute — is the most expensive version of this lesson.

Step 9.3 — Work the assignment like a sale, because it is one

Send matched buyers from your Step 3 list a complete packet immediately: contract price, fee, property details, condition, access instructions, and the closing deadline. Set a short, honest window for answers, confirm the buyer's funds, and get the assignment signed with their earnest money where your market's practice calls for it. Keep the seller informed at the level the contract requires. If no buyer bites at your fee, cut the fee before you cut the seller's price — and if it still does not move, tell the seller early. Early honesty preserves options; silence removes them.

Step 9.4 — Mind the legal lines in your state

Wholesaling law is changing state by state: disclosure duties, licensing questions, marketing restrictions on properties you do not own, and rules about advertising a contract rather than a house. Our law pages and the state one-pager magnet summarize the operating states, and Mike-vetted material is the only material we publish — but your facts and your state control, and an attorney in that state is the final word. General information here is not legal advice. Build your assignment practice to survive daylight: disclosed role, written agreements, no promises you cannot keep.

Step 9.5 — Close the loop either way

Whichever door you chose, finish cleanly: confirm the closing statement matches the agreements, make sure the seller knows who is coming to closing, and be reachable that day. Afterward, log the outcome, pay the people who helped, thank the seller, and update your buyers list notes with who performed. Then ask the two scaling questions from Step 16 while the deal is fresh: what produced this deal, and what would make the next one easier? Every assignment or closing is tuition. Collect the lesson on purpose.

Do this step now

Do not just read this step — work it. Open the Wholesaling Calculator and run one real or practice property through it, then read the full guide for this step: Contracts and Assignments Explained. Write down what you produced — a number, a list, a decision — in a deal file you will keep. Every later step assumes that artifact exists. If a term on this page is new to you, the glossary defines it with a worked example, and the topic hubs gather everything on the subject in one place. Progress in this business is mostly finished paperwork and honest numbers, repeated until they compound.

How you'll know this step is done

This step is done when you can point to the artifact it produced — a written decision, a worked number, a list, a signed paper, or a log entry — and explain, in plain language, how you got it and what would change it. If you can only say you read about it, the step is not done yet, and moving on anyway is how gaps hide until a live deal finds them at the worst price. It is also done when you know your own weak point inside it: the input you estimated instead of verified, the conversation you are avoiding, the deadline you have not calendared. Name that weak point in your deal file and give it a date. Steps in this path are not school subjects to pass once; they are stations you will revisit on every deal, faster each time, because the artifact from the last deal becomes the template for the next one.