Double closing in real estate: two closings in one day, and what each one costs you
- Closings
- Two: owner to you, then you to your buyer
- Example
- Buy at $95,000, sell at $105,000
- Spread before costs
- $10,000
- FHA buyers
- Not eligible within 90 days of your purchase
A double close, from two contracts to two closings
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Sign the purchase contract with the owner
This is the A-B contract, and you are buying, not assigning. Set a closing date with room to find your buyer, and check your state’s wholesaling statute: some apply to any contract you market before you own the house, so the disclosure may still be due. The state law table has the 20 states we read.
What you come away withA contract to buy, with time to resell.
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Sign a second contract with your buyer
This is the B-C contract: you as seller, your buyer as buyer, at the higher price. You are selling a house you will own at closing. Your buyer should pay cash or use financing that allows a fast resale: an FHA-insured loan is not available on a resale 90 days or less after you acquire the property, under FHA’s own rule (24 CFR 203.37a).
What you come away withA buyer under contract at your resale price.
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Choose a title company that runs back-to-back closings
Tell the title company or closing attorney up front that both closings belong together, and ask how the first one is funded: whether the end buyer’s money may pay for your purchase, or you must bring your own funds to the A-B closing. Get their answer in writing before you count on it.
What you come away withA closing agent who knows both sides and how the money moves.
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Fund your purchase
You need the A-B price in hand, from your own cash or from a short same-day loan called transactional funding, which a lender advances for the A-B closing and takes back from the B-C proceeds. Its fee comes out of your spread.
What you come away withThe money for the first closing, arranged before closing day.
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Close A-B, then B-C
The owner deeds the house to you and is paid. Then you deed it to your buyer and are paid. Each side signs its own settlement statement: the owner sees your purchase price, your buyer sees your sale price, and neither statement shows a wholesale fee.
What you come away withThe house bought and sold, and your spread paid out.
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Count what is left
Your profit is the B-C price minus the A-B price, minus your share of closing costs on both closings and any funding fee. On the example, $105,000 minus $95,000 leaves $10,000 before those costs. Ask the title company for an estimate of both sides before you sign the buyer’s contract.
What you come away withYour real number, not the headline spread.
Where a double close costs more than it saves
You pay to close twice. Title fees, recording and any transfer tax your state charges apply to each closing, and a funding fee comes on top if you borrow. On a thin spread an assignment, with one closing and no purchase money, can leave you more.
Your buyer’s financing can rule it out. FHA will not insure a mortgage on a resale 90 days or less after the seller acquired the property, and FHA also requires the buyer to purchase from the owner of record with no assigned contract. A double close works with cash buyers and with loans that accept a same-day resale: ask the buyer’s lender before you sign.
The law still applies. Pennsylvania’s statute defines a wholesale transaction as transferring your interest without taking title, and you do take title in a double close, but other states word it differently. Whether your double close falls under your state’s statute is a question for an attorney there.
Double close or assignment
- Who sees your spread
- Double close: nobody on the other side. Assignment: everyone at closing
- Money you need
- Double close: the full purchase price. Assignment: earnest money
- Closing costs
- Double close: two sets. Assignment: one
- FHA-financed buyer
- Not eligible either way under 24 CFR 203.37a
FHA rule read on the e-CFR, November 2026.
Double closing: questions people ask
What does double closing mean?
Two closings back to back on the same property: the owner sells to you, then you sell to your buyer, usually the same day at the same title company. You own the house for the time between them.
Is double closing considered wholesaling?
It works like wholesaling in that you resell at once without fixing the house. Legally it depends on your state: some statutes define wholesaling as selling your contract without taking title, which a double close does not do, and others are wider. Ask an attorney in the property’s state.
Is a double closing legal?
Buying and reselling a house is legal. What a state regulates is how you market the contract before you own it and what you must tell the seller. Check your state’s wholesaling statute and disclose where it requires.
Who pays the closing costs in a double close?
Each closing has its own costs, split as each contract says. As the buyer on the first and the seller on the second, you can carry costs on both sides, which is why a double close tends to cost more than an assignment.
Can my end buyer use an FHA loan?
Not on a same-day double close. FHA will not insure a mortgage when the property is resold 90 days or less after the seller acquired it (24 CFR 203.37a).
Where to go from here
How we put this together
- FHA’s rule on the sale of property, 24 CFR 203.37a (owner of record, time restrictions on resales), read on the e-CFR copy at law.cornell.edu, November 2026
- The wholesaling statutes of 20 states (see the state law guide), read November 2026
- The pages that rank for “double closing” in the US, read November 2026
We have not run a double close ourselves, and we quote no closing cost figures because they vary by county, title company and loan. Ask the title company for both sides’ estimates. Nothing here is legal advice.