A wholesaler and a cash buyer who closes on the house itself can look identical from the seller’s side, right up until the closing table: the same kind of contract, the same kind of buyer to negotiate with. The difference is who actually shows up to close, and since 2025, Tennessee law requires that difference to be disclosed to you in writing before you sign.
| A wholesaler | A cash buyer who closes itself (us) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | The buyer’s profit is the gap between your contract price and what it charges an assignee for the contract, a fee that does not come out of your proceeds directly but reflects what the eventual closer was willing to pay. | The price in the contract is what we pay and what shows up at closing. No assignee, no second price behind it. |
| Closing date | The closing date, earnest money terms and contingencies in your contract stay as written even after an assignment, but the assignee has to actually be ready to close on that date. | We are the buyer named in the contract from day one, ready to close on it. |
| Fees | No fee to you either way; Tennessee’s transfer tax defaults to the buyer regardless of who ends up closing. | Same transfer tax default, one buyer, no assignment fee sitting behind your price. |
| Certainty | Since 2025, Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 66-4-401 to 403 require written disclosure, before you sign, that the buyer intends to market its interest, and at least three business days’ notice of an assignment’s effective date if the contract allows one. The disclosure tells you an assignment is possible; it does not guarantee the assignee closes. | No assignee to wait on. The buyer who signed the contract is the buyer who closes. |
| Who does the work | A buyer, not an agent, so no fiduciary duty either way, and the law now requires the intent to assign in writing before you sign. | Same: a buyer, not an agent. We tell you upfront what we expect to make, and we do not assign what we plan to close ourselves. |
Where a wholesaler can beat a direct cash buyer
A wholesaler is, in effect, shopping your signed contract to a small network of other investors, which can surface a buyer willing to pay more for it than any single buyer’s own capital would offer on its own. Tennessee’s 2025 disclosure law (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 66-4-401 to 403) makes that arrangement more transparent than it used to be: the buyer has to tell you in writing, before you sign, that it intends to market its interest, and give you the assignment’s effective date at least three business days ahead if the contract allows one. If the highest bid for your contract happens to come from someone other than the buyer sitting across from you, an assignment is how you might still get it, without running a full marketing process yourself.
Where a direct cash buyer wins
The tradeoff is who actually shows up at closing. An assignment depends on the wholesaler finding an assignee who is ready, funded and willing to close on your terms, and your contract, not the law, decides what happens if nobody does. We are the buyer named in the contract and the buyer who closes, on some houses ourselves and on others by assigning to another investor, always disclosed in writing before you sign, as the law requires. There is one party accountable for the closing date from the day the contract is signed, not a chain that depends on somebody else’s financing coming through. Our full breakdown of the statute is in wholesaling and contract assignment in Tennessee.
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