Tough question seller asked..

Adam,

expect to hear this question every time you put in an offer... you tell them that you work with several partners who will pay cash if the inspection is to their satisfaction.

You can give them a copy of a check and say that you will provide original when escrow opens; or give them a check dated in 14 days that they can deposit after inspection...

Make sure you have your buyers ready; you can also use your buyers funds for the EM.

Valerie is right (hey valerie) that is what I say, that i have partners & that we can close cash, because they are my partners, my buyers are. I give a copy of a check for EMD & then let my buyers put the emd down when i get an offer accepted & then assign or double close the deal with my buyers.

And is all in the book by Dean 30 days to RE Cash which is a must read, I am rereading it again too oh & congrats for joining IE too I rejoined after a few months & love it. Hope to see you on tomm nights chat & others. And did I call you jeff on my last post? Hope not if i did sorry.

Rather than saying you will pay a $10 EMD at the signing of the contract. Just state that the EMD will be paid after meeting the inspection and partner approval contingencies which will be completed within XX of days from signing.

This will give you time you need to line up a buyer (hopefully). It will also avoid the "sticker" shock caused by a low EMD.

Thanks for posting this up... I'm still learning too. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on this post. I'm glad I learnt something new today from this post.

Adam I would suggest you to get at least 14 days inspection like Valerie said or more which will be great so you can have enough time to find an end buyer.

Let us know how everything goes

Goodluck

I would tell them you need a 14 day inspection period and about the EMD, tell them this is how you do deals, that you never put more than $10-$100 EMD when you do your deals. Or look someone stated above you could put in your contract that the EM would be provided after a satisfy inspection which gives you time to find a buyer and have him put the EMD. Or you can say you have your money tide up in a couple of deals and need 5 days to move some funds around before you provide the EM, this give you 5 days to find a buyer. I used this one before with a realtor.

Adam.
It’s a great question, and one that many people encounter. I think all of the advice is solid and can be used in these situations. The thing to remember is that in most cases you are in control of how much EM to put down. As stated by someone else, a simple response of I don’t ever put down more than X# of dollars on my deals should be more than sufficient. Remember don’t make it a bigger deal than what it is. Pretty much anything in real estate is negotiable.
Keep up the good work

Some great input here from multiple people. I've found that if I explain that as investors we make multiple offers, and that it is imprudent to spread money around that way. After all, this is an all cash offer, and the EMD is just going to sit in a safe or a bank account until closing, and no one can spend it. I agree completely with Cody's comment above, to not make it a big deal. If you posture yourself as someone who follows through with what they say they will do, then this becomes less and less of an issue.