End Buyer

The term comes from wholesaling. A wholesaler signs a purchase contract with the seller, usually with 'and/or assigns' next to their name, then markets that contract to investors. Whoever buys the contract and shows up at closing with the money is the end buyer, usually a flipper, landlord, or fund paying cash, because the assignment has to close fast and without a lender questioning the markup. The seller's contract price includes the wholesaler's assignment fee, commonly several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, paid out of what the end buyer was willing to spend on the house.

For a seller, 'are you the end buyer, or are you assigning this?' is the single most useful question when an offer arrives. An end buyer can show proof of funds in their own name, put a meaningful deposit in escrow, and close on a date they control. A middleman can only promise that someone else will. If no end buyer materializes during the inspection period, the contract dies and the deposit, often small and refundable, goes back to the wholesaler after weeks off the market. Assignment isn't illegal, but a buyer who won't answer has answered.

Selling directly to end buyers, or making several of them compete, keeps the assignment fee in the seller's pocket. That is the structural reason marketplaces match sellers with funded buyers rather than intermediaries: buyers in the network are the end buyers.