escrow?

[Lawson Ott]

tiny village in ohio:

seller wants 20k. told him can't do that much, afraid market won't bring it. would be  much lower. but i still put some feelers out and suggested 35k price. someone messaged me saying they want it for 20k cash. i don't have any contracts in place yet. 

thinking maybe these guys might know each other since this is a small area and they might be trying to toy with me. 

but if the buyer is legit, i want him to put the $20k in escrow until i can do a double closing. 

if all goes good, i might need transactional funding but those fees... that's a big chunk of the money.

i just don't want to be stuck owning the property if these guys are playing me.

what would you seasoned folks do in this situation?