High EMD Amount Has Me Cautious

[Tariq B.]

Hey All,

I have a property on my radar that will make for a really good deal numbers wise, that I want to flip. I actually found the place on Craigslist. Which is out of the norm for me. Generally I go though wholesalers who I have met in person or heard though word of mouth. In other words someone can vouch for them.

To make it short. I found the place last night. Contacted the person on the ad this morning and went to view it later in the day. The guy apparently owns it and is an investor too who wants to sell this. According to him they do tons of deals in the area. So we continue to chat and I give him my offer which is about 5k off asking. He doesn't counter back and accepts with a close in 14 days and 5K EMD that will be held by a title company on the other side of the state, 7 hours away.

Generally my wholesalers ask for 1-2K. Am I being paranoid that this could be a scam? I have seen other wholesalers ask for 5K, but on a purchase that is less than 100K it seems a lot.  I have little to no rapport with this guy and the money is going to a title company I have no control over or can even visit. This makes me feel uneasy.

How can I protect myself here? He is also very pushy on the 14 days, which has me concerned because that is a short amount of time to get HM lined up.

Would love to hear others take.

Tariq