How do I secure my deal so that my buyers cannot go around me?

[Russell Salinas]

   Hi, my name is Russell. I am new to real estate investing. I am trying to do some deals, but I seem to get mixed answers on how to go to closing, set up contracts, and just everything. I would like to give you a scenario of what I am trying to do and if you can help me sort things out I would greatly appreciate it.

   I was contacted by a facebook friend and she has buyers that want to buy lots of investment deals. So, I have a connection that can get the deals from bank(s), brokers and other resources.

   I have asked my connection guy to find the deals that my buyer is searching for. He said he would get the deals.

   Now, I don't have money to invest at all. So, I called a lender. They will lend through transactional funding. The lender said that in order to do the deal, the buyer would have to have all the money in escrow with contracts to purchase signed, etc.

   I have heard of investors, that are in my position, that have lost deals cause they were cut out of the deal by their buyer(s). So, how do I lock up the deal without anyone taking my deal from me?

   My seller said that he wants to deal directly with the buyer, but my buyers are saying that their buyers don't want to deal with the seller directly. So, that's when I decided to use the transactional funding source. This way, I am the "buyer" and then i become the "seller" once I sell to the buyers. However, my buyers don't want me to use the transactional funding source for some reason or another, but I want to use transactional funding cause it'll keep the buyers/sellers from going around me. (I will charge a $5K non-refundable deposit to the buyer).

   Now then, how do I make sense of all this stuff? How do I go about doing this deal using transactional funding with both my seller(s) and buyer(s)? What is the procedure/method/strategy for negotiating, contract set up, and closing?

   Can my buyers have their buyer put money in escrow so that my buyers can have the money to show my lender that I have an end-buyer? Or how can this be set up so that everybody can win? 

   If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it very much!!! Thank you in advance!