Experienced Wholesalers! How to prevent the end buyer from cutting me out of the deal?

[Regine Saint-Laurent]

Hello all,

I am wondering how, upon signing a contract with the homeowner and then attempting to assign it to an investor, one can prevent the homeowner and investor from making a deal behind my back? I am new to wholesaling and the second time I took an investor to look at a property I had secured a contract on, he and the homeowner started speaking to each other during the inspection. I suspect at some point the homeowner and investor revealed to each other the price of their respective contracts. Both the investor and homeowner dropped off of the radar afterward, and I later found out the homeowner sold to that very same investor. I am aware I have legal rights since I had a contract with the seller, however (since waging a lawsuit is prohibitively expensive for me) I am asking for advice on how to prevent this situation from happening in the first place. I have accepted that this deal is water under the bridge, but I am looking to learn as much as I can from it. Thank you all in advance for your responses.