What I'm going to say is I see people who have experienced success in this arena, analyze many practice deals before they put their money down on the table for a real deal.

Most will likely stick to the technical limit of Sept 2021 when it ceased being a primary residence, but some may be comfortable going by the address on the 2021 return and others may explore a partial exclusion, depending on the reasons for your move abroad.If you'd like to read up on the technical rules, the IRS publication 523 gets into more detail than most people would like to know, but it does have some helpful tables and examples for different scenarios.

Title insurance, settlement fees, and recording fees can vary, so you could request updated estimates as you get closer to the closing date.If you’re expecting to stay under $5,000 out of pocket, double-check the loan estimate to ensure this aligns with your DPA and the amount you're being asked to bring to the table at closing.

its against HUD rules to acept money under the table. 

When I was in my 20s and 30s, it was easy to get a hotel room or rental home, spot on the beach, table at a restaurant, and traffic was a nonevent. 

When you get to the closing table you make sure you close around the middle of the month so you walk away from the closing table with all the security deposits (do they have to be in seperate accounts in your state?)

Sellers are slowly realizing there are fewer buyers and focused on working with those at the table.

Developed this by making a table in our 40 mile radius market.  

Does this all just come out in the end at the closing table?

Every time a guru “education” course was co pleated, I’d receive 10 -20 phone calls from either investor wannabes “building their team” in preparation for all the real estate “great” deals they were going to uncover or the same wannabes who had already identified a “great” deal (they hadn’t submitted let alone secured acceptance of an offer yet) and were lining up their financing which since they were purchasing at 50% of the value they’d end up with not only 100% financing but also walk away from the closing table with cash in their pocket.