Tommy DobczykOpportunity Zone Advisor, OZ Wizard · Director of Development | Certified Opportunity Zone Advisor

Seller's Dominance Risk: Don't Lose Your Deal! #shorts

9 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this short advisory clip, Tommy Dobczyk warns developers and buyers about the danger of granting a seller a first‑position lien on a loan tied to a property. He explains that if a seller holds the primary lien on a $4 million (or $8 million) loan, they can wait until the buyer completes entitlements and construction, then claim a missed payment and foreclose, seizing the land. The buyer would have limited recourse and face a protracted legal battle. Dobczyk emphasizes the need to avoid giving sellers first‑position lien status to protect against this dominance risk.

Chapters

Are you in the deal room? First position lien on the $4 million. So that way, after we get done doing entitlements or anything like that, that the seller cannot immediately invoke a position of superiority or dominance and take away the— and basically foreclose on us after we get all the work done. Okay. Because literally giving them first position on that $8 million loan gives them the ability to wait until all the work is done and then say, oh, you guys missed a payment, and then take the land from us. And we would have no way to fight that. It'd be years to fight back and forth.