Wholesale vs Real Estate Agent

[Jonathan Blandino]

Hey guys, first and foremost very thankful for the answers in my previous post. Now I've been reading on the role a whole seller plays and felt like it was very similar to what an agent does. Wouldn't it just be better to be an agent with company resources and more lead potential than wholesaling? Or am I missing some fundamental differences?

[Lenzy Ruffin]

Agents and wholesalers are similar in that they are involved in the buying and selling of houses, but they are entirely different professions. There are no licensing or certification requirements for being a wholesaler, so anyone can do it. Studying for and passing the real estate exam, getting licensed, and finding a brokerage to work with are some of the requirements for becoming an agent. Anyone can do this, too, but it's obviously more difficult than becoming a wholesaler so fewer people will choose to go this route. 

Becoming an agent makes you a licensed member of a professional organization, but that does not make you a professional. As in any profession, there are members who are models for others to pattern themselves after and there are people at the other end of the spectrum who discredit the profession. Same is true for wholesalers. There are serious, professional wholesalers who run their business as well and professionally as any business you can imagine and then there are people who put properties on the MLS under contract at list price and then try to mark them up and "wholesale" them to somebody.

As far as any company resources that come along with being an agent helping you to generate leads, I doubt that's the benefit that you think it is. Whether you're a licensed agent or an unlicensed wholesaler, you have to make your own rain. If you could review the sales figures of all agents at any given brokerage, I expect you'll see a few people at the top closing lots of deals and as you go down the list, you'll get to a point where there's a lot of names with no deals closed in the last three months, six months, etc. They all have access to the same resources. Whatever leads you generate are leads that YOU generate. Lead generation is about hustle. Having the tools of an agent won't do anything for you if you lack hustle. 

There are pros and cons to being licensed or unlicensed. You can search the forums and find lots of discussions on that topic so you can read both sides. Ultimately, it comes down to what works for the individual and how they plan to invest. But getting licensed solely because you think you'll have better lead generation resources would be a mistake.