So you think you want to be a wholesaler? Opinion from experience

[Brandon M.]

I recently posted this on someone else's thread but I wanted to post it to anyone in any area who thinks they want to wholesale. Hopefully someone gets something out of it. This is my response to anyone who asks how wholesaling is going in a particular area, or if there are good deals out there, or who just thinks wholesaling is the way to start in real estate without any money. 

Wholesaling is not easy by any means. It takes tons of work, time, headaches, some money, some combination of all of the above. GOOD deals do not grow on trees and are NOT easy to find. Doesn't mean they aren't out there, but there is not free or easy money just hanging around there. Too many people see wholesaling as the way to make money easily without putting any money out there, and that is just not the case.

Also, in terms of locations or cities or neighborhoods there are deals to be had everywhere, I don't think there are better areas than others. There are deals in every neighborhood, but you have to work to uncover those gems. The best wholesalers have a variety of places they source deals from. The thousands of post cards they send out, agents who send them deals pre-MLS, connections within a bank's REO division, bandit signs, buying lists of pre-foreclosures or delinquent taxes, walking down streets and knocking on doors and talking to people, asking around on social media, relationships with divorce attorneys, eviction attorneys, probate attorneys, etc. There are a gazillion ways to do it, they all just require effort and time.

There is also some luck involved. By that I mean you have to speak to the right person at the right time. If you are a few months too early before they have accepted they want to sell, they won't talk to you. If you talk to them a few months after they made the decision to sell another wholesaler or real estate agent has probably already beat you to the deal. Maybe you just showed up on the wrong day and they don't want to talk that day. If you had come 24 hours later things would be different. Lots of factors play into finding willing sellers at the right prices.

You also have to learn how to be able to accurately price out a deal. Estimating rehab costs, estimating market value after repair, then being able to negotiate a price with the seller that allows you to make a profit while still leaving enough meat on the bone for the rehabber to buy that property and rehab it and still make money. Getting a deal under contract isn't the hard part, getting a deal under contract AT THE RIGHT PRICE takes some skill and some practice and some work.

This is just my two cents to anyone who wants to be a wholesaler. Hopefully it helps put some perspective in it, from someone who quit a W2 job last year and now supports a stay at home wife and soon to be 2 kids by doing real estate full time.

Feel free to add your two cents from others who are out working the wholesaling game in whatever part of the country you are in.