Wholesaling 101: A guided walk through of a typical transaction

[Valerie K.]

Hello all! 

My name is Valerie Kester and while I have bought and sold several personal residences (including landlording)  I am brand new to the investing side of real estate.  I have close friends who have invested in wholesale multi-family properties in Bakersfield with much success and am interested in doing the same.   I would consider other markets with equal opportunities. Moreover, I would be interested in flipping homes and see markets like Pittsburgh, Columbus and others with a lot of activity.  

I have been reading, listening to podcasts and more but have yet to find a post that walks through the basics of the wholesale process as a buyer.  We have cash available to make purchases, but I am trying to understand the process. We find a wholesaler who finds us a property- we run the numbers using every resource we have and decide to buy it.  The wholesaler sells us the contract.  We then assume the rehab and resale of the property.  We pay cash to the wholesaler? How does that go? My primary concern is that we are not handing large sums of cash to someone who, despite great referrals, runs abroad with our money.  Once we 'assume the contract', how does that compare to a typical escrow?  We have always dealt with realtors, appraiser, insurance, title companies and big banks. I am little leary cashing investments and using home equity without better understanding where the money is going and how we are protected.

If anyone can recommend a good resource to better educate myself on this, I would really appreciate it!
Valerie