Wholesale for startup cash, or loan?

[Alan Crookham]

I have been interested in doing real estate for years. I have lived overseas for most of my adult life and just moved back to Texas. I own a property in Panama that I have rented out (not much rental money in Panama), and would like to flip houses here Stateside. Because I’ve been in the non-profit world from right out of high school, I have no start up money whatsoever. My question is this. If my end goal is to fix and flip houses, is it better to start wholesaling houses to earn the startup money, or find a house for a wholesale price, get a loan and buy it/fix it, and sell it? The loan is riskier of course, but the payoff is bigger, but it seems like wholesaling could potentially provide a payoff quicker with the right marketing. I’m just not sure how viable wholesaling actually is. All the gurus make it sound easy, but the people I have written in these forums asking about it have all said something like, “I’m working hard, and one day I’ll get that deal!” But it’s been months and no dice. So is it worth even trying to get into wholesaling in the first place?