Peer to peer wholesaling website - Securities violation?

[Jason Hill]

To make things simple as far as what I'm on about think realtor.com meets craigslist, but for investors and wholesalers. I'm thinking of creating a site wherein wholesalers can list their properties with all the stats like ARV, Repair costs, etc, etc. Would be buyers would peruse the site like realtor.com or zillow by putting in their criteria. If they like a property the could contact the wholesaler directly.

My main concern is that, to my knowledge, no one has done this.  The first thought is that this may run afoul of the SEC.  Would this be securitizing the wholesaled property by advertising it to the general public?  If not, is there any other legal ramifications that I'm not thinking about?

Many legal issues are avoided because we would simply be the marketplace, not a broker or agent.

[Joe Splitrock]

Originally posted by @Jason Hill:

To make things simple as far as what I'm on about think realtor.com meets craigslist, but for investors and wholesalers. I'm thinking of creating a site wherein wholesalers can list their properties with all the stats like ARV, Repair costs, etc, etc. Would be buyers would peruse the site like realtor.com or zillow by putting in their criteria. If they like a property the could contact the wholesaler directly.

My main concern is that, to my knowledge, no one has done this.  The first thought is that this may run afoul of the SEC.  Would this be securitizing the wholesaled property by advertising it to the general public?  If not, is there any other legal ramifications that I'm not thinking about?

Many legal issues are avoided because we would simply be the marketplace, not a broker or agent.

 There are already websites to list for sale by owner. In most states you can't market a property you don't own without a real estate license. Marketing involves not only publicly listing a property, but also privately sharing with a buyers list. The reason wholesalers prefer a private buyers list is because there is less likelihood of getting caught. It is still marketing and still illegal in most states.

It is true that web companies can avoid some liability by just being a platform, but if that platform is used for illegal purposes, you could get caught in legal trouble. Think Silk Road. They were just a platform, but users transacted illegal goods on the platform. Obviously that is an extreme comparison because selling drugs garners more attention than wholesaling on the scale of illegal activity. I guess I am questioning why you would want to invite trouble by supporting illegal activity? 

There are already private buy/sell groups doing this across the country, so be aware it is already happening.