What’s the Maryland wholesaling bill that’s trying to make wholesaling illegal?

[Mike Schorah]

I heard they’re trying to make wholesaling illegal in Maryland.

I guess you’ll only be able to do 2 deals a year in Maryland. It looks similar to the Illinois law, but you’ll be able to do 2 deals a year, not 1 deal a year.

Realtors are jealous. They think wholesalers are making too much money and stealing clients.

It’s already illegal in Oklahoma, Illinois, Philadelphia. And I think Arizona made it illegal last year.

It’s unconstitutional. Right in the constitution, it says that every US citizen has both a right to make and assign any contract. Big mortgage companies do it all the time. My mortgage was sold twice and behind my back. At least I’m assigning contracts right in front of people’s faces.

[Russell Brazil]

#1 You might want to reread the constitution bro lol. Theres zero about assigning contracts in it. Thats the most absurd claim Ive ever read.

#2 This has absolutely zero to do with the Realtors. This bill was brought on behalf of the Maryland Real Estate Commission. They receive somewhere in the realm of 1,000 complaints by consumers every year. The Commission however only has power to discipline, fine, and recommend prosecutions against licensees, so they had no power to do anything against the unlicensed. The Attorney Generals office which was tasked with this, and already had a guidance memo that wholesaling was unlicensed brokering, did not have the resources to pursue the subject.

So by requiring that the act requires a license, shifts the burden of enforcement primarily off the AG's office and to the MREC, who has a narrower of focus of protecting the public in matters regarding real estate. This also gives the consumer access to the Real Estate Guarantee Fund.

Anyone who participates ethically in the business will simply get a license and business will operate as usual. Anyone who operates unethically, now the consumer will be empowered to more easily make sure the unethical area dealt with in an easier manner.