Wholesaling in the Bay Area

[Joe Hillesland]

I'm very interested in wholesaling and am from Palo Alto in California. I am currently putting together a list of buyers and am getting good guidance from an experienced wholesaler in Texas. Despite declining prices, I have heard that the bay area is one of the most difficult areas for wholesaling in the country. I really would like to make it work but is wholesaling in my area a losing battle? If so I'd probably go for virtual wholesaling but I've heard that's less ideal. Any advice would be much appreciated, I'm willing to put in the effort but don't want to waste my time.

[John Zajac]

I've done virtual wholesaling. It's good to market to areas and snag properties in areas where opportunity is and help more people out. Wholesaling can be tough without having grit, systems and processes in place before hand. If you are just trying to wholesale that's one thing. If you are trying make real estate a profession for yourself you'll need to think long term and understand that short setbacks are apart of the 'game'. You'll never waste time as long as you are continuing to learn. For me personally speaking, wholesaling in Palo Alto California sounds pretty insane but anything can happen. One deal there and you'll be well paid for sometime. I advocate virtual wholesaling somewhere you can easily pick up on building codes, climate, timezone and culture. I have a southern accent so I tend to talk to people more in the south and it's easy to relate to people more. For you it might be different. Whenever you select a location think about marketing there for sometime to get a feel for the market. I tend to have cash buyers or a cash buyers list and other real estate investors data with contact information in the area first. There is nationwide cash buyers software called Agreedment that I think will make it easier for virtual wholesaler and ease the tension of building a list of cash buyers. The early version works for me! Starting out can be frustrating and discouraging especially when you are doing virtual wholesaling. My advice is to just stick with it and you'll learn a lot.