Wholesaling Thoughts

[J Scott]

This post doesn't really have much of a point...just some rambling from someone whose perspective on buying wholesale deals has changed over the past week...

As anyone who has read stuff I've written about wholesaling here on BP will know, I haven't been overly successful buying from wholesalers over the years. I get calls from wholesalers many times per week, and I get several deals sent to me each week/month, but I've never found any of the deals to be very good (at least not the ones in areas where I know/buy).

That said, I moved from Atlanta to Maryland a couple months ago, and decided to engage with a few wholesalers up here, to see if things were any different than in Georgia. To my surprise, in just the past week, I've seen two potentially good wholesale deals come across my desk here in Maryland.

The first was overpriced for a rehab/flip, but I was able to negotiate the wholesaler down to a reasonable price. It's still not a great deal as a flip, but it's decent, and it's actually a really good deal as a rental (all in for around $75K with rents around $1400) -- there's a good chance I'll hold it and attempt (once again) to build a longer-term portfolio of buy-and-holds.

The second was a wholesale deal from @Ned Carey. This deal was one that I probably would have jumped on quickly had I been better versed in the area and had a better idea of rehab costs in Maryland (I don't have a contractor team yet). I was ready to make an offer pretty close to full price, but about 10 minutes after I saw the property, another investor looked at it and immediately made a full-price offer to Ned. So, while I didn't get that deal, it was another good one that I had a shot at.

I'm not sure if Maryland is somehow different than Atlanta when it comes to wholesalers (certainly, it's nice to have professionals like Ned around)...or if it's just a coincidence. Regardless, it's interesting to me.

Anyway, as someone who has been pretty jaded about buying wholesale deals the past couple years, this has been pretty refreshing, and I'm hoping that buying from wholesalers can provide a viable stream of deals in the future.