Does Wholesaling Make Sense?

Question

Hello all,

I have a few questions about wholesaling in general & the process itself.

1. First, does wholesaling or searching for deals (in whatever way) make sense as a means of finding property to invest in? Or is this inefficient considering it takes so many calls/flyers etc. just to get one deal?

2. In which ways can someone new to RE discover how to estimate ARV. Estimating repairs, comps and everything else that creates an ARV seems to be the toughest part of the process. Should you know how to do this first, then look to find places or jump head first?

3. What laws/regulations should new investors generally be aware of? I know this is jx specific, but what are general concepts that are the crux of legal disputes? How do wholesalers protect the seller, themselves and the deal from being lost/taken by someone else?

4. What is the wholesale contract look like? The one between the seller & wholesaler, including the EMD.

Nelisa Lee · Answer

1. Do you have more time or more money? I would say if you have more time, then searching for your own deals might be worth it. But, if you have more money then I would try connecting with established wholesalers or realtors in your market who could bring you deals. Some wholesalers may work with sellers for months or even years before a contract is ever signed.
2. I believe that partnering with more experienced investors or finding an agent that works with investors to help dial in your numbers would be a great way to learn to do this. There are a lot of them willing to help newer wholesalers/investors if you bring them a deal. You'll be able to see how they evaluate it. I would also recommend driving the areas you want to invest in. We learned from driving through them that it was pretty obvious that neighborhoods in my market change on a street by street basis which can make running comps tough.
3. I know a lot of wholesalers will record of a memorandum of agreement when they have a property under contract to protect themselves. This might be a better question for an attorney.
4. From my understanding, a wholesale contract usually includes that the contract is "assignable" to another party.

Hope this helps!

David Ramirez · Answer

Hey Francis, @Nelisa Lee said it best!

1. It depends on the number of properties you want to buy. If you are looking to buy a few a year, it is not worth it. If you are looking to purchase multiple a month, it might make sense for you, but it also depends on your marketing.

2. Actually calculating ARV will be the easiest part of the process, trust me. Within 10 minutes, you can have a very good estimate of the resale value. When it comes to rehab, I would recommend networking with people in your area and getting estimates from them while you understand the ins and outs of running rehab. I've flipped properties before wholesaling, so you can reach out, and I can give you my opinion on any property.

3. Proper documentation and opening title as soon as you go under contract with the seller.

4. It's just a regular purchase and sale agreement with "and or assign" language and a marketing clause.

Chris Williams · Answer

I am switching to a wholetail type model since the regulations against wholesalers are coming more and more. You can still find deals via referrals or pocket listings which are cheaper but you will spend more time to build the connections and relationships. You either spend money or you spend time. Wholesale contract for me will be the GAR form in GA. I won't be wholesaling anymore however. I just don't think it is a safe business model UNLESS you can take the property yourself if you can't get a buyer. It isn't that it doesn't work, but if a buyer cannot perform and let's say you are outside of the due diligence period you look like a scammer. Also the best businesses have some sort of a market budget typically. I know a guy who hit $600k in a month, but he also spent $80k that month in marketing. Real estate is expensive. It isn't a game that can be well played without spending a lot of time and or money.

Account Closed · Answer

Big wholesalers say you should spend at least $10K/mo on marketing, preferably more. They suggest to aim at $100K/mo profit and design your marketing plan to get to that number (spend $22k-$25K/mo on marketing). Of course they will say it, that's what they do. Unfortunately, not everyone can set aside $300,000 cash to run $25K/mo campaign for 12 months. And newbies who don't have quarter million dollars in their checking accounts shouldn't compare themselves to big guys when they make their first steps and have much less to spend on marketing.

You are right about tax advantages of selling the property as "lease option" versus cashing out your income as wholesaler and being taxed on it. But you don't have to do that, you can easily put anything above what you really need to pay your bills back into business. That's how you scale it, just put all your extra income into marketing and it will be fully tax deductible (it's your expenses after all). And if one day you have the volume you are happy with and still don't want to be taxed on income generated, then you are free to put all that extra cash into RE holdings.

I personally will NEVER deal with leasing a property. I don't want to deal with property managers, let alone tenants who will get on my nerves by failing to pay rent or demanding a new stove, refrigerator, window, HVAC and etc., and breaking the drywall and kitchen cabinets with sledgehammer if I evict them for non-payment of the rent. A lot of people rent their homes and somehow are able to make it work, by properly vetting and being lucky. Or they may have 200 doors and write off 20 broken apartments as a cost of doing business, with 180 still making it worthwhile. It's just not something I would want to deal with. I would rather pay more and earn less on each transaction and scale it (with little headache), then pay less, gain more in the long run and deal with a lot of stress and headache in a short run.

Account Closed · Answer

Not to argue, just sharing my perspective: brand new wholesaler doesn't need to close 10 deals/mo. This is not realistic unless you have $25K to spend on marketing, every month, for the next 12 months. Industry average is 18-22% investment on marketing for a return. So, if one aims to replace current income of $90k-$120K/year one may start with $2200-$2500/mo marketing campaign. PPL is one you should start it, simply because it has the shortest cash cycle when you are cash strapped. You move to other venues gradually (mail outs are effective, but take much longer to get your return).  SEO is among top priorities once you get rolling, but PPC is costly and it's easy to burn a lot of cash unless you know what you are doing. It's good to do it, just not in the beginning. Door knocking is not most effective way to do this. There is no reason why you can't start the conversation over the phone and knock the door when you are ready to make an offer and need to see prop and take two dozen pics and video. Of course, if one has zero cash reserves they can simply go door knocking and driving for cash, but I don't know how much time it would take to make any return. If you walk streets and drive 8 hours a day to net average of 1 deal per quarter @$10K assignment fee, then you are essentially working for free or for very very low compensation. Very few people will have stamina to continue doing it, let aside feasibility of this model.

Account Closed · Answer

Check out this great thread by Chris Piper at https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/862964-wholesaling-101-how-to-wholesale-for-beginners

I posted a link to it on my own recent thread, which you might also find useful, it has links to some of the resources I have checked recently https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/1197244-how-to-do-wholesaling-right-in-maryland-east-coast-and-nationwidePiper's thread is where I started my research and am very grateful to this person for dedicating his time to share so much of a valuable information. I wish he was still around. But you definitely need to do your own research, times change and some of the things he suggested that were valid 4 years ago may no longer be valid today.

Spend some quality time on your research first, I would recommend to give yourself a month to spend 4 to 8 hours a day just gathering as much information you can, networking, making connections before you are ready to go. When you are ready, set your revenue and marketing goals and launch. You should have a foundation by then to build on as you go.

Below are my answers (as a novice I emphasize that I am not an expert wholesaler, I just share my opinion which you may or may not find useful to your purposes).

1. It does. Successful people flip tens of properties a month. But it's neither cheap nor easy to do. You have to have a budget for marketing. You have to set realistic expectations. You have to plan your steps ahead of the time and know what you are doing before you plunge.

2. I would suggest couple of ways. One is to get access to MLS. If you don't have REA license talk to investor friendly realtor, some will allow you to use MLS to do your comps. If you can't do it, then just have at least one trusted realtor in your network who will do comps for you. You will send them prop address and they will email you back a report, with list of similar houses sold in recent months, advise you on temperature of the market and so on. Second option is to go to HML. Hard money lender finance rehab projects all day long, so they are pretty good with estimating ARV, profit margins and etc. If they refuse to finance property purchase and rehab then you probably have a bad deal not worth its asking price in a wholesale market. Estimating repairs is also not so tough. Ask around your gen contractors, what is the cost of cosmetic repair per sq foot in the area of your interest. I believe where I am located it's around $30/sq ft, so if property is sound in general but needs just light renovation. Using a formula you can multiply the cost of repair per sq feet by sq footage of the house and you will get a rough estimate of the repair costs. You can also use a software to do more accurate estimates on your own , once you see the property and know exactly what needs to be repaired and how you want it to be repaired. Finally, you can bring a contractor or shoot him an email with 30-40 images with a video of the property and ask him how much he would charge to fix it to your expectations. Sometimes you will have to move fast and won't have time for it, so try to learn as much as you can to do accurate repair estimates on your own. Read Chris Piper's thread, he tells how he did it.

3.I am not an attorney, and this is not a legal advise. You should consult one with any legal questions you have just to be on a safe side.  What follows is my general understating, as a layman,  and personal opinion.

The most obvious thing is not to misrepresent yourself as agent or broker, as someone who represents anyone in the transaction. If you don't have a license you can't represent anyone but yourself. The other is be sure NOT to market the house, it's not yours until you own it. If you seek to assign a contract your right to purchase is what you sell as an assignment, with your fee added to it. Be honest with sellers. Never pretend to be an expert to value their property. You can make whatever offer you want to make based on your math and MAO, but don't lie them by falsely claiming that their property is worth less than X dollars in a market. Just make an offer, explain that as investor that is what you can afford to pay and let them decide what to do next. Come October 1, 2024 you will also have to disclose in Maryland that you are a wholesaler , not an end buyer, if your intention is to flip the contract on short notice. Do not market to public. As to protection of deal, your purchase contract should do it. Once you have a contract to buy you have 30 days to close it, and your contract should be enforceable in court (that's another reason you should not do anything illegally, so that you can bring other party to court and enforce the term of the contract if they act in bad faith).

4. See Chris's thread I referenced above, he has links to purchase and assignment contracts. You can print those as templates, show to your local closing attorney and ask what if any suggestions they would make to better protect you and stay compliant with your local laws.

Chris Williams · Answer

Yea no problem. Talk to a lot of people. I am aware that I have blind spots and I can only talk from who and what I know, so don't take it as gospel. Business is customizeable to who you want to be and the lifestyle you want to live.

Francis Figueroa · Answer

Awesome - thank you Chris.

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