When the seller sees the craigslist add..

[Alex Huegle]

So I'm in a bit of a pickle right now. I have a house under contract and the seller has found the add on craigslist selling her property at 5,000 above what she's receiving. I'm hoping you guys can help me get out of this predicament!

I've taken the approach before of explaining to sellers that our job to connect them with buyers/investors, but people have been telling me it's a wrong strategy and that they only infer they will be buying and that they work with other investors sometimes.

Any ideas on how to frame this up to the seller that will give her comfort? Part of the problem is that it's listed at 25k (the price she was really pushing me for) when I got her down to 20.

I'm leaning toward just explaining that for this particular property we would like to connect her to investors interested in buying the property, but that we also do not work for free... Any thoughts?

[Jon Holdman]

IMHO this is a "you reap what you sow" situation. Best to be very up front when wholesaling and say "I'm not buying your house. I'm going to find a buyer and I will make a profit on the transaction." When you way "they only [imply] they will be buying and that they work with other investors sometimes", you're being deceptive. Deception is a bad way to do business.

Wholesales put houses under contract so they are a principal to the transaction. That lets them avoid unlicensed brokering, which is in fact what they're doing. That doesn't mean you should deceive the seller about what you're really doing. Fess up to what's really going on. You may lose this deal, but it doesn't sound like you actually have a buyer on the hook anyway.