Do you tell the seller that you are a whole saler?

[Jacob Ogrady]

Are you supposed to tell the seller that you are a whole saler and that I'm not actually going to buy the home but just going to put it under contract and sell it to an investor? If not what do you tell them? Thanks. 

[Eric F.]

This is a pretty vague question. First, I would not use the term wholesaler to a seller. This is not because I want to lie to them, but because the word will have no meaning to them. It would just create confusion. I do not lie to sellers, but if you say "I'm a wholesaler" they will have no clue what you are talking about and any explanation you try to give will only confuse them further. Just say you are an investor, which you are, and also almost everyone knows what that word means, at least in abstract.

If they ask further say "I plan on buying the house, but someone I work with may purchase it instead, is that OK with you? No matter what you will get the price we agreed upon." First, that should be true as you do plan on buying the house and even if you assign it, as far as the seller is concerned they got their price so it is the same as if you bought it, so honestly it isn't worth getting into the details because almost no seller will actually care beyond getting their price at closing. Second, this gets the assignment conversation out of the way. If you do planning on assigning it, you will have to explain the assignment to them at some point before the deal closes so why not make it a 2 minute conversation now instead of a 30 minute one later? If the seller does have a problem with it you now know you will either have to double close or just not to sign the deal. It is very rare a seller will have a problem with it. I wouldn't worry about it anymore than I would worry about getting hit by a bus driving home from the seller's house.

Honestly, it seems like sellers would have objections to all of this but in reality almost none of them do. They care about 2 things. 1) The deal closes and 2) the check is what they expect. Those are your 2 jobs. They will not care if you assign it, double close it, buy the house and then burn it down, they just won't care. I think this is one of the things a lot of people who attack wholesaling on this forum do not get. They think the seller gives a darn if you assign it and would go ballistic, but that is just not the reality of the business. If the deal closes and they get their money they are happy. Those are your 2 jobs. Close the deal and see to it they get their check.