Buying from wholesaler

[DeMarrius Payne]

I feel like I already know the answer to this but how does the process work when buying from a wholesaler. I should still get my real estate involved correct?

[Eric F.]

Honestly for most wholesalers take their comps, rehab estimates, and ARV estimates and throw it all in the trash. Heck, throw them in the trash even if I am the wholesaler! Do your own comps and rehab estimates every single time. I would never buy a house without doing this. You want to be a real estate investor and get discounted properties, well, this is part of your job now. If you want accurate information you can rely on, go pay full price on the MLS and pay 6% to brokers, pay $400 for an inspection, $400 for an appraisal, etc. If you want deals doing work and research is part of the territory. Nothing in life is free. There is risk here. A lot of risk. Part of the reason you get a property at 70-80% of full value is because you assume risk. You bought it cash, you bought it quick, and you bought it AS IS. If you are not comfortable with this use a broker and pay full price. I bought a house recently that needed 8k of electrical work I missed when I looked at it. Stuff happens. When I bought the house for 75% of the as is value it was because there is a risk I might take an 8k hit on something like that. If everything was easy and risk free the business would not exist. 

All that stuff @John Thedford says is great advice for buying a house. However, you're not getting all of that from a wholesaler (usually). They are selling you a property AS IS. Their comps might be high (80% of the time) their rehab estimates might be low (99% of the time) but it says "do your own due diligence" somewhere in their correspondence. You don't get a 30% discount on a property for nothing. In this business the 30% discount is for risk. They call it investing, not "guaranteed returns." If you want all that stuff John said signed, sealed, and delivered go pay 100% on the MLS. If you are in Florida I'd use him as a broker (or agent in Florida.) He obviously dots all his i's and crosses his t's. I would imagine with him everything would be triple checked and verified before you put a nickel towards a deal.