Help! Local Wholesaler Beating Me At Every Turn

[Lance Young]

I'm hoping some experienced wholesalers know how to deal with this problem. I have been targeting probate homes in the Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Suburban Maryland areas. I send direct mail to the executors. The market is hot in the DC area and executors know it. They get lots of letters from investors and offer to show the property to all interested investors, usually on a weekend. I have run into the same wholesaler's assistant at every one of them. This has happened 3 times in the past few months. The wholesaler offers a much higher price than I can afford to pay in each instance. When I check the land records a month later to see what the properties have sold for I see that the prices paid were quite high. And that's without accounting for the wholesaler's fee because that is paid out of settlement and is not reflected in the sales price. The only thing I can think of is the wholesaler has a lot of "buy and hold" buyers on his list and perhaps some newbies who pay too much. I spoke with one seller who told me that one wholesaler offered to beat any other offer by $5k. That seems like a risky thing to do but it does keep his foot in the door and he can back out later if the numbers don't work. He also tells them that he would have the right to see the next best offer if he needs to escalate his offer $5k over theirs. What do experienced wholesalers do when they face steep competition? Thanks in advance for your insight.