deposit by the contract

[Abraham Gros]

what i dont understand, in real estate wholesaling is, that how could it be that,
when i sign a contract i dont give any deposit its sound very fishy, the guy sees that i am not serious, please explain how this works?

[Ryan Webber]

Originally posted by Gregory Harris:

You have to have at least a dollar deposit on any purchase contract to make it a binding agreement.

No you don't. A single dollar of earnest money is NOT required for a legally binding contact

You really should do more research before you make statements like that. See I've bought hundreds of houses with no earnest money. I've done extensive research on general contract law and my state's specific laws, and I've also discussed it with other EXPERIENCED investors who have studied general contract law and their state's specific laws, and really on top of all of those I base my statements on personally having in-depth discussions with multiple attorneys who are EXTREMELY well qualified in real estate contracts and law.

95% of my deals I've put absolutely no earnest money on.

$0

The other 5% were listed properties except for 2 houses. The 2 non-listed exceptions, one seller was a title agent and one was an attorney. They both wanted earnest money because they understood the business and wanted me to have skin in the deal, not because it was required legally.

I've only even been asked about earnest money by less than 10 sellers. Motivated sellers don't know and normally don't care.

Yes, we all understand that you or I WOULD require earnest money IF we were the seller, but we are NOT the seller. If I was the seller I wouldn't be selling to you for 50 cents on the dollar in the first place, so going down the whole "why would anyone do that" road is kind of a slippery slope of idiocy. I've had this exact discussion on multiple occasions with NON-wholesalers and everyone of them seems baffled that anyone would be financially irresponsible enough to sell their property without earnest money. I find it amusing that we completely overlook the obvious fact that we are talking about people who are selling their property to you for HALF of its retail value. Why are we even debating whether they have the financial where-with-all to require you to give enough earnest money or not. OBVIOUSLY their priorities are different than yours. OBVIOUSLY if their priority was to make the most well thought financial decision they would NOT have even called you.

When you deal with a motivated seller, you will understand. They DON'T care. They just want to be done with the hassle of it all. That's their priority. Relief.