Is Wholesaling the New Guru Strategy?

[Aaron K.]

It seems like in the last couple of months I have seen a massive increase in posts of newbies who want to start out by wholesaling with low/ no money down and think they'll make a killing.  Oftentimes the questions revolve around how to find a contract or buyers.

It seems like a lot of people fail to realize that wholesaling is really difficult especially if you don't have a marketing budget; and this difficulty is compounded further in a competitive market like Southern California.  I have also seen several guru programs supposedly teaching people how to wholesale with their "proven method" for the low price of a few thousand dollars.  Is this the new wave of gurus as flipping becomes more out of reach for people who are just starting?  I'm curious to hear opinions from the community.

[Nick C.]

I don't think the guru-ing is a new strategy. Wholesaling may have been viable when the market was saturated with distressed inventory. When it dried up a few years ago, the gurus realized they'd make more money guru-ing than real estate investing. 

Basically there's a lot more of inventory of victims (whoops, I meant to type "students") ready to fork over thousands of dollars than there are distressed houses right now. They're just following the money.