Maybe my first "virtual" wholesale

[Matthew Rose]

Hello everyone,

Have an interesting opportunity I'm working on now, although not what I expected based upon my marketing (seems to always be the case).

A little while ago I started doing postcard mailers to delinquent tax owners of vacant land, with the intention of doing land flipping. I started in my home state (HI), but decided to also do test mailing to out-of-area owners of props in OR state.

Well now I have a motivated seller OR state lead, who currently lives in CA. Although I only mailed out to vacant land owners, his parcel happens to be next to another he owns with an A-frame cabin & build-outs (garages, shed).

Not being sure what to do to make this deal work (without ME having to work too hard), I decided to contact a local area realtor. I explained the situation, and that I wanted her help to market this prop once I get it under contract, with intention to assign my interest for a fee to whatever buyer she could bring in. I am in the middle of sending her info to try and get a quicksale price that I can back into to negotiate my offer to the seller. The seller sounds happy with my intentions, & agreed to let me send some pics to the realtor.

Now, here's what I'm not sure about: I get prop under contract, put into escrow, realtor markets for buyer, once buyer comes in, I assign & get paid. At least that's the plan. But can I legally have the listing agreement with the realtor, or doesn't that have to be with the owner? My preference is to minimize any interaction between owner & realtor, if possible. I know already the seller will know my fee revealed on the HUD-1, but think he'll be OK as long as I'm not too greedy.

Appreciate any feedback or suggestions, especially if you've done something similar. Also, please don't hesitate to point out something you see as an obvious mistake or oversight on my part, I'm still learning.