This place is chock-a-block with wannabe wholesalers, what is the reality?

[Eric M.]

Maybe some guru has been advertising heavily on late night tv or something but to me it seems like there are A LOT of new people trying to wholesale. They have been told they can make RE riches despite having no money or credit or experience.

I am not trying to bash anyone (except the gurus) but I was hoping to provide these newbies a dose of reality to offset the hype they have obviously been hearing from seminars or infomercials.

But I am not sure if my experiences are similar to other investors so I was wondering....

Rehabbers and Landlords;
-Do you regularly utilize the services of a wholesaler to acquire your properties?

-If so, what % of your purchases do you acquire via wholesalers? And how much do your wholesalers typically profit on each?

-If you regularly are pitched wholesale deals or scan wholesaler websites, what % of the deals you see do you consider to be legit deals and what % are not (numbers are inaccurate).

-What is your general impression of the wholesalers you have come across? i.e. Are they providing a needed service that is overall positive for the overall REI business? Are they using questionable techniques (legally or ethically) to acquire properties? Does it bother you if they hound people immediately after a death to possibly get their hands on a probate property? Does it bother you if they post bandit signs? Does it bother you if they lie in their pitches to homeowners ("I pay cash", "I have a long list of buyers ready"). Would it bother you if you acquired a wholesale deal that the wholesaler got by unethical means?

Maybe you can surmise from my questions that I don't have a positive impression, but I might be wrong and I would love to hear the other side.

I am open to the idea of having people find me great deals and am very willing to pay for that service; but my experience has been that I have looked at probably 1000 "wholesale" deals and have purchased 0. Virtually none of them are any better (and most worse) that deals I find fairly easily on my own. In the vast majority of them, the numbers given are exaggerated and nearly impossible to achieve.
And some of the stories I have heard of how they lock up their deals bothers me. It seems that when they indeed have a good deal it is because they finally snared a dumb homeowner who could be taken advantage of through misinformation. And I am not just talking about the few bad eggs that are in any business. The gurus seem to be teaching pretty questionable tactics as the standard way to wholesale and the sheep are following without thinking.

I have no doubt that very successful and honest and legitimate wholesalers do exist. I fear that they are a VERY VERY small % though and the reality does not even come close to the hype.

Thoughts?