Do You HAVE to get Hard Money Loan to do Wholesale??

[April L. Williams]

If I do not have any capital other than $30,000 in credit cards @ 0% for 15 months, do I really need to get a hard money loan to put a house under contract?? For the last 3 months I assumed (up until this past week) that as a wholesaler the process was: 1.) get pre-approved for hard money loan; 2.) find the house on auction & purchase with my credit card; 3.) call up hard money loan lender to get the funds to pay for the property; 4.) find a buyer & sale property to them.   However, I keep reading posts/internet searches where people are saying you do NOT need a loan of "any kind" to purchase a property as a wholesaler, that you simply "put it under contract". Ok, how does that exactly work?? If you send out tons of marketing materials to potential sellers, find a seller, make cash offer, then how can you possibly pay that seller cash-in-hand if you don't get it through hard money lending?

If you offer cash-in-hand to a seller, are you expected to pay that money right there on the spot...or within so many days, and if so, how much later down the road? And, if you don't have to give a seller cash, for say 2 weeks and you don't find a buyer within that 2 weeks, then are you still stuck with having to buy that house from the seller without any funds?? 

And, if you purchase property on auction, most auctions expect payment within 1-2 days in full or you lose the money you've already bid, but yet hard money lenders take up to 2 weeks to get approved....?? Do hard money lenders give you money up front before going to auctions??

As you can see, I've got bits & pieces I been trying to put together to come up with a strategy, but need a little help. It's frustrating when people assume you are letting your fear get in the way of "just doing it!" But, to me, jumping into a lake without knowing how to swim is not too bright. As my mother used to say, "I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday".....:)