How can I trust a company will pay me after finding them a lead?

[Carmelo Lazu]

I have a handful of properties that I’ve been scoping out in my area that are perfect homes for flips, (boarded windows, paper on door, unkept grass, no realtor sign on lawn etc) I wanted to get into wholesaling but didn’t know where to start or how to get started.

I figure I just give the leads to a company who’s already in the game, and get paid a finders fee for being a bird dog.

How do I know I can trust a company will pay me after they close a deal that I lead them to?

[Charlie MacPherson]

@John Slater  Yes - you can do it legally.  All you need is a real estate license.

But seriously, real estate laws are put into place to protect consumers. 

I've read horror stories right here on BP, where a wholesaler has a property tied up with an EMD of $10.00 and can't find an end buyer. They just walk away, leaving the homeowner with $10.00 and his plans to move up in flames.

I've seen others where wholesalers brag about making $50,000 as their (illegal) fee, meaning that they stole that much equity that rightly belongs to the seller.

If a licensed agent mistreated a seller that way, the real estate commission in any state would issue discipline ranging from fines to license revocation. 

How would you feel is some wholesaler screwed your Grandma out of $50,000?  That's money that most senior citizens can't recover as their working lives are probably over.  And if you think that there are no wholesalers who would screw the elderly, under-informed and gullible, think again.  That's what the entire sordid industry is built on.

Get your license and subject yourself to the regulations the state has in place.  They're there for a reason.

You'll sleep better at night.