The Introduction to Getting Started in Real Estate Wholesaling

I want to help any newbies out there interested in real estate wholesaling and simply don’t know where to begin.

For the entire month of October, each week, I’m going to provide you with actionable steps that will help you close your first deal!

Before we move on, I first want to share my story and how wholesaling has completely changed my life.

My Story

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Brett Snodgrass and I’ve been a real estate investor for over ten years. When I first jumped into real estate, I had just graduated college with an early childhood education degree and was a substitute teacher. In my first year of substituting, I had only made $10,000 to my name.

I hated my job!

I had refused to take the career route again and so I began exploring ways to become entrepreneur. I started flipping everything I could get my hands on from cars, stereo systems on Ebay, you name it!

I eventually stumbled upon something called real estate investing and boy, did it change my life forever!

I found my first property on Ebay in the heart of the ghetto in Youngstown, Ohio for $9,000. I only had $5,000 but my father graciously matched me, so we moved forward and bought it together for $10,000 including closing costs.

My father and I didn’t have any money left to renovate the property so we were stuck, with no idea of what to do next.

I thought to myself, “What if try I to sell it for a little bit more than what we bought it for?”

So we did just that and listed the property for $15,000 and made a $5,000 profit.

Then I was hooked! I had just made half of my yearly salary in less than one week!

The moment that happened, I remember sitting back and saying, “If I could do this with one house, what if I did this with one hundred houses?”

So that’s where it all started!

Wholesaling real estate has literally been my ticket to creating the life of my dreams. I’m now able to go on vacation whenever I want. I have complete control over my schedule and my life and it’s really incredible!

Today, I want encourage you all to use real estate wholesaling to do the same thing in your life.

So, without further ado, let’s get into it!

What is Wholesaling?

A wholesaler is any industry is defined as “a person or company that sells things to businesses and not to individuals,” according to the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.

So, when you are a person who sells products to businesses and not individuals, you are selling them products they can turn around and use to make money, right?

Correct!

Wholesalers buy extremely cheap property and then sell the property for slightly highly cost, leaving room for buy-and-hold or rehab investors to turn a profit as well.

We are the matchmakers or the “middle-men” between the property and the investor buyer.

Pretty freakin’ sweet, huh? Just buy a cheap property and sell it for a quick profit. It’s that simple!

Now that you understand what wholesaling is, let’s dive into the three most common strategies used to wholesale real estate.

1. Assignments

This method is probably the most popular wholesaling strategy because it’s the easiest method of entry, it doesn’t cost money to get started and there’s little to no risk involved.

This strategy consists of getting a property under a purchase agreement between you and a motivated seller and before you close, you find an investor buyer to sell the contractual rights to. You then profit via the “assignment” fee of giving the rights of the contract to the investor buyer.

Here’s an example, the motivated seller wants $15,000 for their property. You write a purchase agreement with the seller for $15,000. During your “due diligence” period, you turn to your buyer’s list and offer to assign that contract for a fee of $5,000.

The investor buyer purchases the property for $20,000 and boom, you just made $5,000 on a wholesale deal!

There are so many amazing benefits when taking advantage of the assignment strategy however, I personally do not like this type of wholesaling for a couple of reasons:

Legal Gray Areas

Many argue that you’re essentially acting like you’re a licensed agent even though you’re not, because you’re overseeing a transaction between a buyer and a seller for a profit. If you’re marketing a house for sale that isn’t yours, technically, you could run into being accused of fraud. If you have your license, then it’s cleaner to do assignments, but you still could run into some trouble depending on the laws and customs of your state.

If you’re going to assign contracts then I highly recommend sitting down with a legal professional and have them write up the contract for you.

It’s Too Complicated!

Assigning contracts involve multiple people and multiple prices and it so easy to lose control of the deal.

Have you ever heard of the daisy chain?

If not, here’s an example of a daisy chain. I get a property under contract. I assign it to Joe, then Joe assigns it to Tom and then Tom assigns the contract to Harry.

It’s called a daisy chain because it’s a big chain that can get very messy, very fast! If something falls through, it breaks the entire chain and everyone involved gets frustrated and upset and your reputation is on the line.

2. Double Close

The double close method is used when you purchase a property and then sell it to an investor immediately — within minutes!

Sounds pretty crazy right?

Here’s how it works. At closing, you first sign the documents with the motivated seller, and then a few minutes later, you meet with the investor buyer and sign the closing documents with them.

Timing is key!

The success of double closing ultimately depends on timing and if the motivated seller or buyer pull a no show are closing, you’re stuck!

The biggest risk using this method is that you have no control of the transaction because you’re very dependant on the motivated seller and the buyer.

But, don’t get me wrong. If done correctly, this can be an incredible way to wholesale real estate as well.

3. The Simple Close

The final way to wholesale real estate, is something we like to call the “Simple Close.”

In a Simple Close, you simply buy the property from the motivated seller, with your own funds, close on it, then once you fully own the property, you market it and sell it to an investor buyer.

This is the method we use in my company and it’s my favorite strategy because in my opinion, it is legally the safest and easiest way to wholesale real estate!

I never have to worry about deals falling through, my reputation is still intact, I own the properties free and clear prior to marketing them for sale and everything runs a lot more smoothly.

Obviously, the main drawback is that you need a lot of working capital in order to conduct your business at scale, and in markets where purchase prices exceed $150,000+ for a distressed property, this becomes increasingly difficult.

But don’t let this discourage you! I started with only $5,000 and within a year, I was operating as a full-time wholesaler, so it is definitely possible!

Conclusion

Each type of wholesaling has it’s pros and it’s cons and ultimately, you’ll need to decide which path is right for you.

Decide now because next week I’m going to dive into the how real estate wholesaling companies operate and the three components within a wholesaling business.

Question: Which method of real estate wholesaling do you use and why?

Comment below!

See you on the flip!