All Forum Posts by: Robert Hanson

This questions is really geared more towards experienced wholesalers. Would you rather work on your own and keep 100% of your profits or work for a company that employs 2-3 other good wholesalers and take 50% of the profit from the deals you do plus all business related expenses paid by company.

I see the obvious advantage of keeping 100%.

The advantage of working for a company is having the infrastructure already in place. Plus being able to work hand in hand with other good wholesalers. As the market shifts and changes are made it's also good to bounce ideas off of each other.

What do you guys think?

Curt,

If I could find the exact same house as you described that typically costs $64,900 and sell it for $40,900, do you think I would have a hard time finding a buyer? My point is that, if it's a good enough deal you will find a buyer no matter what market it is. That's the hard part though, finding a great deal. The reason you probably see most others fail or bring you bad deals is their lack of knowledge and research on the property.

I had a good REO listing agent friend of mine tell me once that he has absolutely no need for wholesalers. The reality is, if the deal is good enough to wholesale he will have no problem getting his listing sold.

Being able to identify and act quickly on that deal is where a wholesaler can earn money.

Every other good wholesaler I know has their license and is on the MLS looking at new listings throughout the day. I probably check MLS 10 times a day at least. If I was a retail agent I would certainly blow off any wholesaler that called me wanting any help looking up listings or asking for comps.

@Danny Day Your post is exactly what my previous post was about. You have a misconception about wholesalers because of some wannabes. It's not your specialty but you seem to make some assumptions based on no experience. A good wholesaler can make just as much on a $30k deal then you can make on a $300k deal, although not every time. The difference IMHO is that the wholesaler is dealing with a cash buyer who can close in a week and won't create any headaches because they know the deal was so good that there are several backup offers just in case they fail to close. I agree with you that a $10k average is a ridiculous statement.

My perception of a retail agent is driving couples around looking at houses on the weekend, answering a thousand questions, holding their hands through the entire process that takes up hours of my time. The reality is that it's probably different than that but since I have no experience as a retail agent I wouldn't know. I wouldn't infer the earning or doubts of any earnings for a retail agent either, because again, no experience therefor no knowledge.

I widely agree though that most wholesalers are a complete waste of time. Heck, we can all read everyday some of the questions that are on this site and know that the person asking will probably never turn a deal. I would say that wholesaling is near the bottom of the ladder and once you're good enough at it you start to climb to more profitable areas of real estate. Most people will never get beyond those early steps. I was very happy with the income I produced from wholesaling last year and look forward to more success this year with wholesaling and also expanding into more areas of investing as well.

As far as driving people around on my weekends though, NEVER! :)

@Curt

I agree with you up until the hard/easy part. Finding GOOD properties to wholesale is the hard part. If it's a good deal you will have no problem finding a buyer.

Example, this morning I got a call from a person who was visiting from out of state that got a letter from me several months ago. They wanted to meet with me to see what I would offer them for their land owned mobile home. After looking up the comps and seeing the property I told them $20k, they agreed and signed the contract. I knew this was a great deal and they were happy to get rid of it and back home. There were two entrances to the park, I put bandit signs at both for $29k and sold the property within an hour.

Fortunately I do my homework on comps and I don't put stuff under contract just for the sake of doing it.

Just to note, I was rejected by every other letter call I took this week.

I think the reality is the ones that are successful on either side have a misunderstanding about the other side of things. First let me preface this post with the fact that in 2011 I brought in just over $220k in assignment and double closing fees. With that said, I would consider myself to be a successful wholesaler. I am well established and not your typical fly by night deal. Unlike most "wholesalers" I am very picky on what I offer on and make sure that if I do make an offer, I am going to close the deal. I don't present bad deals to my buyers, most of which are repeat. I need to get a property at a good enough deal that I can make money and so can my investor, otherwise it doesn't work. Anyone who says they have an average fee of $10k per deal is either a liar or not doing many deals.

One of the most frustrating things for me is when someone tries to wholesale property and has no idea what they're doing. Unfortunately people read a book or attend a seminar and think they know everything or enough to jump right in. This is why wholesalers have a hard time dealing with some agents.

For me personally, the idea of being a retail agent is horrible because I probably have a misconception of what the job entails. I am sure successful retail agents think wholesaling would be awful as well.

Hi All- I am new to the site, it's a lot of good information. I have a question that some of you might have been through in the past and would like to get some opinions. I have been working as an agent for a wholesale company in the Portland area for a few years now. In 2011 I will have brought in over $200k in assignment/double close fees to the office. As an agent my take is 50% of that. I am really wanting to move to another territory in another city and would like to get some opinions on how to handle this with my current employer. I feel loyalty to them because without them I wouldn't have the knowledge that I do. On the flip side, I have also put a lot of money in their pockets.

I am really torn on how I should go about this. I have approached the company about me moving and they aren't willing to invest any money into the new operation but still want a portion of the earnings. I don't want to burn any bridges by cutting them out but I also don't feel it's fair to simply give over a portion of my income each month for someone with no capital investment and no participation in the day-to-day operations.

Any thoughts?