BiggerPockets

Totally depends on how good the deal is. A smoking deal will take an hour. A good deal with no smoke can take a couple months.

Sometimes even after months, it won't sell unless you add value somehow ( fix at least major issues, rehab it entirely, rent it out, etc) which most of which normally consist of actually buying the property first.

Originally posted by Aaron Mazzrillo

The better the deal, the faster it is sold. I try to buy so that all my deals sell with one phone call. If I have to make more than 3 phone calls, I am paying too much.

Good point. Contracting aq good deal will also determine the amount of value you have brought to the table and thus, determine your fee as the wholesaler, contingent upon what the market will bear.

Here's the flip side of the coin, from someone who is NOT a good wholesaler (I generally rehab, but occasionally decide to wholesale)...

I typically start to market my properties when I get them under contract, but I do most of my marketing via Craigslist and the MLS (though I do have a small buyers list). Since I can't relist on the MLS until I actually own the property, I generally don't get much traffic until I close on it and relist it on the MLS.

At that point, I tend to get a LOT of traffic, and generally have it under contract within a week or so.

In fact, I'm guessing that real wholesalers wouldn't even consider this wholesaling, as I actually take ownership of the property, but thought I would share the experiences of a "bad wholesaler" to even this thread out... :D

Originally posted by J Scott

Since I can't relist on the MLS until I actually own the property

You might check on this more thoroughly if you haven't already. Though it is always frowned upon, some Realtor Boards will still let you do this with some specific requirements (surprisingly, my market's board will let you). Most realtors I talk to about this have absolutely no idea that you can, and are rather adamant that you can't.

Originally posted by J Scott

In fact, I'm guessing that real wholesalers wouldn't even consider this wholesaling, as I actually take ownership of the property

I, personally, do still consider that wholesaling.

Technically speaking, wholesaling is NOT assigning or double closing a house. Wholesaling is reselling to a NON-end user (i.e. another investor). Whether you closed on the property or not does not affect that issue. Now assigning the property or reselling it the same day via different strategies is definitely the most common closing method of wholesaling, but that is not what wholesaling IS technically.

I would argue that assigning, double closing, simultaneous closing, or land trust/LLC selling a house to an Owner Occupant is technically NOT "wholesaling", but rather "retailing". The closing strategy is not the defining issue of wholesaling. Who you are selling to is the defining issue. Not that technical definitions make much of a difference. If you are making money, who cares what they call it.

I actually close on just over half of my "wholesale" properties. I normally close them as fast as I comfortably can whether I have a buyer for it or not. This prevents dealing with cold feet sellers. I've lost deals because I didn't close them fast enough, so most of the time its just not worth the risk to me to wait.