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Wholesaling Real Estate Basics

Joshua Dorkin
2 min read
Wholesaling Real Estate Basics

Wholesaling real estate provides an opportunity for someone to build income with little capital or credit. All it requires is ambition and some specialized knowledge. The more ambition you have, the more money you will make. Wholesaling does not require a real estate license. A license is not required to buy or sell any property that you have an equitable interest in. That interest can be a contractual interest (you have the property under contract) or you actually own or have title to the property.

What is Wholesaling?

A wholesaler in a nut shell puts property (normally distressed property) under contract and assigns or resells the property to another investor. The investors a wholesaler sells to either use cash, lines of credit, or hard money loans. This allows quick closings on properties that sometimes need extensive repairs.

A wholesaler lives off of the idea that price overcomes all objections. If you can sell a property for a low enough price it doesn’t matter what’s wrong with it, somebody will buy it. A wholesaler focuses on developing two things. Finding deals and their network of investors to sell to.

Getting Started Wholesaling Real Estate

Getting started, a wholesaler should normally not ever buy a property. You put properties under contract with a contingency and focus on quickly selling the property for more money to other investors. If you end up not being able to sell the property before you are expected to close then you utilize your contingency and walk from the contract.

A wholesaler is a middle man, and a good wholesaler becomes a very well payed middleman that other investors love. The thing is that if you have a good enough deal under contract, there are other more established investors out there that will be glad to pay cash for it in a matter of days. If you have a house that will sell fixed up for $100,000, it needs $10,000 in remodeling, and you have a contract on it for $55,000, then with a developed investor network you could have an investor buyer for it for $60,000 in a matter of days. You sell it or assign the contract for 60K, you bought it for 55K so you just made $5,000 in a matter of days.

Wholesaling Resources:
Real Estate Wholesaling Forum
Buyer’s List How-To
Wholesaling Houses: Three Easy Steps to Determining Your Offer Amount
What Is Wholesaling Real Estate and How to Do It

Thanks to Ryan Webber for his insight! Photo: Danilo Rizzuti

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.