Is wholesaling very near impossible?

Question

I am a full time property and construction manager but I've done some side experimentation with wholesaling for the past almost 4 years.

I've tried contacting off market owners via cold call, email, text and some in person referrals. Some of these have been successful in negotiating a price and could/would have gotten under contract BUT

I have literally not had one single interested buyer in the hundreds of properties I've tried to market, that came from either other wholesalers or direct from the owner.

I market to:

- 100s of the top investors in my area (Philadelphia)

- 10s of the top wholesalers in my area

Via text, email, Facebook and Google groups, in person REIA deal nights

The prices seem like reasonable starting points and they match similarly marketed properties.

I have tried a good mix of land, single family and multifamily

And not one single showing or even a lowball offer, ever, in all these years.

Is it really THIS hard?

Are my prices so God awful that no one dares try to negotiate?

Are these methods the wrong way to get the attention of owners and buyers?

Michael Dumler · Answer

@Seth Kodner, contrary to what others may say, wholesaling is a full-time business. Many will not have much luck dabbling in the industry occasionally. It really comes down to and depends on the deal itself. From the little information you have provided, I would assume your prices are too high and the margins for the end buyer simply don't pencil out. Successful investors have select criteria, of the 100s of top investors in your market, how many of those individuals were flippers, and how many were traditional buy-and-hold investors? Needless to say, many investors leverage OPM and don't have enough cash on hand to fund 100% of the purchase.

Nick C. · Answer

If you’ve marketed hundreds of properties to hundreds of investors and not had one showing or offer either you’re marketing to the wrong investors or your prices are way too high. The failure rate of wholesalers is in the high 90% range, so it is very hard. Not impossible though.

Eliott Elias · Answer

It's impossible if you're not consistent and persistent with it.