Question about wholesaling as a Realtor

[Carol Zeroual]

I have been interested in real estate investing long before I became a Realtor. Now that I am a realtor, I need to know whether wholesaling a property is ethical. Any comments and advice is much appreciated. I live in Massachusetts.

[Jonathan Greene]

You have to segment the two business as much as possible and in most states, you must disclose you have a RE license on off-market mailers. I have two separate LLCs, one for my real estate business as an agent and one for an off-market property acquisition business. If you are wholesaling and your lead came from off-market or direct calls not related to your on-market agent business, then you should be safe treating it that way. However, the more your brokerage knows about your off-market deals, the more they want a cut. That's why separation is important. If a prior seller wants you to wholesale a property for them, that could be a more gray area. I've had brokerages say I couldn't wholesale to which I responded so I can't be a regular citizen as long as there is no crossover and there is full disclosure that I have a license? They couldn't answer.