Don't know how easy this is to answer but which makes more money, flipping with the assistance of hard money or wholesaling? Or how would you compare/contrast the two in terms of average net profits? Does wholesaling yield more volume of transactions? Does using hard money reduce your profits in flips to that of wholesale deals? Thoughts/ideas?

@Benjamin Cowles

There is no real answer to this question.  Some people who wholesale can make as little as $500 per deal and I know people who have made $30k per wholesale deal.  It not really common to make the higher profit when wholesaling but the advantage is you have no real skin into the deal. 

Flipping you are on the hook and will most likely have a private lender so you have much more exposure on the deal.  You should make more on a standard fix and flip then wholesaling but there are several factors that will play into your profit. 

Good luck

Hey @Benjamin Cowles ! Investing in wholesaling or fix and flips can both be very profitable. Wholesaling can be very difficult or very easy to get into depending on how hard you want to work. Flipping houses is much easier if you don't mind giving up some profit to a wholesaler and hard money lender. How much profit varies depending on each project. 

If you don't put anything into a wholesale, any amount you get back will be pure profit. You can put a lot into a fix and flip, but if you do it incorrectly, you could lose money on it. 

A better question may be how much risk do you want to take? Wholesalers tend to have less risk because they hold the properties for less time and are selling to like minded fixer upper people. The fixer uppers are selling to retail buyers who tend to be much more picky and can take a lot longer to sell. 

That being said, I have wholesaled properties I received from a realtor and paid nothing for. I have also doubled my money on flips. 

Another way to lessen the risk is to lend your money to others, or invest in a fund, or with an investment group. I help others invest in real estate in these last three options, and if you are interested, I would be glad to help you.

Either way, good luck and I hope this was helpful.

thanks @Curt Davis and @Michael Chambless . Yes, very helpful.