Wholesale deals on MLS

[Scott Shannon]

Hi all-

So I've been looking for flip properties for a long time now and everyday I come across properties that are being wholesaled straight from the MLS. My question here is, why would I buy it through them when I can go straight to the listing agent and offer somewhere near where the wholesaler did? Is there anything preventing me from doing that? And on most of these deals, the mls listing still says "for sale". I thought wholesalers have to get it under contract in order to assign it?