Why Wholesale Rather than be a RE Agent?

[James H.]

I notice a very large proportion of folks new to RE are (trying to be) wholesalers. I have not wholesaled (sp?) but it sounds like a lot of darn work. Yet, to become an agent, you just need to take a few classes and take a test. After that, the work appears to be easier than wholesale marketing campaigns. Seams the up front investment for RE classes would equal that of a good wholesale marketing strategy.

These are some assumptions I have that are very general. As a wholesaler, you're going to be dealing *mostly* with properties that, for whatever reason, can't get financing. So you will probably be dealing with sub 50K houses in 95% of your dealings. As an agent you are probably going to be dealing *mostly* with 150K+ most of the time. I'm assuming southern regions/midwestern regions.

Based on what I've read and seen, it appears the assignment fee for a 50K house would usually be about the same as an agents fee for a 150K house.

So I'm just curious; why wholesale rather than be an agent? What do you like/dislike about one or the other?

[Karen Margrave]

It seems it would depend on where you live, and what's available. California is such a vast state, that there are pockets where wholesaling is very profitable, and areas such as Orange County, where there are very few opportunities for salers from what I see.

As for working as an agent, there's still a tight real estate market to contend with, so the deals aren't just falling in anyones lap, so .. what's the wholesale market where you live, and the traditional market that agents work? I'll bet that 80% of the agents in the country are having to work as hard as the wholesalers for business right now.