Try this if Your Wholesaling Market is Oversaturated and Sellers are Unmotivated

[Cornelius Garland]

I have a marketing gem that will help any virtual wholesalers in overly competitive markets who are going through a lot of cold leads just to find a hot seller. This is allowing us to only target 10,000 sellers over a 30-day period in order to get 2 - 5 deals consistently.

Instead of targeting entire cities, I am targeting specific low density areas with high cash buyer activity. If the Census bureau classifies a zip code as low density, it is usually rural. However, there are certain zips that have a small, highly concentrated area where all the homeowners live and the rest of the area is undeveloped. The Census bureau will classify these areas as rural and most virtual wholesalers will pass over them.

The image below is of zip code 14701 in Jamestown, NY. The developed area (grey on the map) is only 16 square miles, yet there have been 110 homes sold in the last 30 days per Redfin for SEP 2025. This type of homes sold activity is similar to high density zips in urban areas with twice the population. This signifies strong retail and cash buyer activity.

I'll provide another zip that's performing well. Zip code 50401 in Mason City, IA has 114 homes sold in the last 30 days and also has a small developed area surrounded by a significant amount of undeveloped land. To the untrained eye, this area looks like it's "in the middle of nowhere" and rural. Yet, there are a significant amount of both cash buyer and retail buyer activity in this zip code.

The key is avoiding rural areas without buyer activity. I do this by only focusing on low density zip codes with over 100 homes sold in the last 30 days. When I do this and only target zips where the median sale prices are below $250,000, then I am primarily targeting cooperative homeowners who are not being overly marketed to by other investors. Note: I update this spreadsheet annually, which is why I sorted the zips using DEC 2024 data. There's very little movement in the homes sold, DOM, and median sale prices month-to-month nationwide.

I've significantly scaled back how many texts I'm sending per day as a result, and it's reducing my cost per deal while simultaneously increasing employee satisfaction because they're having an abundance of positive conversations. From an owner's perspective, it's just leaner; fewer lists to manage, junk leads, staff members, and logistical headaches.

Happy investing!