New to Real Estate · Houston · Member since 2026 · 80 posts · 64 votes
For the cash buyers in here, what makes you ignore a wholesale deal as soon as you see it? Not talking about obvious junk like "ARV is whatever Zillow says." I mean the stuff that instantly makes you think the wholesaler doesn't understand the deal.
For me, it's when the wholesaler clearly hasn't done their homework.
If I have to figure out the rehab, verify the comps, estimate rents, and fill in half the missing information, I'm probably moving on. I don't expect every number to be perfect, but I do appreciate it when someone can explain how they arrived at them. Even if I disagree with the assumptions, at least I know they've thought through the deal.
For me, it's when the wholesaler clearly hasn't done their homework.
If I have to figure out the rehab, verify the comps, estimate rents, and fill in half the missing information, I'm probably moving on. I don't expect every number to be perfect, but I do appreciate it when someone can explain how they arrived at them. Even if I disagree with the assumptions, at least I know they've thought through the deal.
Repair estimate with no line items. 'Needs about 30k in work' with nothing behind it means they eyeballed it or copied a number from somewhere. A buyer who's going to pull permits and use real subs needs a scope, not a vibe.
We're pulling distressed lists across five markets and seeing a ton of wholesalers miss the signal usually it's because they're chasing comps instead of actual cash-on-cash returns. What metrics do you actually plug in when you're evaluating a deal, and what's the biggest red flag that makes you pass?
G. Brian Davis and Carson Nordmann nailed the two biggest red flags — can't explain the numbers, and repair estimates with no backup. But I think there's a deeper issue underneath both of those: most wholesalers can't explain WHY the property is distressed in the first place.
"Owner wants to sell" isn't a reason. "It's cheap" isn't a reason. "I found it on a batch mailing list" isn't a reason. The buyer reading your deal summary is thinking: if this is such a good deal, why is the owner actually selling? And if you can't answer that with something specific, you're asking the buyer to trust your instinct instead of giving them evidence.
Here's what changes that dynamic completely: when you source deals from county public records instead of PropStream or DealMachine, you already know WHY the owner is distressed before you ever contact them.
Every county has three departments that publish data showing motivated sellers:
1. Tax Collector — publishes lists of properties where owners are 1-2+ years behind on property taxes 2. Code Enforcement — publishes records of properties with maintenance violations (tall grass, structural issues, abandoned vehicles, unpermitted work) 3. Clerk of Court — publishes probate filings (estate situations where heirs need to liquidate)
When all three of those data sources converge on the same property — tax delinquent + code violations + probate filing — you're not guessing about motivation. Three separate county departments have independently confirmed this owner has problems they haven't been able to solve. That's not a vibe. That's documentation.
Now when you present that deal to a cash buyer, you're not saying "trust me, this is a good deal." You're saying: "The owner hasn't paid property taxes in 18 months, has 3 open code enforcement violations, and the property is in probate. Here's the county record numbers. Here's what it needs. Here's what it's worth."
Mitch Messer's cash-on-cash question becomes easy to answer when your deal has that foundation. Carson's line-item repair scope becomes credible because you already know the property has been cited by code enforcement for specific issues — you're not guessing what's wrong, the county already told you.
The wholesalers who get ignored are the ones who found a property on a generic list and can't explain why it's a deal beyond the numbers they plugged into a calculator. The wholesalers who get taken seriously are the ones who can point to public records and say "here's exactly why this owner needs to sell, and here's the documentation to prove it."
That's the difference between a deal that gets ignored and a deal that gets funded.