New Wholesaler Looking For Advice
Member since 2026 · 10 posts · 9 votes
Hello, my name is Addison. I am a college student who has been doing some research on the process of wholesaling and I was wondering how people pick a location? I live in the Bay Area and I feel like it doesn't make sense to start out in my area. I was hoping to be able to wholesale virtually so if anybody has any tips for choosing the right location to study that would be super helpful.
@Addison DeWolff Welcome to the BP community. If you are planning to wholesale virtually, focus on markets with strong investor activity, good transaction volume and laws that are wholesaler friendly. I would also recommend joining a local REIA in the market you are targeting and building relationships with experienced investors there. They can provide insights you won't find online. Best of luck.
I’d start by looking closer to home before jumping into a random virtual market. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the Bay Area itself, but look at smaller markets within a few hours of you where prices are lower and investors are still active.
When I’m looking at a market, I want enough sales activity to know properties are moving, affordable price points, investor activity, and enough distressed or off market inventory to consistently prospect.
You don’t need the hottest market. Sometimes the smaller, less competitive markets are where the opportunity is.
I’d also learn one market really well before trying to go nationwide.
@Addison DeWolff Welcome to the BP community. If you are planning to wholesale virtually, focus on markets with strong investor activity, good transaction volume and laws that are wholesaler friendly. I would also recommend joining a local REIA in the market you are targeting and building relationships with experienced investors there. They can provide insights you won't find online. Best of luck.
From what I've seen working with wholesalers across different markets; the easiest ones to start virtually tend to have steady population growth, moderate price points (not too high-end), and enough inventory turnover that you're not competing against a handful of huge operations already saturating it. Landlord-friendly states also tend to have more motivated sellers relative to expensive coastal markets like the Bay Area. Worth looking at mid-size Southeast or Midwest markets as a starting point.
Addison, Travis's advice about learning one market really well is the foundation. But there's a practical question that comes after you pick a market: once you've chosen, how do you actually find deals there — especially when you've never set foot in the area?
The answer is the same regardless of which market you pick: county public records. Every county in America publishes the same three types of data online:
- Tax Collector — tax delinquent properties
- Code Enforcement — properties with violations
- Clerk of Court — probate and estate filings
All free. All public record. All accessible from your laptop in the Bay Area.
Here's why this matters for virtual wholesaling specifically. When you're remote, you can't drive for dollars. You can't knock on doors. You can't attend local REIA meetings every week (Janice's advice is solid, but it takes time to build those relationships from 3,000 miles away).
But county data doesn't care where you live. The Tax Collector in Broward County, Florida publishes their delinquent tax list online whether you're in Fort Lauderdale or San Francisco. Code Enforcement violations in Indianapolis are published whether you're downtown or in the Bay Area. Probate filings in Tampa are public record whether you've ever been to Florida or not.
And here's the convergence concept that changes everything for virtual wholesalers: when you find a property that appears on ALL THREE lists — tax delinquent AND code enforcement violations AND probate filed — you've found a property where three independent government departments have documented distress. You don't need to drive by it. You don't need to know the neighborhood. The motivation is confirmed in public record from three separate sources.
For a college student starting with zero capital, this is the ideal approach:
- Pick a market with investor activity (Travis's criteria + Janice's wholesaler-friendly laws)
- Go to that county's websites and pull the three data sources
- Cross-reference to find convergence properties
- Reach out to owners directly — your call has context because you know what's on the public record
You could literally start today by picking any Southeast or Midwest county Lucas mentioned, going to their Tax Collector's website, and pulling the delinquent tax list. That's your first step — not buying a course, not paying for a lead list, just going to the source.
@Addison DeWolff one specific suggestion: Broward County, Florida has active investor activity, wholesaler-friendly laws, and all three data sources published online. The Tax Collector publishes delinquent taxes, Code Enforcement publishes violations, and the Clerk of Court publishes probate/lien information. You can access all of it from your dorm room. That's a $0 starting point that doesn't require you to pick the "perfect" market — you just need a county that publishes its records.