With apologies to both Jay & James, both of whom I respect tremendously, I disagree in theory.
The unscrupulous wholesalers who are trying to wholesale MLS listed properties...yes, they are essentially acting as an unlicensed broker. They are NOT true wholesalers.
A real wholesaler is finding properties not listed on any MLS. They are negotiating sales prices. They are placing a sales contract on the property to lock in the negotiated price and then - in most cases - selling their right/option to buy the property at that price to someone else. They are not receiving a commission for the sale of the property. That would make them a broker. They are selling their contact. It's the same thing you do when you exchange stock options without purchasing the stock.
None of the things I described above constitutes what a broker or realtor does.
Wholesalers get a really bad wrap, because there are a lot of them who don't know what they are doing and/or don't do what they are doing ethically. I will say again, you can't wholesale an MLS listed property. By definition, that property is already listed for retail sale. If a wholesaler offers me a property that turns up with an active MLS listing, when I type the address in, it will be the last deal from them I ever bother looking at.
With apologies to both Jay & James, both of whom I respect tremendously, I disagree in theory.
The unscrupulous wholesalers who are trying to wholesale MLS listed properties...yes, they are essentially acting as an unlicensed broker. They are NOT true wholesalers.
A real wholesaler is finding properties not listed on any MLS. They are negotiating sales prices. They are placing a sales contract on the property to lock in the negotiated price and then - in most cases - selling their right/option to buy the property at that price to someone else. They are not receiving a commission for the sale of the property. That would make them a broker. They are selling their contact. It's the same thing you do when you exchange stock options without purchasing the stock.
None of the things I described above constitutes what a broker or realtor does.
Wholesalers get a really bad wrap, because there are a lot of them who don't know what they are doing and/or don't do what they are doing ethically. I will say again, you can't wholesale an MLS listed property. By definition, that property is already listed for retail sale. If a wholesaler offers me a property that turns up with an active MLS listing, when I type the address in, it will be the last deal from them I ever bother looking at.
Well I'm not an agent but there are many what I call "HO" Salers who continuously try to wholesale a property that I get to find on the MLS and should be reported for acting as an agent. The way this is going there are going to be those who do unethical things and ruin it for those who choose to do this ethically.