All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Garland

I feel like it's always been like this, but I've sensed an uptick as well. I help guys dispo deals, and I kick back over 90% of them as I will not have egg on my face pushing out a bad deal to my premium buyers list. At this point, I just assume if a wholesaler sends me a deal to JV that their numbers are off. Most of them do not want to have the difficult conversations with sellers in negotiations and do not realize how difficult it is to get a seller to commit to selling their home for 50% of ARV. They tend to be desperate to get a "yes" from a seller and hope that they'll find a sucker of a buyer.

Simply put, people just don't want to put in the work these days to become professionals at their craft. It gives all wholesalers such a bad name, especially the ones who are exceptional at what they do.

Quote from @Caleb Brown:

Nice set up, which markets are you in?

Thanks Caleb. This quarter, I'm in Cleveland, Memphis, Columbus, Detroit, and Kansas City. This year, I've done deals in St. Louis, Charlotte, Greensboro NC, Dallas, Houston, and Little Rock. All great markets.

Wholesaling in 2025 looks very different than it did just a few years ago. Having been in this business since 2015, I’ve seen the industry evolve through multiple phases—from the direct mail era, to the rise of cold calling and texting, and now into the AI-driven, compliance-heavy environment we face today.

This post breaks down how my wholesaling operation is structured in 2025, what’s changed, and what systems I use to consistently close deals in today’s market.

A Brief History of My Wholesaling Journey (2015–2022)

• 2015–2018: Direct Mail Dominance: Back when I started wholesaling in 2015, the primary way to generate deals was through direct mail. SEO and PPC were options, but skip tracing in bulk didn’t yet exist. For years, I closed deals exclusively through mail—over 100 deals in one neighborhood (Union Heights in North Charleston). Eventually, low inventory and high direct mail costs pushed me to explore other strategies.

• 2019–2021: I Began Cold Calling & Virtually Wholesaling: When skip tracing became more affordable, I scaled into several virtual markets and leaned heavily on cold calling. This was also when large VA teams became the norm—at one point, I managed 50+ cold callers.

• 2022: Texting Boom and Bust: Text blasting became the next big channel until saturation, lawsuits, and regulation (A2P 10DLC compliance) took hold. By late-2022, mass texting lost much of its effectiveness, and I stopped texting at this time because the costs did not justify the marginal results.

What Wholesaling Looks Like in 2025

Marketing First: Texting at Scale

The core of my operation today is 10,000 outbound text messages daily, sent across five virtual markets that I rotate quarterly. For instance, this quarter, I am targeting Cleveland, Memphis, Columbus, Detroit, and Kansas City. These markets are strategically chosen based on:

• Median home prices between $250K–$350K
  (too low, and sellers don’t have enough equity; too high, and motivation is low).

• Midwest-focused markets, where prices are affordable and seller motivation is higher.

We don’t waste time chasing unqualified responses. About 90% of inbound texts are ignored; we only engage with sellers who explicitly show interest (e.g., “yes, I’d sell” or they provide a price point).

Team Structure: Lean and Effective

Instead of managing massive teams like in years past, I’ve consolidated operations into a small, specialized structure:

• 1 VA Lead Manager / Marketing Specialist

  • Sends all outbound texts (10K/day).

  • Qualifies inbound leads.

  • Acts as appointment setter assists with transactions coordination.

  • Maintains thousands of leads in CRM follow-up. Most are on long-term follow up through drip campaigns.

• 1 Acquisitions Manager (U.S.-based)

  • Handles motivated seller calls and negotiations.

  • Covers all five virtual markets.

  • Works directly with JV partners when needed.

• 1 Operations Manager

  • Oversees systems, troubleshooting, and process flow.

  • Coordinates with acquisitions manager and VA to ensure deals close smoothly.

• Strategic Realtor Partnerships

  • Realtors in each market handle MLS listings.

  • Dispositions simplified: instead of a full-time Dispo manager, we leverage agents + our contracts.

  • VA supports transactions by communicating with title companies, buyers, and sellers.

Volume & Results

With this streamlined model, my company consistently closes 5–7 deals per month across multiple markets. I could very-well close more deals, but I have a lifestyle business. This structure works for me because:

• We rely on automation + specialization instead of bloated teams. After learning a lot about myself over the last decade, I realize that I prefer working with exceptional talent and squeezing the most out of every team member. I'll pay one A-player $18 an hour instead of paying 3 marginal people $6 an hour.

• Realtors provide built-in Dispo leverage, removing the need to hire a sole dispo manager. We move over 80% of our deals on the MLS.

• The VA is trained to wear multiple hats (marketing, lead management, follow-up, Dispo, and transactions coordination). Because our systems are so dialed in and we've optimized them over 10 years, the VA is not overwhelmed. Additionally, we are texting as our primary deal source, so this reduces the need to have dozens of cold calling VAs on staff, which makes day-to-day management easier.

Why This Model Works in 2025

The biggest mistake many wholesalers make today is holding onto outdated models—bloated VA teams, reliance on cold calling that has a long conversion cycle, or chasing saturated markets. Much of the wholesaling advice here on BP is outdated and incorrect. The 2025 wholesaling landscape requires:

• Lean operations that reduce overhead.

• Compliance-friendly marketing (no cutting corners on texting regulations). You can text legally as long as your account is compliant.

• Strategic partnerships with local agents instead of building massive internal teams.

• Focused markets where median prices and seller motivation align.

The result: a business that’s both sustainable and scalable in the current environment.

Final Thoughts

Wholesaling is still alive and well in 2025—but only if you adapt. The “spray-and-pray” days of massive direct mail drops or unregulated texting blasts are over. Success today comes from precision, lean operations, and leveraging the right people and tools.

By consolidating my team, leaning on AI and compliance-friendly texting, and building strong realtor partnerships, I’ve been able to consistently close deals while keeping my operation nimble.

If you’re running your wholesaling business like it’s still 2019, it’s time to update your playbook.

Quote from @Ky Perry:

@Cornelius Garland Where are you pulling these from, is this something you could teach me?

 Yea, I can. The market rotation is a process I developed over the years. I call it “market hopping.” Just shoot me a DM and we’ll go from there.

Quote from @John Clark:

Quote from @Ky Perry:

Where are you finding 10,000 leads a day though?

If the Orange One can allegedly find 3,000 deportees a day, 10,000 homeowners should be easy. Your OP is spamming 3 million people a year. 

 Spamming? 

Quote from @Ky Perry:

Where are you finding 10,000 leads a day though?

I'm pulling data from several virtual markets with over 1 Million in population. Usually, there are 100k homeowners it makes sense to pull, so I'll stay in the market for a month then rotate to another one. I target owner occupied and absentee owners with very selective filters, so I'm able to target people with motivation.

There are a lot of misconceptions on BP about what it really takes to close wholesaling deals consistently. The biggest one is underestimating how much volume is actually required. I created an infographic that helps illustrate this point.

Step 1: Focus on Volume
Whether you’re cold calling, texting, doing RVMs, or even direct mail—the number of messages most people send is far too low. To close deals weekly, you have to create enough opportunities to get sellers on the phone today. From my experience, sending 10,000 texts per day produces 2–5 next-day phone appointments.

Step 2: Don’t Overthink Capacity
You might be thinking: Isn’t that too much for one person to handle? Not at all.
Here’s how it works:

• We drop texts in batches of 3,000.
• Each batch yields around 30 interested sellers.
• Out of those, 2–5 will get on the phone the same day.

These sellers are far more motivated than the average cold-calling lead because they’re already deeper in their selling journey.
Step 3: Qualify & Negotiate
Once a VA speaks with the seller and gathers initial details, we review internally.

• If the asking price is unrealistic, the VA counters and keeps negotiating.
• If the price is workable, I (or an acquisitions manager) step in to close the deal.

Step 4: Understand the Funnel
At each stage, the number of leads narrows. That’s why volume is critical. If your goal is 3–5 deals per month, you’ll need at least 2–4 offers accepted weekly to reliably get one signed contract.

Final Note
This breakdown should help you remove emotion from your marketing. Not every “yes” will sign, and not every “no” is final. Deals also come from follow-up—but don’t rely on that alone. Living off follow-up can give a false sense of how healthy your pipeline really is.

Quote from @Chris Seveney:

Quote from @Maleigha Gambrill:

Hi everyone,

I’m a teen trying to get into wholesaling and I’ve been wondering how others handle phone numbers on the Do Not Call list. Do you avoid them completely, or use other outreach methods like texting or mail?

I’m trying to stay compliant and learn the right approach from those with experience. Appreciate any help!

 As someone getting started, your ethics and morals will play a huge role in your real estate career. Starting out by breaking the law is not a great place to start. People are on that list for a reason, and do you really think you are going to get a seller when they are on that list. 

Stay compliant and just avoid them

I’ll push back on this. There are a lot of grey areas in marketing, and this is one of them. It’s just not practical to not dial people on the DNC list. If the original poster doesn’t dial them then numerous others will and they’ll get the deal. If you play completely by the rules then you’ll have no business. This is what all the big wholesalers are doing. In today’s economy and if someone is trying to feed their family with their business, I say to take the risk. I haven’t had any issues and I’ve been doing this for over 10 years.

This is what my purchase and sales contract looks like. Hope this helps!

Quote from @Maleigha Gambrill:

Hi everyone,

I’m a teen trying to get into wholesaling and I’ve been wondering how others handle phone numbers on the Do Not Call list. Do you avoid them completely, or use other outreach methods like texting or mail?

I’m trying to stay compliant and learn the right approach from those with experience. Appreciate any help!

I still call them. However, if they're on the litigator list, which is a small percentage of each list, I'll remove them. Your list will be so small if you remove every homeowner that is labeled as DNC. I've had sellers tell me not to call them and I did. Guess what? A few months later, the house was sold to someone else. So it's not a good policy to remove these people - just put them on a long term follow up. If they threaten litigation or to call the cops, which is a very very small percentage of people, then remove them.

There was recently a court ruling in Arizona where the courts deemed that reaching out to homeowners to buy their property was not considered solicitation. So if someone wants to pursue litigation, they'll quickly find that the courts will not rule in their favor. Play ball. You're good to go.