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How Much Money Can You Make Wholesaling Real Estate?

How Much Money Can You Make Wholesaling Real Estate?

Are you wondering, “how much money can you make wholesaling real estate?”

We were too. So we talked to 20 real estate investors who answered this question in depth. Scroll down to see what we found out.

How Much Money Can You Make Wholesaling Real Estate?

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For the uninitiated, making a profit wholesaling real estate may seem too good to be true. How do you make a sizeable chunk of change by helping someone find a buyer for their property? What’s the catch?

If you’re wondering how wholesaling real estate works or want to know how much actual wholesalers make on an average deal, this guide is for you.

Thousands of resources online give general (or exaggerated) estimates of how much wholesalers make on a deal. But if you’re thinking about getting into wholesaling, you need actual examples of how much you can make.

Spoiler Alert — It Depends

You want real-world advice from people who have brokered hundreds or thousands of wholesale deals. That’s why we asked 20 experienced real estate investors, “how much money can you make wholesaling real estate?”

You’re going to hear how much these professionals make on each deal, what to avoid, and tips to maximize your profit. Keep reading to learn the basics of wholesaling and find out how much real estate investors earn on wholesale deals.

Wholesale Real Estate Explained

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Wholesaling real estate is a type of short-term investment strategy. When you wholesale real estate, you become the middleman between a seller and an investor who wants to buy the property. 

A wholesaler finds a property priced below market value, usually in need of repairs, and contacts the seller to make a wholesale agreement – i.e., “If I find a buyer for your property at this price, I will collect a 10% assignment fee.” 

They enter into a contract to sell the property at a specific price, usually including a contingency to exit the deal if no buyer is found in a set period.

The wholesaler will shop the discounted property around to real estate investors and cash buyers. These are buyers searching for under market value properties that they can fix and flip or rehab and generate rental income from. 

When the wholesaler finds a buyer, they assign the purchase contract to them and collect their assignment fee from the final purchase price. That assignment fee is how wholesalers get paid. 

But how much is the average assignment fee? What do wholesalers make from each deal they broker? Hear answers from 20 real estate investors and wholesalers below. 

How Much Money Can You Make Wholesaling Real Estate?

1. Scott Bates, San Francisco Wholesaler

“You could then quickly flip a house (15-20% below market value) to someone who actually wanted to fix it up and live in it at about 90% of the market value. That would give you a profit margin of anywhere between 5-10% ($15,000 to $40,000) on a median priced home, say of $300-400k.

This strategy is great because you can get in and out of it quickly without having to do much construction. And with 5-10% of value to work with, it’s easy to pay a realtor a small commission to speed up the process of finding a new buyer.

Finding a buyer can take one week or three months, depending on how hot the market is. When you hire a realtor, it increases your chances of getting a speedier sale. So study a local market, know the numbers, and don’t expect to get every deal.

Plus, you have to know when a market is too hot, it may be best to focus on other investments until more favorable market conditions allow you to source real estate again.”

2. Matt Bigach, Multi-State Wholesaler

“My business partner and I rehab and buy and hold 50+ deals per year in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Wholesaling is a very lucrative business when done correctly. Wholesaling is a marketing business, not a real estate business.

A typical assignment fee varies based on location, but the average assignment fee that we see is $10,000 to $30,000 per deal. Some fees fall below and above that range, but the average fee is around there.

Finding a buyer comes down to the ability to run comparable sales and estimate repairs effectively. An overpriced contract will take a long time to sell, while an appropriately priced contract will sell quickly.

Sometimes in less than an hour. Pull a list of all the cash transactions in your area in the last six months. Contact those people and ask them what criteria they are looking for. You’ll be able to build a buyers list quickly.”

3. Jamell Givens, New York Real Estate Investor

“A typical assignment fee can vary depending on the price-point of the market. In areas of the country with houses below $150k you often see average assignment fees around $10-15k. In higher-end markets, you can see averages two times that.

The quality of your buyer’s list is more important than the quantity. If you have a property you are trying to wholesale, go on tools like MLS or Propstream, and find other flippers nearby who have a renovated house listed or recently sold. These people are proven buyers and are likely

looking for another property to start working on. Skip trace the owners and reach out about the property you are trying to sell.

Wholesaling is not a get rich quick scheme. While you are able to start out wholesaling as a side-job, the people who truly scale wholesaling businesses are the ones that are focused and dedicated to building a business.”

4. Johell Aponte, Houston Wholesaler

More often than not, the assignment fee hovers around $5,000, but can vary for many reasons. Composing a catalog of potential buyers will save you time and energy in the long run, and can cut down the time it takes to find buyers.

Finding a buyer can be easy and painless if you know what you are doing, but it can also take ages if you haven’t properly located a solid property under market value.”

5. Dustin Singer, Pittsburgh Real Estate Investor

[su_testimonial photo=”https://rethority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/VpSIK0Lg-scaled-e1600192327342.jpg”] We regularly do 1-3 deals or transactions per month. Typical wholesale fees can range from a few thousand dollars up to $15,000 or even more. Volume is key to making a successful business profitable in wholesaling, as sometimes the margins can be slim depending on the deal. The biggest thing new wholesalers need to understand, and why so many fail, is that you MUST get a deal under contract for cheap enough to collect a fee and still leave enough meat on the bone for the end investor. Time and time again, I see new wholesalers put deals under contract at close to retail price or with extremely thin margins. Most investors will not bite on these deals, and the wholesaler needs to negotiate a price reduction or terminate the contract. [/su_testimonial]

6. Andrew Kolodgie, Washington DC Wholesaler

“You can make quite a bit of money if you’re willing to put in time and effort. It comes down to how effective your process/systems are and how much effort you’re willing to put into it. A typical assignment fee ranges from $2,000 to $40,000, depending on the market. 

In higher priced faster moving markets you can expect a higher fee (and more competition). In a slower market (or one with worse comps) you should expect a lower fee. The highest assignment fee we’ve seen is over 400k. This property ended up being a tear down and was perfectly suited for a new apartment complex. 

You don’t have to spend $5,000 on a course to get into the business. Start with driving around your neighborhood and look for houses that need some work. Talk to the owners and have a conversation. Remember that you’re there to help them solve a problem. If they don’t want it, that’s okay, move on to the next.”

7. Martin Boonzaayer, Multi-State Home Buyer CEO 

“The average wholesale fee will be largely dependent on the area. For example, if the average home you are wholesaling is less than $50k, then your wholesale fee is going to be smaller than if you are wholesaling in a market with the average price of $400k (for example). 

There is no right or wrong number – any wholesaling profit is good. As a rule of thumb, you should target at least a 5% wholesaling spread, but you can earn bigger spreads, depending on your negotiating skills. You should expect to reinvest at least 30% of your profits back into marketing.

In more competitive areas, your marketing cost to get a contract can easily exceed $5,000. The best way to wholesale is only to enter into a contract at a price you’d be willing to buy, and if you can’t find a buyer, to actually close on the property yourself.”

8. James Watson, Omaha Real Estate Investor

“Wholesaling, like many avenues of real estate can be extremely profitable. I have heard of assignment fees off of one deal as high as $70,000 in our market. This type of deal is obviously very, very rare, however, it does go to show that there is good money to be made. Typical assignment fees are usually right at or under $10,000.

With how competitive the housing market is though, I have seen plenty of deals with $1,000-$2,000 assignment fees.. Finding a buyer can be tricky if your numbers are wrong. Typically the saying goes, if you have a good deal you will know based on how easy you find your buyer. 

Always be upfront with the seller about what you are going to do and don’t try to sell your buyers on the property. One shady or bad deal and you lose way more than you gain.”

9. Ethan Taub, FinTech CEO

[su_testimonial photo=”https://rethority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/OfferEdge_BnW_33_of_44-e1600192484493.jpeg”] There is a lot of money to be made in wholesale real estate, if you know the game well enough. There is no real average on an assignment fee per transaction. But as you are free to negotiate, you could be making up to 10-12% per project that you are involved in. If you are working on the big houses, you would only need to complete a few of these each year to be comfortably living. [/su_testimonial]

10. Jonathan Sanchez, Real Estate Investor 

On average, wholesalers can make $5,000 a deal. However, it all depends on the spread of the deal. How low is the wholesaler able to get the property under contract and how high can an investor sell a property for? As long as there is a great deal, finding a buyer is no problem. Serious investors are always looking for a great deal and will jump on one at a moment’s notice.”

11. Bill Samuel, Chicago Real Estate Investor

“I am a full time residential real estate investor that specializes in purchasing properties at rehabbing them and renting/selling them in the Chicago area. I am also an Illinois licensed real estate broker and have wholesaled some properties that I wasn’t able to rehab myself.

In my area a typical wholesale assignment is about $20,000. If you have a legitimate good deal then it should be easy to sell right now as it is very hard to find any deals at all. 

For the first few wholesales you do I would recommend joint venturing with an experienced wholesaler in your area who can help bring a buyer to the table. Getting the initial traction is not easy so someone with experience that you split the fee with is worth their weight in gold.”

12. Jack Medford, Wisconsin Wholesaler and Investor

“Wholesaling can be extremely lucrative for the right people. However, it is important to note that wholesaling is not the same as investing. You are much more like a salesperson than an investor. Like other sales professions, how much you make will be how much you hustle and follow up with potential leads. 

If you’re going at this full-time, there is no reason you shouldn’t expect to make at least $60,000 on the low end, and $200,000+ on the high end. Typical assignment fees are between $5,000-$10,000. It is possible to get much higher (or lower) fees, but this is the range you should expect.”

13. Tim Gordon, San Diego Wholesaler

“I’ve been an investor and wholesaler in Southern California since 2012, starting with using direct mail marketing and eventually transitioning to online marketing. I’ve wholesaled $40M in real estate since 2012.

Top performers (.01%) of the business could earn beyond $1,000,000 per year, while most will struggle to complete one deal. My company has earned between $150k-$300k per year with a low volume approach but we are really good at what we do. A new wholesaler could earn between $10,000-$50,000 in their first year.

If their model is scalable they could find themselves in the $150,000+ range. A typical assignment fee will vary regionally too, you will see lower volume with higher fees in large metro markets and smaller fees with higher volume in smaller markets.

The mid-size markets tend to be the sweet spot. Most don’t like to take lower than $5,000. I would venture a guess that the average fee is between $5,000-$10,000.

14. Ryan Dosenberry, Michigan Wholesaler

[su_testimonial photo=”https://rethority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/IMG_1401-scaled-e1600192611298.jpg”] I know investors who wholesale part time to supplement their income and make $10-20k per month and then I know some major players who have 5-10 employees doing well over $100,000 a month in deals. My average assignment fee is right around $7,000 but I have had multiple deals of over $15,000. If you have a great deal, it will never take long to find a buyer. Even if you have no buyers list at all.  Quick tip on finding cash buyers: If you don’t have a real estate license, ask an agent to pull a list of recent cash transactions in your area. Export the owners info and skip trace the list to get phone numbers and emails. Contact the buyers (especially the ones who are active) and ask if they are investing. [/su_testimonial]

15. Andrew Roderick, Phoenix Real Estate Investor

“The amount of money you can make on wholesaling real estate all depends on the property’s value. The lower, the better. A typical assignment fee is usually around $5,000-$10,000 per deal. Finding a cash buyer is one of the bigger challenges because it can take as long as 12 months, but on average it’s around 1- 3 months.

As for new wholesalers, I would recommend they have their financial source ready before they take on these types of opportunities as well as a good eye for seeing beyond the first impression of a property.”

16. Kevin Bazazzadeh, Houston Wholesaler

“You can definitely make good money wholesaling and have a 6-figure income doing it. A typical assignment fee for us is about $15,000. We look for properties under $300K, which limits our potential on a fee, but these properties are much easier to move.

An important thing to know about wholesaling is that you are not really running a real estate business, you are running a marketing business. You can be great in every aspect of real estate, but if you aren’t good at marketing and sales you will struggle.”

17. John Castle, Ottawa Investment Real Estate Agent

“Everyone’s going to have their hero story about how much they’ve made, but the industry norm is about 5%-10% for an existing property. Wholesalers who aren’t as picky about what they put under contract will have more deals but make less per deal.

Most new investors want a sure thing and can’t risk a loss. Accordingly, they build in larger margins, but as a result, fewer of their offers are accepted.”

18. Matthew Martinez, Investment Real Estate Broker

[su_testimonial photo=”https://rethority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Updated-Headshot-scaled-e1600192698295.jpg”] As an accredited real estate investor and investment real estate broker I have a lot of experience in wholesaling real estate. If you’re a full time wholesaler closing a minimum of two deals a week you can make over $1,000,000 a year in assignment fees.  A typical assignment fee is around $10,000 but every deal is different. We’ve taken as little as $2,500 and as much as $30,000+ for an assignment fee. My team and I have an extensive buyer list that we’ve compiled over the last few years but my main list was compiled in about six months of networking with investors and wholesaling on a regular basis. [/su_testimonial]

19. Nathaniel Hovsepian, Savannah Real Estate Investor

“There is a lot of money that can be made wholesaling houses, and that is why so many people get started in real estate doing that. We have had assignment fees range anywhere from $500 to $10,000, but typically we bring in about $3,000 per contract before taxes

Some wholesalers like to do fewer deals that bring in larger fees, but we like to try and help homeowners out by making the highest possible offers that we think we can find a buyer for and still make a profit on.”

20. Derrick Summers, Georgia Real Estate Investor

“The amount of effort and commitment that you have towards wholesaling determines how much you can make. I’ve seen people go from having no money to making $500,000 within one year! The more offers that you make on deals, the more opportunities that you have to make a profit.

A typical assignment fee is usually around $10,000 depending on the situation. The more distressed a seller is, the better the opportunity for you to receive bigger assignment fees. Having good sales negotiating skills helps out a lot with your assignment fee too.”

So, How Much Can You Make Wholesaling Real Estate?

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After hearing from 20 experienced real estate investors, wholesalers, and brokers, you have a good idea of how much you can make wholesaling. 

  • Most of our experts said they make about $5,000 to $10,000 per wholesale deal. 
  • A few said they make $1,000 to $3,000 per wholesale deal.
  • A few said they have made $30,000 to $40,000 per wholesale deal. 

In addition to sharing how much they make on average, these real estate professionals also shared a lot of helpful tips for anyone interested in wholesaling real estate.

Many mentioned the importance of building a buyers list, knowing the numbers on a property you wholesale to ensure it’s a good deal for you and investors, and extensively marketing each property to cash buyers. 

A few talked about why you should become a real estate agent to dramatically grow your profit potential and buyers list. Wholesaling real estate requires an investment mindset with a sales and marketing approach.

If you can find properties priced below market value and connect the seller with a buyer quickly, you can earn a part- or full-time income and dip your toes into the world of real estate investing.