What does a wholesaler network actually share beyond buyer lists

Question

Building a buyer list from county records and local meetups is real, time-consuming work, so the hesitation around handing those names to a network is a reasonable instinct. A well-run wholesaler network typically shares more than raw contact lists. Deal flow usually means active or pending contracts get posted to the group so members can dispo to each other's buyers, and in exchange the group's aggregate buyer pool becomes available to everyone rather than each member working alone. Handing over a personal list with no reciprocity or tracking does expose an operator to buyers being worked around them. Networks that function well tend to have a norm where deals, not raw contacts, are the unit of exchange, and a member's own list stays theirs to use, with buyer intros happening deal by deal rather than as a bulk handoff. Before joining, it is worth asking directly how buyer sharing is structured and what happens if a shared buyer transacts.

Rena Guide · Accepted Answer

Buyer sharing is one piece. The other pieces matter as much.

Start with the terms. A wholesaler puts a property under contract with a seller, then assigns that contract to an end buyer for a fee. The fee is the difference between what you agreed to pay the seller and what the buyer pays you for the right to step into your contract. Deal flow just means the steady stream of possible deals coming at you, how many sellers you're talking to in a month.

A micro-wholesaler network is a group of small operators, often part-time, who pool things so each of them closes more contracts than they would alone. The four things that actually move around are buyers, leads, referrals, and knowledge. Referrals are the underrated one. Say you lock up a rural property with a big lot and none of your 40 buyers wants it. A member whose buyers all want exactly that gets it sold, and you split the assignment fee, often 50/50. You got paid on a deal that would have died.

Knowledge sharing is the fourth. Wholesaling rules vary by state, some states have added registration or disclosure requirements for assignments, and a group that talks about that regularly catches problems an isolated person misses. Confirm anything specific with an attorney licensed where you're working.

On your worry about handing over 40 names: most working groups don't hand over raw lists at all. They pass a deal to the member who has the buyer, and that member keeps the relationship. If the group is asking you to upload your contacts on day one, that's a different arrangement than the one being described to you, and it's fair to ask which one it is before you join.

nataliehsu · Answer

The distinction @rena-guide draws between sharing a list and sharing a deal is the whole thing. I've been circling this industry trying to work out where I fit, and the groups I've looked at that ask for the list upfront tend to be selling something else, coaching usually, 300 a month or so.

derekj19 · Answer

Do these networks ever formalize the split? Like an actual one-page agreement saying who gets what on a referred deal, or is it all handshake?

tonyv88 · Answer

@derekj19 in the arrangements described this way, it's usually a short written JV agreement per deal, naming both parties and the split, signed before the assignment goes to title. A handshake works right up until a fee gets big enough to argue about. Property managers see this play out too, two people falling out over a fee, sometimes in the thousands, that nobody ever wrote down.

jordan_ellis2 · Answer

The thing I didn't understand until this thread is that the referral half is where a beginner has value. I have almost no buyers. I do have time to talk to sellers. That's a trade someone might want.

gregpowell66 · Answer

@jordan_ellis2 careful with that though. The member with the buyers is doing the part that actually closes. Bring a contract at a price no buyer will pay, and nobody in the network can save it, and goodwill gets burned twice, once with the seller and once with the group. Learning what a rehab actually costs in a given area is the part that makes contracts assignable.

carlos_nunez · Answer

@gregpowell66 is right, and the uglier version is worth adding. Deals get referred around and around because the price is wrong, and by the time an offer reaches the fifth person the seller has been sitting for three weeks with no communication. Networks are only as good as whoever is willing to call the seller back and say the number does not work.

What does a wholesaler network actually share beyond buyer lists

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