Trading exclusivity for a 48 hour first look, and how a non-circumvention clause protects a reverse wholesale relationship

What breaks first if he goes from two a month to five? Likely the 48 hour clock, because the temptation will be to send him things that haven't been fully underwritten just to start the timer, and then the agent is the one who looks unreliable.

Does a written box work the same way for land? The buyers I've talked to describe what they want in terms I can't screen on, things like "good access" and "not swampy," and I can't turn that into a filter I can drive a county with.

Three assignments in five months at 6,500, 9,000 and 4,000 is 19,500 gross. The number missing from your post is what sourcing cost across those five months, including the deals that didn't close. That figure is where this model wins or loses, and with a box tight enough to define four or five zips and one property type it is usually low, which is the argument for the approach.

On the 48 hour first look, whether it binds depends on the exact wording and on your state's contract law, and a right of first refusal attached to a property you have not yet contracted is a different instrument from one attached to an existing interest. Have an attorney in your state read that clause before you rely on it again.

The non-circumvention clause surviving a staff change is the part worth generalizing. Semi-institutional buyers turn over acquisitions people, and a verbal understanding lives in one head. Written and dated criteria that refresh on a schedule survive the departure.

One assumption sitting under the post is that private execution keeps you clear of licensing questions. Calling a known buyer instead of advertising a contract publicly does avoid the public-marketing trigger that some states, Illinois and Kentucky among them, have treated as unlicensed brokerage activity, but the statutes differ and a few reach the assignment itself rather than the advertising. Confirm in writing how your state treats it with a licensed attorney there.

Fee compression is the other pressure. Repeat buyers price your work down over time as your cost of sourcing becomes visible to them. Reported ranges for experienced operators reach 20,000 to 50,000 on deeply discounted deals. That upper end usually comes from one-off transactions. Repeat orders rarely produce it, and you trade that spread for volume and speed.

Rural version of this question. If his ceiling were 70k instead of whatever yours is, does a tiered fee still work or does the whole spread collapse? In markets where houses trade at 45k, a 9,000 assignment on one is hard to picture.

That is 19,500 over five months. What is the hours number? It does not need to be exact. If it is 200 hours you are at 97 an hour before costs, which is fine and unremarkable. If it is 600 you are at 32 and the non-circumvention clause is the only interesting thing in the post.

How did you know he was real before you signed anything? I keep coming back to that. Everyone in these threads talks about verifying the buyer and nobody says what verification actually consisted of on the first day.

Does this shape work for duplexes? A buyer's box there is rent roll driven rather than square footage driven, and it is an open question whether a wholesaler can screen on rents from the outside of a building.

Is there room for a person who only does the finding, working under someone with the buyer relationships? Reading this thread, the buyer relationship looks like the scarce thing and the driving around looks like the abundant thing, which suggests the split is lopsided.

I'd have refused the 4,000. The money itself is minor. The lesson is the problem, because you taught him that discovering an issue gets him a discount on your fee, and he now knows the fee is negotiable after contract. Did he try it again on a later deal? Separately, on the cap, 12,000 was probably the right price for getting him to sign in month one. It's the wrong price in month twelve. Does the agreement have a renegotiation date or did you cap yourself forever?

The 90 day expiry is the piece worth writing down. Two ceiling changes in five months is more movement than you would expect from a buyer who sounds steady. Did he tell you why they moved, or did the re-signed box just come back with a different number on it?