Should a new virtual wholesaler start in their home market or the best market they can find

Question

A common dilemma for new virtual wholesalers is choosing between two shortlisted out-of-state markets with decent price spreads and plenty of listed cash sales, versus starting in an expensive home metro with heavy competition and thin spreads. The case for home first is real. Driving the comps means being able to verify a sold price by walking the street. Meeting buyers in person, asking a title company directly what they will and won't close, and attending a local REIA meeting all compress the learning curve in ways a fully remote start does not. Every mistake stays visible. And there is only one state's rules to learn, which matters, since disclosure and licensing requirements around assigning contracts differ state to state. The case for going straight to the better market is also real. The entire point of remote wholesaling is not being limited by a home zip code. If a home metro's spreads genuinely don't support a target fee, practicing there mostly teaches how to lose politely. And the skill set for a phone-based operation aimed at a distant market is different enough that months of local door knocking do not fully transfer. There is no universal tiebreaker here, but a workable heuristic is this: if the home market has enough spread to close even one or two deals, the in-person feedback loop is usually worth the slower start; if the spreads are genuinely too thin to close anything, going straight to the better market avoids spending months learning a market that was never going to produce.

tonyv88 · Answer

Property managers see the end of these deals, and the buyers on that side care about one thing from a wholesaler, whether the condition described matches the house. That skill gets learned by being wrong about a house in person a few times. It is hard to get from photos taken by someone you pay $200.

jessreyes12 · Answer

Asking the thing I'd have been too embarrassed to ask: is your expensive metro actually thin on spreads, or does it just look that way because the deals there don't come from listed cash sales? Distressed sellers in a high price market can be worth a lot more per deal even at a lower percentage. Have you actually run a $10,000 fee against your local price points, or is that a vibe?

I voted home first, but I'd want that math before I trusted my own vote.

bmoreno23 · Answer

I started from zero eight months ago and picked a market 600 miles out because it was cheap, and I'd do it differently. Not because remote is wrong. Because I couldn't tell a good conversation from a bad one for the first three months and I had nobody to ask in person. The isolation is the cost nobody puts in the pitch.

sonia_alvarez · Answer

The question @jessreyes12 is asking is the right one, and there is a second one behind it. For @luis_carrera, do buyers exist in either shortlisted market yet, or just cash sale records? The buyer side is what determines whether a market is real, and it takes phone calls in either case. If those calls have to be made anyway, the 1,100 miles stops mattering much.

Rena Guide · Answer

Two terms worth pinning down before you vote, since they change what this question means.

An assignment is when you sign a purchase contract with the seller and then sell your position in that contract to an end buyer for a fee. You never own the house. A double close is when you actually buy and then resell, usually the same day, using short term funds. Some markets and some title companies will do one and not the other.

What your home state does affect: the rules that apply to a wholesale transaction generally follow the state where the property sits, and several states have added specific requirements in recent years around disclosing to a seller that you intend to assign, and around how you may advertise a property you have under contract but do not own. A few also have licensing triggers that depend on how you market. These rules differ state to state and they have been changing, so the only reliable answer is from an attorney licensed in the state where the property is.

The practical consequence for your choice: every additional state you work in is another set of contract forms, another disclosure practice, and another set of title companies with their own internal policies about what they will close. That's a real cost, and it's the reason many people start with one market regardless of which one. Whether the cheaper market is worth paying that cost twice depends on numbers you can get by calling buyers in both places this week.

karen_whitfield · Answer

Voted home first, with a caveat. If your metro is genuinely priced so that a $10,000 fee needs a 6% miss by the seller, you'll be practicing on the hardest version of the job. I'd rather someone learn to swim in water they can stand up in.

carlos_nunez · Answer

An operator running deals in two states usually finds the honest cost of the second state is about $1,800 in legal review and six weeks of working out which closing offices will even take the call. That is the number your poll is really about. It is not the mileage. The idea that local skills do not transfer also deserves pushback. Reading a seller's actual motivation transfers completely. Reading a neighborhood does not. You want your first deals where the second skill is cheap to acquire, and standing on the street is the cheapest way there is.

gregpowell66 · Answer

Option three is a trap. Two markets means two buyer lists, two sets of forms, two contractors you are building trust with, and your attention split at exactly the stage where you do not yet know what you are doing. Operators with a construction background and real project management discipline still struggle to hold both at the start. @luis_carrera, one more thing on your home market. If you close one deal locally you will have a buyer who watched you perform, and that person will take your calls forever. Remote, your first buyer has no reason to trust you and every reason to try to go around you to the seller. That is worth something, and it is the case for home first even where the spreads are worse.

Should a new virtual wholesaler start in their home market or the best market they can find

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