Learning how private money moves and this one nags at me. A flipper owns the house and insures it. A landlord insures it. A wholesaler owns nothing at any point, so is there anything to insure, or is the exposure purely contractual?
Answer
There's no property to insure, because you never have an insurable interest in the building. A hazard policy needs someone who'd suffer a loss if the house burned, and that's the seller until closing.
What wholesalers do carry, when they carry anything, is liability coverage. General liability for the walk-throughs, since you're bringing contractors and buyers onto property you don't own and someone can fall through a rotten porch step. Errors and omissions if you're licensed or if your state has folded your activity into brokerage, though E and O for unlicensed wholesaling is hard to place and coverage varies a lot by carrier and state. And an ordinary business policy if you have an entity, a vehicle, and people driving for you.
The bigger exposure genuinely is contractual, and no policy covers it. If you can't perform, the seller's remedy is your earnest money or, depending on how the contract is written and what your state allows, specific performance or actual damages. That's why the inspection or due diligence clause matters so much. It's your priced exit.
One thing that's easy to miss: your end buyer's insurance and lender requirements can decide whether your deal closes at all. A hard money lender funding the buyer will want a specific policy in place at closing, and if the house is uninhabitable or has an open claim, that gets slow. Ask your buyer early who insures their acquisitions and how fast. A ten-day window looks shorter when someone else's carrier is the bottleneck. What coverage you actually need is a conversation for a broker licensed in your state.