7 Best Ways How to Find Wholesale Houses

If you are a real estate investor who prefers to save time by working with wholesalers, read this guide to learn about the most effective ways to find wholesale houses.

We will discuss where to find wholesale houses as well as how to connect with property wholesalers.

Let’s start with the easiest way to find wholesale properties.

For thousands of investors nationwide, the go-to resource to find wholesale houses is the HouseCashin investment property marketplace.

It’s a platform developed specially for connecting real estate investors with wholesalers.

In the filters dashboard, choose your location, set your preferred property and deal criteria, and browse the local investment property inventory.

Contacting wholesalers from listings labeled as “Wholesale Deal” is free for investors (unlike deals labeled as “Motivated Seller”: contacting homeowners directly requires paid subscription).

Wholesale listings often include valuable information allowing you to estimate the investment potential of the deal: projected rehab expenses, estimated ROI for flippers or landlords, etc.

I suggest that you try to buy wholesale real estate online easily with the HouseCashin marketplace for real estate investors before moving to other methods described below.

To find homes to flip sold by wholesalers, you can first find wholesalers themselves and have them add you to their buyer mailing list.

An easy way to find local real estate wholesalers is using business directories.

Most local business websites, such as Google My Business or Yelp, have too broad categories for real estate businesses.

This makes it difficult to tell wholesalers from investors or even real estate agencies.

But there are two national real estate-specific directories that have categories particularly for real estate wholesalers:

1. Find local real estate wholesalers on Real Estate Bees.
2. Find local real estate wholesalers on HouseCashin.

Both of these directories don’t require registration. Just choose your location and browse wholesalers in your area.

There are several ways to find wholesalers online.

One is to simply perform an online search with the keywords such as “wholesale properties for sale near me”, “buy wholesale homes in [your location]” or similar.

You can also use the terms “distressed homes,” “below market homes,” or “discounted homes” for sale. This will often bring you to a wholesaler’s website.

Another way is to perform a search like if you were a motivated seller. Write “sell house fast in [your location]” or “we buy houses in [your location]”.

The search engine will likely show you a number of websites that say they are investors buying houses for cash. However, many of them don’t — in reality they are wholesalers.

Contact them to ask if they have properties to wholesale. When they know that you are a possible investor client, they will probably want to stay in touch.

Many of them have an email list and will contact you with possibilities that fit your criteria.

You can use the same approach offline. When you see a bandit sign speaking to motivated sellers, jot down the phone number or website address.

Facebook and LinkedIn are two of the most popular social networks that allow you to join and create groups dedicated to various areas of interests or professional activities.

By using search on these social networks, look for groups for real estate investors, home flippers or wholesalers in your location and join them.

Ideally, you need groups for real estate investors where wholesalers publish properties under contract. If there are none in your area, join at least groups for real estate professionals in general.

Depending on the administrators’ way of managing a group and attitude to self-promotion, it may be forbidden for wholesalers to post wholesale properties there.

In this case, you can still go over the group members’ profiles and see who of them are real estate wholesalers.

You can also create a post inquiring about wholesalers in the group inviting them to connect with you and offer you their business.

To make it easier for wholesalers on Facebook or LinkedIn to find you and offer you their services, make sure your page clearly says that you are an investor.

Point out that you work effectively with wholesalers. Post a status saying you are looking for them.

If you’ve already worked with many wholesalers, highlight the number of wholesale deals that you’ve closed.

Connect with other professionals in your industry that can help you find wholesaling deals.

When you send a connection request, do it with a personal note, not just the default LinkedIn or Facebook connection request.

Networking is essential to business people of all types. It can be especially important to real estate investors.

Very few industries have networking clubs or trade associations that are as effective as real estate investment clubs.

Real estate investment clubs are active in most large and mid-sized cities and markets.

Even smaller markets have informal gatherings and clubs that will help you form relationships with wholesalers and industry-related third-party service providers.

As Greg Gaudet, our expert home flipper, advises in his guide to starting a house flipping business, it’s the best way to meet potential wholesaling partners face-to-face.

Over time, you’ll learn the abilities of different wholesalers and the markets they serve.

When you need a certain property type or location, you need to know who can find it for you.

There are national organizations that help people establish clubs in their area. They provide a template for how to organize events and engage local investors.

Clubs may hold meetings as often as every two weeks and usually have a speaker or educational program.

Sometimes local real estate investment clubs are organized similar to franchises under the national club, and members are charged a fee.

The fees help pay for expenses such as educational materials and meeting place rentals. You can expect that the club organizer is paid for their time managing the club as well.

The best clubs also help their members create investment opportunities. Look for clubs that generate investment opportunities in addition to the networking and educational features.

The right investment club can be a great avenue for finding wholesale real estate property deals.

It’s easy to confuse investor associations with investor clubs. Both are groups of professionals in the real estate arena who have come together for their mutual benefit.

Both emphasize practical education that is focused on advancing the careers of the individual members.

Real estate investor associations serve professionals in many industries: home flippers, landlords, property managers, realtors, hard money lenders, and others.

There are national associations that serve as umbrella organizations for multiple categories as well. One such umbrella organization is the National Real Estate Investors Association (National REIA).

One of the biggest differences between associations and clubs is that most associations are non-profits.

Their primary focus is to promote the long-term interests of the area(s) of real estate in which their members work.

A second difference is the importance that associations place on political action.

Some of the most effective lobbyists for the real estate industry at the state and national levels are real estate associations. This includes investor associations.

One of the areas of improvement that these organizations work for is increased professionalism and accountability in their ranks.

The National REIA Board of Directors has developed a Code of Ethics that its members are required to uphold.

Associations are also good networking opportunities, and some of them provide platforms for finding clients and/or potential partners.

Being a member of an association can create another level of networking opportunities with wholesalers.

Your local club may be a member of one of these trade associations. This could increase your access to up-to-date educational programs, training, and finding wholesale homes through networking.

Real estate investment events can be effective places where to buy wholesale houses, but you need to choose them wisely.

Local events are no-brainer. You’ll probably know the people or organization holding the event and if it is a good use of your time.

We’re talking about Chamber of Commerce “Business After Hours” type networking events.

Once you’ve attended one or two of these, you’ll know if the people you need to see are going to be there.

If the conference or summit is promoted by people from outside your area, you should research the organizers carefully.

Sometimes these events are geared toward selling you real estate coach classes and materials with little actionable referral or networking opportunities.

Sometimes events are not the most efficient way of finding wholesale real estate property deals.

I say this because they can take up a large portion of your schedule. They usually last for a day or at least a large part of the day.

However, seminars and other events that are held by reputable organizations are a great way to stay in touch with your contemporaries and referral sources.

Remember, you’re not just looking for wholesalers — you’re also looking for people who can introduce you to good wholesalers.

The associations we mentioned earlier are a great source of events that you should attend.

This is where you’ll find wholesalers who can tell you about potential properties that are coming on the market. You can find a calendar of upcoming events on their websites.

The well-known events are also where you can meet with wholesalers who know how to structure an acceptable purchase contract.

You should be able to get a list of attendees in advance from the event’s host. If the format of the event will accommodate it, try to make appointments with the wholesalers you want to see while at the event.

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About the Author

Kristina Morales is a REALTOR® with over 20 years of professional experience. She actively practices real estate in Ohio but also has practiced real estate in California and Texas. Conducting her real estate business in three states has allowed her to gain unique experiences that make her a well-rounded realtor. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Business Management and her MBA with a concentration in Banking and Finance. Prior to real estate, Kristina had an extensive corporate career in banking and treasury. She ended her finance career as an Assistant Treasurer at a publicly traded oil & gas company in Houston, TX.