How to Find a Deal: RE Agents, Wholesalers, and Going Direct

TLDR
There are four real ways to find a deal: real estate agents, wholesalers, direct to seller, and a handful of others. Your first deal will probably come through an agent. Your best deals will come direct. This breaks down all three main approaches and how to actually work each one.

Table of Contents

The Four Real Ways

Four real ways to find deals:

  1. Real estate agents
  2. Wholesalers
  3. Direct to seller
  4. Everything else (foreclosures, tax sales, REOs)

Your first deal will probably come through a real estate agent. Bank financing is easier to pair with on-market properties, and the transaction process is cleaner when you’re learning. After that, wholesalers are a shortcut to off-market inventory. And ultimately, going direct to seller is where the real deals are.

Let’s break down each one.

Real Estate Agents: Be Fast, Be Bold, Be Strategic

The MLS has the most buyers of any channel. That’s the whole problem. High demand means higher prices. Getting a deal on the MLS means reducing the effective demand for the specific house you want. Three ways to do that:

Be Fast

The goal is to shrink the market. Be the first offer in, and put a tight deadline on it. 12 to 24 hours max. You’re telling the seller: “Here’s a real offer. But if you don’t take it by tomorrow, I’m moving on.”

What does that create? Scarcity. The seller starts wondering what happens if nobody else comes. A real offer in hand might beat a hypothetical higher offer later. This is how you get deals on the MLS: get there before the demand piles up.

Be Bold

Buy the houses nobody else wants. Houses that have been sitting, because the market is uncertain or because the house needs serious work. Demand is lower. Price comes down.

Here’s the thing: being bold isn’t being reckless. It means ratcheting up your skills until the scary stuff is just another Tuesday. Once you know construction, a house in rough shape isn’t scary. It’s just a scope of work.

Be Strategic

I’m going to tell you a strategy that some people use, because it’s been done to me and you should know it exists.

It goes like this: investor submits an offer at $290,000 on a $300,000 house. Seller accepts. Then the investor starts gaming the inspection timeline: “Couldn’t find an inspector, can we push it a few days? Oh, something came up, a few more days?” Now the seller has been off market for 45 days. The investor gets an inspection, finds issues, and drops the price to $270,000. Seller is pot-committed at this point, doesn’t want to go back to market, takes it. Then, right before closing, the buyer calls and says, “We need to back out… unless you can do $240,000.”

I know this works because it was done to me. My wife, who is my real estate agent, took that call. We ended up selling it to the guy. If I ever saw that name come up again, I’d tell them exactly what I thought of them.

I’m not teaching that strategy. There are other ways to make money in this business. But you should know it happens so you’re not caught off guard when you’re selling.

Wholesalers: How to Work the System

Here’s how wholesaling works if you don’t already know. A wholesaler goes to a seller and gets a house under contract for $100,000. Then they find an investor (you) and sell you the contract for $110,000. You’re not buying the house from the wholesaler. You’re buying their position in the contract. At closing, the title company pays the seller $100,000 and pays the wholesaler $10,000 as an assignment fee.

The wholesaler never owns the house, never takes the risk. They’re middlemen. And they deserve to get paid for finding the deal, because finding deals is work.

The problem is that the big wholesaling operations have hundreds of buyers on their list. High supply of buyers, one house: prices go up. I’ve paid $30,000 assignment fees before. That stings. I’ve also told people what I’ve told myself: if the deal still worked at that price, why does it matter? It doesn’t. But it still stings.

Here’s the better play.

Pro Tip
Find the smaller, newer wholesalers who only have a handful of buyers. Make yourself their number one buyer. You’ll get smaller assignment fees, more direct communication, and better deals.

How do you become the number one buyer for a smaller wholesaler?

  • Have your buy box dialed in. Tell them exactly what you want. Specific neighborhoods, specific size, specific condition.
  • Never miss a deal. I’ve bought hundreds of houses from wholesalers and I’ve only had to back out of a deal once. That reputation is everything.
  • Make it frictionless for them. No home inspectors. No inspection periods. No unnecessary friction. Every step you add is a chance for the deal to fall apart, and their income depends on deals closing.
  • When you walk a property with them, ask: “Who do you want me to be? Your buyer? Your contractor? Your buddy?” Make them comfortable.

The worst thing that can happen to a wholesaler is getting a house under contract and then having the buyer fall through. If you become the person that never does that, they will call you first, every time.

I’ve sold hundreds of houses as a wholesaler. I know what it looks like from the inside. You want to be the Harry who never says no.

Direct to Seller: The Primary Way

This is the primary way I buy deals now, and eventually it’ll be yours too.

Think about the value chain. A wholesaler finds a distressed house nobody knows about, gets it for $100,000, and sells it to you for $110,000 or $130,000. You’re still getting a good deal, but you’re paying the wholesaler for the work of finding it. What if you just did that work yourself?

It’s not as complicated as it sounds.

Set up your home base first. Local address. Local phone number. A website with your face on it and something in the background that shows you’re from the area. This is about trust. Your competition is often out-of-town investors who show up with P.O. boxes and 800 numbers. You’re the local guy with a local address who wants to help.

One note on the phone number: make sure it actually routes as local. I use a VoIP system and sometimes it routes through a town north of Chattanooga. I’ve had sellers say “I didn’t realize you were from Sweetwater.” I’m not from Sweetwater. Small thing, but trust is everything in this business.

Then you do outbound marketing. Mail or cold calling.

Mail works. It’s always worked. The messaging is simple: “I buy houses in this area, as-is, for cash.” You’re not reinventing the wheel here. The mail providers already have copy that converts. Send enough of it.

How much? When we were doing wholesaling, we spent $10,000 a month on mailers. Sometimes more. You don’t have to start there, but understand the math: you’re probably spending $1,000 to $5,000 in mail to generate a deal that saves you $20,000 to $30,000 over what a wholesaler would charge. That’s a good trade.

You will get angry calls. People who are annoyed you mailed them. That’s fine. Rule number one applies here. The right people, the people who actually want to sell, will be glad you reached out. They have a problem you can solve.

Cold calling works too. It’s harder, more uncomfortable, but cheaper. If you’re willing to do the reps, it’s a legitimate channel.

Common Mistake
Most people give up on direct marketing too early. They send 500 mailers, get no response, and conclude it doesn’t work. The numbers require thousands of touches over time. This is a long game.

Other Methods Worth Knowing

There are a few other ways deals get found. I’m not going to teach them in depth here, but you should know they exist:

Foreclosures and REOs (Real Estate Owned): After a bank forecloses, the property gets auctioned. REO means the bank owns it outright after auction. These can be great deals, but you’re usually competing with institutional buyers who have cash and don’t need margin. Auctions require showing up with certified funds and knowing your numbers cold. Not ideal for your first deal.

Tax sales: Owner hasn’t paid taxes, property gets auctioned. Similar situation. Great deals exist here, but the expertise required is high and the competition is stiff.

Pre-foreclosures: The window before a foreclosure is officially filed. This is essentially the same as direct-to-seller marketing. You’re finding people in financial distress and offering a solution. Already covered.

I’m not teaching those channels here. But be aware they exist and that people make money in them.

Which One Should You Start With?

For your first deal: real estate agent.

Bank financing works cleanly on MLS properties. The transaction process is familiar to everyone involved. You’re not going to nail the direct-to-seller approach on your first attempt anyway, and there’s less margin for error when you’re also learning construction, comping, and financing at the same time.

Once you’ve closed a deal or two and you know what you’re doing, move toward wholesalers and then direct. Each step gets you closer to the source of the deal, which means less competition and better pricing.

The trajectory is: agent deals to build your base. Wholesalers to scale. Direct to seller as your core business.

FAQ

Do I need to be licensed to work with wholesalers or do direct deals?

No. You’re a buyer. You don’t need a license to buy real estate. A license matters if you want to represent other people in transactions. As a buyer and investor, you don’t need one.

What’s an assignment contract?

It’s the contract that transfers a wholesaler’s position to you. When a wholesaler gets a house under contract and then “assigns” that contract to you, you’re taking their spot as the buyer. The title company splits the payment at closing: the agreed purchase price goes to the seller, and the assignment fee goes to the wholesaler.

How many wholesalers should I be working with?

Not many. I’d rather be the number one buyer for two or three wholesalers than be a name on the email list for twenty. Depth beats breadth here. Focus on the smaller ones, build real relationships, and become the person they call before anyone else.

Yes, with rules. The National Do Not Call Registry applies. You need to scrub your list before calling. There are services that do this. Don’t skip it.

Want More?

If you want to see real deals sourced through each of these channels, with actual numbers and what I paid for them, check out @rosspaller on YouTube.

And if you want to work through this alongside other investors doing the same thing, the Solo Flipper community on Skool has 160+ members going through this process right now.