MY NEXT DEAL — COURSE
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MODULE 1 OF 10
01 / 09
The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 1
What is real estate
wholesaling, really?
It’s not buying and selling houses. It’s buying the right to buy a house — and selling that right.
~9 min read
Level Beginner
9 lessons
or use the arrows above to browse
01 / 09 — Where the business starts
Two people who need opposite things, at the same time.
Every wholesale deal begins with a mismatch — one person needs to sell fast, another has capital and wants a discount. The wholesaler’s entire job is standing in that gap.
A seller in a hurry
An inheritance they don’t want to manage. A debt. A divorce. A house they can no longer keep up. They need out — fast, without the cost of listing and repairs.
Motivated seller
An investor with capital
Wants to buy below market value — to fix and flip it, or to rent it out. They have the money but not the time to find and negotiate the deal.
Cash buyer
02 / 09 — The mechanism
Sign the contract. Sell the right. Pocket the difference.
The wholesaler never buys the house outright. They control it through a contract, then move that contract to someone who will.
03 / 09 — Step by step
The three moves that make the deal.
01
Under contract, at a low price
The wholesaler signs a purchase contract with the owner — without necessarily having the money to close that purchase themselves.
02
Sells the right, not the house
Before the closing date, they sell that contract — the right to buy — to an investor who actually has the capital to close.
03
Pockets the difference
The gap between what they negotiated with the seller and what the buyer pays for the contract is the entire business.
Price agreed with the seller$X
Price the buyer pays$X + fee
= Wholesaler’s profitFee
The document a wholesaler actually signs — a purchase contract, not a deed.
04 / 09 — The key term
A distressed property. Not necessarily destroyed.
The gap between what it’s worth today and what it would be worth repaired is where the business lives.
01 · Physical deterioration
02 · Legal or permit issue
03 · Owner in a hurry to sell
Any one of these three, on its own, already defines a distressed property.
05 / 09 — Two mechanics, one deal · Method 1
Assignment of contract
There are two different ways to move the same deal without the wholesaler owning the house long-term. Here’s the simpler one.
Seller
→
Wholesaler
→
Final
buyer
buyer
The wholesaler assigns the contract in exchange for a fee. The final buyer closes directly with the original seller — a single closing.
✓The simplest and cheapest method to execute
!The wholesaler’s fee stays visible on the closing paperwork
!Not every contract allows assignment
06 / 09 — Two mechanics, one deal · Method 2
Double close
Seller
closing 1→
Wholesaler(temporary owner)
closing 2→
Final
buyer
buyer
The wholesaler actually buys the property (closing 1) and, days later, resells it (closing 2). Two transactions, two deeds.
✓The wholesaler’s margin stays out of the original seller’s view
!Requires more coordination between the two closings
!Sometimes needs bridge funding (transactional funding)
07 / 09 — Trade-offs at a glance
Assignment vs. double close
SPEED
PRIVACY
SIMPLICITY
COORDINATION NEEDED
Assignment
Double close
Illustrative comparison, not a measured statistic — for building intuition on the trade-offs.
08 / 09 — The close cousin
Fix-and-flip is a different business.
Here the purchase actually closes, the property gets renovated, and it sells fully finished — a longer, more capital-intensive path than wholesaling.
Wholesale
Control the contract, move it to a buyer, collect a fee. No renovation, no holding costs, no construction risk.
Fix-and-flip
Buy, renovate, sell finished. Higher margin potential — and higher capital, time, and construction risk.
Many investors end up doing both: wholesale what isn’t worth renovating, and keep what is.
09 / 09 — In summary
What to carry into Module 2
→You’re not buying houses — you’re buying the right to buy them.
→The margin comes from negotiating low and selling fast.
→Assignment is simple and visible; double close is discreet and slower.
→A distressed property needs only one of three conditions to qualify.
Next module
How the margin actually gets built — the formula behind every offer.
Continue to Module 2
01 / 09
The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 2
How the margin
actually gets built.
Everything comes down to one well-answered question: what’s the most I can offer?
~7 min read
Level Beginner
8 lessons
or use the arrows above to browse
01 / 08 — The formula behind every offer
MAO: the ceiling of what you can pay.
Maximum Allowable Offer isn’t a guess — it’s what’s left after the property’s after-repair value absorbs every cost standing between you and a closed deal.
MAO $180K
Repair $48K
Margin $70K
Fee $12K
ARV (after-repair value)$310,000
− Estimated repair cost−$48,000
− Final investor’s margin (≈20–30% of ARV)−$70,000
− Wholesale fee (your profit)−$12,000
= Maximum offer to seller (MAO)$180,000
02 / 08 — Breaking down the $310,000
Where the after-repair value actually goes.
Every dollar above the maximum offer is already spoken for — by repairs, by the buyer’s margin, and by your own fee.
REPAIR — $48K
BUYER’S MARGIN — $70K
WHOLESALE FEE — $12K
MAO — $180K
Illustrative proportions on a $310,000 ARV — for building intuition, not a fixed ratio.
03 / 08 — A quick anchor, not a substitute
The 70% rule. Don’t offer more than 70% of ARV, minus repairs.
A useful anchor for not wasting time on properties that will never work. But it’s a filter, not a calculation — the final number always comes from the full formula.
✓Fast enough to screen a property in the first few minutes
!Too blunt to set your actual offer — always run the full MAO formula before you commit
04 / 08 — The most expensive mistake
Underestimating repair costs.
The single most expensive, most common mistake. A property can go from “cosmetic repair” to “structural repair” on the first visit with a real contractor.
What the photo hides
Foundation movement, roof decking, old electrical panels, hidden plumbing — none of it shows up in a listing photo.
Never quote from photos
The fix
Never calculate the MAO from an estimate made off photos. Walk the property, or send someone who can price repairs accurately, before you commit to a number.
Walkthrough first
05 / 08 — Not a fixed percentage
Where the fee actually comes from.
It’s not a fixed percentage of the price. It’s the gap between what the seller accepts and what the final buyer will pay for that same contract.
Negotiate low
With the seller — the entire margin starts here. Every dollar you don’t negotiate off the price is a dollar off your eventual fee.
Sell fast
Enough buyers lined up to move it quickly, without haggling away the full fee to close before the contract expires.
06 / 08 — What the real numbers say
Assignment fee benchmarks.
A survey of 1,000+ US wholesalers — a far more precise anchor than any general rule of thumb for what to charge.
National average assignment fee$13,000
Lowest (Arizona)$5,000
Highest (North Carolina / Georgia)$22,000
Highest city (St. Louis, MO)$25,000
Recommended to start$7,500–$10,000
Source: Real Estate Bees, survey of professional wholesalers, 2026.
07 / 08 — The other side of the business
Fix-and-flip in 2026 — the context behind your buyer’s number.
These are the numbers that give context to how much a final buyer can actually pay for the contract you’re selling them.
25.4%
Average gross margin — first rise in 7 straight quarters of decline
$66,000
Average gross profit per flip
165 days
Average hold time
61.1%
Of flips bought entirely in cash
Source: ATTOM Data Solutions, Q1 2026.
08 / 08 — In summary
What to carry into Module 3
→MAO = ARV − repair − buyer’s margin − your fee.
→The 70% rule is a filter, never the final number.
→Underestimating repairs is the most expensive beginner mistake.
→The fee comes from negotiating low and selling fast — national average $13,000, recommended start $7,500–$10,000.
Next module
Who’s who in the ecosystem — every role between the seller and the final buyer.
Continue to Module 3
01 / 09
The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 3
Who’s who in
the ecosystem.
Every role between the seller who needs out and the final buyer who closes — and where a direct investor fits in.
~7 min read
Level Beginner
8 lessons
or use the arrows above to browse
01 / 08 — Where every deal starts and ends
Two fixed points. Everything else is what happens between them.
No matter how many roles get involved along the way, every deal in this business begins and ends with the same two people.
The seller
Needs out — fast, without the cost or hassle of listing, repairs, or a long closing. An inheritance, a debt, a divorce, a rental that’s become a burden.
Motivated seller
The final buyer
Has capital and wants a property below market value, either to renovate and sell or to hold as a rental. Cares about the numbers, not the story.
Cash buyer or investor
02 / 08 — Every role the property may pass through
Between those two points, several roles can get involved.
01
The investor who controls the contract
Signs with the seller and controls the right to buy — the one moving the deal forward.
02
The title company or closing attorney
Verifies ownership, clears liens, and handles the paperwork that makes a closing legally valid.
03
The lender
Funds the purchase when a buyer isn’t paying all cash — hard money for a fast close, conventional financing for a longer one.
04
The inspector or contractor
Prices the real scope of repair — the number the entire offer is built on.
03 / 08 — What can go wrong
The daisy chain: the same contract, resold more than once.
Instead of one investor controlling the deal end to end, the contract sometimes gets reassigned from one wholesaler to another before it ever reaches someone who can actually close.
Seller
→
Wholesaler A
→
Wholesaler B
→
Final buyer(you)
!Each extra link adds a fee, stacked on top of the last
!Each link adds delay — and a chance the deal falls through before closing
!No one in the middle has real accountability for the property’s condition
04 / 08 — Who makes it official
The title company and closing attorney.
Before anyone can close, someone has to confirm the seller actually has clear ownership — and no hidden liens or judgments attached to the property.
✓Runs a title search and clears anything that would block a clean sale
✓Holds funds in escrow and executes the closing paperwork
!A title issue found late is one of the most common reasons a closing date slips
05 / 08 — Who funds the purchase
Cash, hard money, or conventional — the buyer’s funding shapes the deal.
Hard money
Short-term, asset-based financing built for speed — funds a purchase in days, not weeks, at a higher rate.
Common for fix-and-flip buyers who need to close fast on a distressed property.
Conventional
Bank or mortgage financing — lower cost, but a longer underwriting and appraisal process.
More common for a buy-and-hold buyer with time to spare before closing.
06 / 08 — Our position in this ecosystem
We control what we sell directly.
Seller→
Wholesaler A→
Wholesaler B→
You
My Next Deal
→
You
No middlemen, no daisy chain. When you buy from My Next Deal, you’re buying from the party that controls the property — not through a chain of intermediaries.
Direct, no middlemen
Single-family homes only
On-market and off-market
07 / 08 — In summary
What to carry forward
→Every deal starts with a seller in a hurry and ends with a buyer with capital.
→Title companies, lenders, and contractors each play a specific, necessary role.
→A daisy chain of resold contracts adds fees, delay, and risk with no real accountability.
→We control what we sell — you deal with us directly, not through a chain.
Next module
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The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 4
Module 4
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The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 5
Module 5
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The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 6
Module 6
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The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 7
Module 7
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The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 8
Module 8
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The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 9
Module 9
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The Wholesaler’s Handbook · Module 10
Module 10
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