094 How to Make Money Wholesaling Houses with Peter Vekselman

On today’s episode of the InvestFourMore Real Estate Podcast I talk with Peter Vekselman. Peter was in the franchise business when he decided to sell out and get involved with real estate. Peter started investing in mobile homes, but eventually got into fix and flipping houses, and then wholesaling properties. Peter has built a business that does up to 10 wholesale deals a week in three different states. He has a unique approach to wholesaling that allows him to maximize the money he makes.

How did Peter get started in real estate?

Peter owned 15 franchises, but decided the business was changing too much for him, so he sold out. He decided he wanted to be a real estate investor and began to invest in mobile home parks. He quickly realized mobile homes were not the same as real estate, so he started to fix and flip homes.

Peter did not have much success fix and flipping houses. He estimates he lost over $500,000 on his fix and flip ventures in one year. He admits he jumped into the business too quickly and his process was completely wrong. he went from flipping houses to wholesaling properties.

 Why did Peter love wholesaling houses?

Peter found his niche when he got into the wholesaling business. He figured out how to buy and sell houses without using his own money or making repairs. He used double closes and assignments on most of his deals, which did not require his money. While Peter has found huge success as a wholesaler and sells up to 10 houses a week now, he admits it is not easy. He estimates 95 percent of people who want to wholesale real estate every do a deal.

Why is it so hard to succeed as a real estate wholesaler?

While you can buy and sell houses without your own money wholesaling, that does not mean you don’t need any money. It takes money to market to sellers, to find buyers, and to set up your systems. Not only do you need money to start up a wholesaling business, you need time and patience. It can be months before you find a deal that could be wholesaled. As a wholesaler you have to find a deal that is good enough to sell to another investor. When I buy deals to flip I need to have enough room to repair the house, pay for carrying costs, and pay for selling costs. If I was wholesaling houses I would need to buy them even cheaper so I could make money selling them to another investor who plans to flip.

How does Peter run his business different from other real estate wholesalers?

Peter not only sells wholesale deals to investors, he will list houses as well for sellers. Peter is not an agent, but he owns multiple real estate companies with agents. He has those agents talk to the motivated sellers first. The agents are trying to get the sellers to sell their house, but if there is not enough room to wholesale the deal, the agents can list the house as well. This system also keeps the costs low for Peter, because he does not have to hire salesman to talk to sellers. He can pay the agents for each deal they close and he also gets a cut of the deals the agents close when they list a house. Peter’s marketing has up to 200 phone calls coming in a day so he keeps his agents very busy!