Master the art of wholesale real estate.

Wholesaling can be legal when you are a principal buyer selling or assigning your own contractual/equitable interest, not acting as an agent marketing or negotiating 'for another' without a license. It becomes problematic when you publicly market properties you do not own or fail to disclose your role, so you should structure deals as principal transactions and have a local attorney review your contracts and disclosures.

With an assignment, you sign a purchase agreement with the seller and then transfer (assign) your contractual rights to an end buyer for a fee, so the end buyer closes directly with the seller and you never take title. In a double closing, you actually close on the property first and then resell it—often the same day—to your end buyer in a second transaction, which can provide more privacy around your spread and sometimes cleaner legal optics but adds extra closing costs.

If you only have a contract, you usually have an equitable interest in that agreement, not legal title to the property, so advertising the house to the public as if you own or are listing it can look like unlicensed brokerage activity in many states. Best practice is to market your assignable contract or equitable interest privately to investors with clear disclosure, and to follow any state-specific rules that require you to disclose the nature of your interest in writing.

The 70% rule says an investor’s maximum purchase price should be no more than about 70% of the property’s after-repair value (ARV) minus the cost of repairs, leaving roughly 30% to cover closing costs, holding costs, and profit. Many experienced investors tighten this to 65% in riskier or softer markets and may relax it toward 75% in very hot markets or for cleaner deals, but any increase in the percentage reduces profit and your margin for error.

Start by finding multiple recent sold comps—not active listings—within a tight radius that closely match your subject in bed/bath count, square footage, property type, and condition, then adjust for small differences and look at the average and median sale prices. You can also cross-check with appraisals or professional opinions, but you should always build in a cushion because ARV is still an estimate and markets can move during the rehab period.

Use conservative assumptions when you apply the 70% rule—err on the low side for ARV and high side for repairs—so the built-in 30% margin truly covers costs, surprises, and profit instead of being purely theoretical. Pair this with strong inspection or due-diligence contingencies in your contracts so if you discover that the numbers are worse than expected, you can renegotiate or cancel within the allowed period instead of being forced into a bad deal.

The TCPA and related telemarketing rules restrict autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts, especially to cell phones and numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, and violations can result in steep per-contact statutory damages even if you are 'buying' rather than listing. To reduce risk, you need a clear consent and opt-out process, scrub your lists against Do Not Call databases, avoid illegal use of dialers or mass texting tools, keep detailed records, and get legal advice on your specific outreach systems and state rules.

Traditional direct mail, networking, driving for dollars, and inbound marketing (such as SEO and online forms where sellers contact you) generally carry less TCPA risk than mass cold calling or texting campaigns, because they don’t rely on autodialers or unsolicited SMS. Even with 'safer' channels, you still must follow advertising, disclosure, and privacy laws in your state, but they can be a good way to build deal flow while you design a compliant outbound calling and texting system.

Assignments are simpler and cheaper because the end buyer steps directly into your purchase contract with the seller, but they require that assignment is allowed, your fee is transparent, and your state’s rules on equitable interest marketing are followed. Double closings cost more but can be preferable when assignment is restricted, your spread is very large, or you want to keep your profit from being disclosed to the end buyer, and a local attorney can help you decide which structure best fits your legal environment and specific deal.

In a typical assignment, the seller and end buyer close on the original purchase contract at the title company or attorney’s office, and your assignment fee is shown on the closing statement and paid to you directly or via escrow according to the assignment agreement. In a double closing, you first complete the A-to-B purchase with the seller, then immediately complete the B-to-C sale to your buyer, with two sets of closing statements and fees, so it’s critical that your contracts, funding, and disclosures are aligned and reviewed by counsel.