Six Steps to Your First Wholesale Deal (With the Numbers That Actually Matter)

Most Texas agents have never wholesaled a deal. Every CE class they’ve sat through taught them how to represent someone else’s transaction. Nobody showed them how to build their own.

Wholesaling closes that gap. You find a motivated seller, get the property under contract at a price that leaves room, then sell that contract to a cash buyer for the difference. You collect $5,000–$20,000. No mortgage. No rehab. No holding costs. Your license isn’t required for this, but it gives you a real edge: you can pull your own comps, write your own contracts, and know within ten minutes whether a deal pencils.

Six steps you can run this week. Every one carries a real number.

Step 1: Learn One Formula Before You Call a Single Seller

MAO = (ARV × 0.70) − Estimated Repairs − Your Assignment Fee

ARV is after-repair value: what the property is worth fully renovated. If ARV is $250,000, repairs are $30,000, and you want a $10,000 assignment fee, your Maximum Allowable Offer is $135,000. Offer $136,000 and you just worked for free.

Pull 3 closed comps in the same zip code, similar square footage, similar post-renovation condition. Closed sales only, not active listings, not pending. If you can’t pull solid comps, you’re not ready to offer on this property.

The mistake that blows it: Using Zillow’s Zestimate as ARV. Zestimates average across a wide radius. Your deal is one specific house on one specific block. Pull real comps from MLS.

Step 2: Build a List of 300 Targeted Contacts for Under $100

You’re not calling strangers. You’re calling people who already have a problem your offer can solve: tax-delinquent owners, absentee owners (own the property, don’t live there), pre-foreclosure filings. In Texas, pre-foreclosure data is public record at the county clerk’s office.

List services run $0.10–$0.30 per record. Three hundred targeted names costs $30–$90. Skip the 10,000-record databases. You need 300 contacts you’ll actually work three times each.

The mistake that blows it: Buying a massive list and treating it like a lottery ticket. Volume without follow-through produces nothing. Work the 300 before you buy another name.

Step 3: Make 50 Contacts. Expect 1–2 Real Conversations.

Motivated seller conversion from cold contact to a qualified lead runs 1–3%. Fifty contacts gets you 1–2 people worth a full conversation. That’s the math.

Your only job on the first call: find out what they owe, how fast they need to move, and what they actually need. Someone who wants full retail price and 90 days to close is a listing, not a wholesale deal. Someone who needs out in 30 days with equity in the property is who you’re looking for.

The mistake that blows it: Pitching before qualifying. Ask three questions first, in this order: How long have you owned it? What do you owe on it? What would help you most right now?

Step 4: Write the Contract With “And/or Assigns”

Those three words go on the buyer line of your purchase contract. Without them, you own the deal personally and need your own cash to close. With them, you can assign your contract to a third-party buyer and collect the spread.

In Texas, you can use a TREC form or a custom purchase agreement. Earnest money on a wholesale deal runs $100–$500. You are not buying the house. You are buying a 30-day window to find your buyer.

The mistake that blows it: Using your broker’s standard form without checking whether assignment is permitted. Some brokerage agreements restrict it. Know before you write the offer.

Step 5: Have 20 Verified Cash Buyers Before You Need Them

Your buyer list is built before you have a deal, not the morning after you get one under contract. Attend two or three investor meetups in your metro. Every buyer who shows up has criteria: neighborhoods, price range, condition tolerance. Get their parameters in a spreadsheet.

A real cash buyer submits proof of funds when asked and closes in 7–14 days. Anyone who needs 30 days to “think about it” is not your buyer for this deal.

The mistake that blows it: Posting your deal to public Facebook groups before you’ve built a private list. You’ve just shown your spread to every competitor in the market. Keep your buyer list private.

Step 6: Assign the Contract and Collect the Fee

Assignment fees on Texas residential wholesale deals run $5,000–$20,000 depending on your spread. If you contracted at $135,000 and your buyer closes at $148,000, you collect $13,000. The title company handles the paperwork. You sign an assignment of contract and get paid at or before closing.

The mistake that blows it: Discounting your fee because your buyer pushes back. If your numbers are right, hold them. A buyer who shaves $5,000 off deal one will do it on every deal that follows.

The reason most licensed agents never run this play: nobody covered it in CE. Eighteen hours on ethics and escrow timelines, zero hours on the deals that actually build net worth. That’s the gap our classes fill at StepStone University — wholesaling, subject-to, wraps, creative finance, with the mechanics you can use on a real deal, not a hypothetical one.