How do you wholesale real estate step by step?

Source a motivated seller from public records; calculate a maximum allowable offer from ARV minus repairs and your fee; sign a purchase agreement that permits assignment and disclose your equitable interest; use the inspection period for real due diligence; find a cash end buyer with proof of funds; assign the contract or double close; collect the assignment fee at closing.

What is the 70% rule in wholesaling?

A screening heuristic: your maximum offer is roughly 70% of after repair value, minus repair costs, minus your target assignment fee. It exists to kill bad deals quickly. It is a screen, not a valuation, and your end buyer will re-underwrite your assumptions.

What is the difference between an assignment and a double close?

An assignment transfers your rights under the existing purchase contract to the end buyer for a fee, in a single closing, and the fee is usually visible on the settlement statement. A double close is two back-to-back transactions -- seller to you, then you to the end buyer -- which costs a second set of closing fees and requires funding but keeps your spread private.

Does a wholesale contract need an assignment clause?

Yes. Without language permitting assignment -- such as "and/or assigns" after your name, or an explicit assignment provision -- you have no right to transfer the contract, and therefore nothing to sell to an end buyer.

When does a wholesaler get paid?

At closing, when the transaction funds and the title company or closing attorney disburses. Not at signing and not on a handshake. If the deal does not close, there is no assignment fee.

Do you have to disclose that you are wholesaling?

In Texas, yes: Occupations Code 1101.0045 requires written disclosure of the nature of your equitable interest to any seller or potential buyer, and assigning without it is deemed engaging in real estate brokerage. Oklahoma's SB 1075 requires residential wholesalers to disclose the intent to assign at a higher price and a two-business-day cancellation right. Disclose regardless of state.

← Articles / July 2, 2026

How to Wholesale Real Estate: Step by Step

The operational sequence for wholesaling a house: source the lead, run the MAO, contract with an assignment clause, find the end buyer, assign or double close, get paid.

By Faizan Masood · wholesaling / assignment of contract / process / MAO · Updated July 2, 2026

Wholesaling a house runs in seven steps: source a motivated seller from public records, run the numbers to a maximum allowable offer, sign a purchase agreement that permits assignment, use the inspection period for real due diligence, find a cash end buyer, assign the contract (or double close), and collect the assignment fee at closing. This page is the sequence. If you want the concepts — what wholesaling is, whether it is legal where you live, what it actually pays — start with real estate wholesaling for beginners.

Step 1 — Source the lead

Every deal starts with an owner who has a reason to sell, and those reasons are recorded at the county. Pull pre-foreclosure filings, absentee owners, probate, tax-delinquent rolls, and vacancy flags. The full free method is in how to find off-market properties.

Do not skip to marketing. A wholesaler with a bad list is a telemarketer.

Step 2 — Run the numbers to a maximum allowable offer

Before you speak to the owner about price, you need the number you will not go above. Estimate the after repair value from comparable sales. Estimate repairs conservatively. Then work backwards.

An illustrative maximum allowable offer calculator: ARV times 70 percent, minus repairs, minus the target assignment fee

The 70% rule is a screen, not a valuation. It exists to kill bad deals quickly, not to price good ones. Your end buyer will re-underwrite everything you assumed, so build the repair estimate you would defend to a contractor, not the one that makes the spread look healthy.

Step 3 — Get it under contract, with an assignment clause

You sign a purchase and sale agreement with the seller. Two things matter more than anything else in it:

The contract must permit assignment. Language such as “and/or assigns” after your name, or an explicit assignment provision. Without it, you have nothing to sell.
Disclose what you are. In Texas this is not optional: Occupations Code 1101.0045 permits you to assign without a license only if you “disclose in writing the nature of the equitable interest to any seller or potential buyer” — and assigning without that disclosure is engaging in real estate brokerage. Oklahoma’s SB 1075 (effective November 1, 2025) goes further for residential deals, requiring written disclosure of your intent to assign at a higher price, a recommendation that the seller seek counsel, and a two-business-day cancellation right (Avenue Legal Group).

Disclose everywhere, regardless. A seller who learns from the closing table that you are assigning at a markup is a seller who cancels, complains, or sues.

Step 4 — Use the inspection period properly

The due diligence window is not a free option to think about it. Use it: walk the property, get a contractor’s number on the repairs, confirm the owner of record and any liens against the title. This is where the deals that would have blown up quietly die instead — which is the outcome you want.

Your earnest money is at risk from the moment the contingency lapses. Treat it like the real deposit it is.

Step 5 — Find the end buyer

You need a cash buyer who will close on your timeline and re-underwrite quickly. Build this list before you need it — our guide on how to find cash buyers pulls them from the same public records, by looking for who has been buying with cash.

Ask for proof of funds every time. A buyer who cannot show funds is a buyer who will renegotiate on day 27.

Step 6 — Assign, or double close

An illustrative assignment of contract showing assignor, assignee, purchase price, assignment fee, closing date and a disclosure acknowledgement

Assignment transfers your rights under the existing contract to the end buyer for a fee. It is one closing, and the fee is usually visible on the settlement statement.

Double closing means two back-to-back transactions — seller to you, you to end buyer. It costs a second set of closing fees and requires funding, but it keeps your spread private. Choose it when the spread is large enough that transparency would kill the deal, and check your state: Oklahoma’s rules were amended to reach wholesaling conduct broadly, and public marketing of an equitable interest there requires a license.

One warning: do not market a property you do not own to the general public. In several states that is brokerage.

Step 7 — Close, and get paid

The title company or closing attorney handles disbursement. Your assignment fee is paid at closing — not on signing, not on handshake. Until the deal funds, you have earned nothing.

An illustrative deal pipeline board with columns for lead, under contract, buyer found, assigned and closed

Then you do it again. The pipeline, not any single deal, is the business.

The three places it usually breaks

No end buyer. You now must close or breach. Build the buyer list first.
The repair estimate was fiction. The end buyer re-prices, the spread vanishes, and you renegotiate with a seller who no longer trusts you.
You did not disclose. The cheapest failure to avoid, and the one with statutory consequences.

Everything here is verified against primary sources, per our methodology. None of it is legal advice — wholesaling rules are state law, and several states changed them in 2025. Confirm yours.

Sources

Texas Occupations Code section 1101.0045 (written disclosure of equitable interest; accessed July 2026)
Oklahoma SB 1075, enrolled bill and Avenue Legal Group’s analysis (residential disclosures, cancellation right, public-marketing license; effective Nov 1, 2025; accessed July 2026)