The Real Cost of Wholesaling Real Estate (Most People Get This WRONG)

How Much Money Do You Need to Start Wholesaling Real Estate?

Can you really start wholesaling with little to no money… or is that just hype?

In this podcast Ebonie Beaco - Mortgage Strategist, breaks down the real numbers behind getting started in real estate wholesaling so you know exactly what to expect before you jump in. Whether you're brand new or trying to scale your deal flow, understanding your startup costs is the difference between spinning your wheels and closing deals.

We’re covering:

•  The minimum amount you need to get started 
•  What you can do with $0 vs a few hundred vs a few thousand dollars 
•  The tools and marketing strategies that actually generate deals 
•  Where most beginners waste money (and how to avoid it) 
•  How to build momentum even if you're starting from scratch 

The truth is… wholesaling is one of the lowest barrier entry points into real estate investing, but it’s still a marketing and lead generation business. If you don’t have leads, you don’t have deals.

🔥 Want to Generate Leads Like a Pro? (This is KEY)

If you’re serious about wholesaling, you NEED a system that brings deals to you consistently.

👉 Get your investor website here:
 https://carrot.com/?fpr=2775&fp_sid=assignor

Why use this?

•  Builds high-converting real estate investor websites 
•  Helps you rank on Google so motivated sellers find YOU 
•  Captures leads automatically 24/7 
•  Perfect for wholesalers, flippers, and buy-and-hold investors 
•  Saves you time instead of chasing deals manually 

👉 Bottom line: This is how you go from hustling for deals to attracting deals consistently

💡 Work with Me Directly
I help real estate investors, wholesalers, and agents structure deals, get financing, and scale their business the smart way.

🎯 Subscribe for Real Game
If you want real strategies, real deals, and no-fluff conversations about building wealth through real estate, hit that subscribe button.

Contact Ebonie Beaco  (NMLS ID: 2389954)
📞 Direct: 312-392-0664
Website: www.HomeLoansNetwork.com

And don’t forget—join me LIVE every Wednesday at 7pm CST on YouTube @HomeLoansNetwork for Wine Down Wednesdays to get real-time mortgage and real estate tips, ask questions, and stay ahead of the market.

Let’s get you approved and ready to buy with confidence.

The Real Estate Wholesale Deal Room Powered By Home Loans Network, we are always looking to partner with realtors, insurance agents, builders, developers, and real estate attorneys to interview and feature on the podcast. If you're a professional who wants to share your expertise, we’d love to collaborate with you. BOOK HERE

And to our listeners — your questions matter. We want to hear from you, feature your questions, and answer them on future episodes. Don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know what you’d like to learn more about!

📞 Call or Text: 312-392-0664
🌐 www.HomeLoansNetwork.com

👩‍💼 Ebonie Beaco – NMLS #2389954
🏢 Home Loans Network (NMLS #320841)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the real estate wholesale deal room where real deals get broken down, real strategies get exposed, and you have the opportunity to learn how to make money as a real estate wholesaler. Here with me, your mortgage strategist, Ebony B. Coe. I am a real estate investor and I'm mentor to over 14,000 plus real estate investors throughout the country. In this space that I have created, I'm not just going to talk about how to become a real estate wholesaler. I am going to talk about real life wholesaling, real, real, real life strategies, transactions, and how to actually structure deals in today's economy. Especially when there's a lot of competition out there. This is where the beginners come to learn the game, and experienced investors come to sharpen their real estate game, and the realtors come so they can build up their real estate knowledge when it comes to working with real estate investors. I am your what I consider your self-proclaimed uh marketing guru when it comes to real estate investing and wholesaling properties. So, with that being said, I want to go ahead and get started and talk about how much money do you need to start when it comes to wholesaling? Well, when it comes to wholesaling, you can start with very little money, um, you know, realistically, but some people need at least$500 to$3,000 to start, right? So let's say your only job right now at the present moment is maybe you have a regular nine to five job and it's paying you the bare minimum. Honestly, if you just took half of that paycheck, just half of that paycheck, I promise you, you you can potentially be okay. Now, some people use$500 to$3,000 to start, but let me tell you what that goes towards, right? So you're not spending money on unnecessary stuff just to get you started. Here's the thing when it comes to real estate wholesaling, you'll hear people say you can wholesale with no money. Typically, yes, but let's be real here, right? That I mean, unless you already had a network buildup already, that's really not true because even when it comes to securing the properties under contract, a lot of times that um these sellers, if you want to make yourself competitive, competitive, because there are a lot of people that's out here that's saying, Oh, we buy properties and we'll give you a cash offer. Sometimes that there's money that's gonna be um needed to secure that property, which is called earnest money. It might be something as simple as$500, something something as simple as a thousand. You don't want to go too high because the reality is, you know, sometimes you can lose this earnest money, so that's why it's important to make sure that you have the the right and the correct due diligence period in your contract, such as five days, seven days, 14 days. But as a wholesaler, I would suggest 14 days because they give you 14 days for you to BS and find you a real estate investor for this particular property. Now, the other thing is if you don't have money, you can get it done, but it's gonna be slow, it's gonna be hard for you to try to get this done, it's gonna be very inconsistent. Now, because see, when it comes to wholesaling, I need you to understand wholesaling is really not about real estate. It's not, that's not really a business, it's really a marketing business, and marketing usually costs money here. No matter how you look at it, this is where what really makes up that$500 to$3,000 that I'm talking about. Because remember, you still want to go ahead and put your earnest money in there. So let's just say your earnest money is$500 to$1,000. Let's let's just say for the sake of this. Now, the reality is driving for dollars that's zero, but that's still gas, gas has one up, so you still gotta drive, and it's gonna cost you gas to drive around in certain neighborhoods, cold calling and texting, depending upon the um auto reply and response and AI program that you have, which I have resources for that, that could be a hundred to five hundred dollars a month. Listed, um, like get you a motivated seller's list that could be a hundred to a thousand dollars. Um, I have the resource for that. Direct mail, five hundred to two thousand dollars. It just really depends upon what your budget is, and as long as you know what your budget is, you can make it happen, but you have to have a plan, and that plan is your budget, okay? This is where most of your budget honestly is gonna go when it comes to, like I said, the marketing. The marketing plays the big portion of it now. Earnest money can be anywhere from you're gonna have people say, Oh, you can do 10$10. You don't embarrass yourself, please don't do that. But your earnest money is gonna be anything from$500 and an up, all right? Um, but because let's just say for the sake of this, we want your budget to stay within the$3,000 range, that earnest money needs to come up out of there. So, with that being said, you want to make sure that your earnest money tries not to exceed$500 to$1,000, right? It just really depends upon the deal because sometimes it can be more. This usually often is not refundable. So, with that being said, when you secure your end buyer, you still gonna make sure that they put earnest money up too. But that's why I also say it's important to have that due diligence period, whereas you're saying, okay, 7 to 14 or 14 business days is the due diligence, due diligence period, but you can always get extended when it comes to earnest money. You can say, I'll have it to you within seven days. Let me do XYZ. You can say that they give you seven days for you to find an in buyer who has that earnest money to put up because sometimes the earnest money is not about you, it's about the seller saying, I want um you to put something down to show that okay, you truly have some skin in the game when it comes to this property. Just know when it comes to the earnest money, it's usually often um refundable, and it also can be covered by your in buyer, so which is your signer or the person you're assigning the property to. Sometimes it's not refundable. That's why it says it's important to make sure that you have the correct due diligence period in your contract. It could be seven days, but for me, when it comes to wholesaling, because you have to look for an end buyer, just because you think you have one now does not necessarily mean that they will want that property. So 14 days give you a good amount of time for you to have an end buyer, an assignor for that property because you're the assignee about to assign that property over. Okay, there are going to be different basic tools that you are going to need to invest in monthly, such as CRM spreadsheets, which can be anywhere from free to$50 a month. There's a phone system,$20 to$100 a month. Skip tracing software that can be anywhere from 10 cent to 30 cents a lead. All of these different tools, I have the resources for you. Ask me, send me a message. I got you. When it comes to the website, make sure that you have a powerful, powerful website. I have those tools for you too. And why I say that's important is because every website is not the same. Getting a GoDaddy website for what you're trying to do is not a good idea. Getting a Wix website for what you're trying to do or Shopify, it's not a good idea. It's not meant for this. You need a lead capture website. You need a not just a lead capture website, but a website that makes it very easy for you to be found online organically, naturally, SEO friendly. You need that, okay? So the other thing too is something that's like I said, um, you want your website to be powerful. You doing paid ads is okay initial beginning, but the longer you do this and you have a good website, your website is going to be your lead capture page. Every single page is going to um get indexed organically online, which means people can find you just with simple stroke strokes of keywords, looking for um wholesale properties, cheap properties for sale. And guess what? You want to come up, okay? Now there's virtual assistants you can pay for. Um I have information for that. You don't necessarily need it, but if you get the right AI virtual assistant, guess what? They can do almost everything for you, and you can come off as a huge company because remember, hint hint, you need to get a what LLC, right? So when you're wholesale built business, you're gonna have an LLC, you're gonna have your virtual assistant answer the phone and your LLC name. Hi, this is Ebony Biko LLC or Ebony Biko um real estate investors, please leave your name and number, or how can I help you today? They at and they ask the questions, and that person is calling, will turn around and say um what they're looking for, and your AI um virtual assistant is going to answer all the questions for you because you're gonna teach it. If you need assistance, that's what I'm available for. Now, realistic scenarios, bare minimum, bare bare minimum to start your business is$300 because this could this is gonna help you with driving for dollars, manual outreach, free twos. Um, you know, it's gonna take more time, it's gonna take more grinding, it's gonna be slow results, but it will still work, okay? Now, smart marketing budget, realistically,$500 to$1,500. It's gonna give you a basic list, skip tracing, cold calling, and/or text, a simple system. It's gonna be faster results, but more consistent leads. Now, if you really want to go there with, like, let's say a true business mode, beast mode,$2,000,$5,000 to start with. And let me tell you what that's gonna consider. And I don't mean you pay me, not at all. These are different tools as a whole and marketing platforms as a whole that you need to start your wholesale business for real estate investors. You need to be able to um market in multiple marketing channels, have different systems in places, have um your have your your marketing business to the point whereas it is um on autopilot for you. Everything is automatically be done being done in the back. Have a consistent deal flow, and at the end of the day, more scalable, more predictable. Now, here's the truth: what most people don't say. You don't fail in wholesaling because of money, right? You fail because of lack of consistency and skill. What you need is to follow up. This is huge. You have to follow up. Had a CRM talking to sellers confidently, like let them know, like, okay, I got you, like I know the market, I know this, I have investors, this is what I do. You know, build a relationship with them. Building that buyer relationship is everything. Some of the best wholesalers start with almost no money, but a lot of consistency. And most people spend$5,000 plus dollars. You can actually virtual wholesale. I have classes and courses on that, and I have free podcasts on that, right? I love wholesaling and I love virtual. Um, but understand when you don't know how the deal works, that deal is not gonna close because you as a wholesaler don't know everything, right? And not just don't know everything, you really don't know where to start from because so many different people are telling you so many different things from so many different directions. So the bottom line is this you can actually start wholesaling with a little money, right? But expect it to um grow. Like, you need to be able to have some skin in the game. So expect to invest at least a few hundred to a few thousand dollars if you want real traction. Because at the end of the day, wholesaling is not a no-money business. It's not nothing is a no-money business if you want to know the truth. I mean, sounds horrible to say, but even if you're selling yourself, I mean, that's gonna cost money because you still need to clean up yourself up and make yourself attractable. Tractable, did I say that right? Attractive, okay. You need to still make yourself attractive in order for somebody to be interested in you to sell whatever you got to freaking sell. So, not trying to sound harsh and not trying to um shame nobody, but everything costs money. That's something that you need to understand. Wholesaling is a low barrier to entry marketing business. You are not a real estate company, you are a real estate marketing company. That is what I need you to remember. If you can remember that, you I promise you, you will make money as a real estate wholesaler. But one of the most important things is um consistency. Your consistency is everything when it comes to this business. You are going to be your best salesperson, but it is up to you to be that best salesperson. So, with that being said, if you are real serious about learning how to wholesale or you want to get started with real estate investors and wholesalers at a higher level, make sure you subscribe, stay tap in, and don't just listen, apply the knowledge that I'm gonna teach you. And if you're ready to actually take the next action, structure deals, get funding lined up, which I can help you with that, or build real relationships in this space. Go ahead and connect with me directly and visit my website at www.homeloansnetwork.com or schedule your one-on-one.