How To Stay BROKE As A Real Estate Wholesaler (DON'T DO THIS)!

Do you want to know the fastest way to stay broke as a real estate wholesaler? It's actually very easy, and I'm going to show you how. All you have to do is chase every opportunity that pops in your inbox like it's your golden ticket. Just because you get pitched an opportunity that looks like an exciting, big money-making deal does not mean that you should get involved with it.

I'm not trying to be rude or dissuade you from going after deals. I'm here to give some real talk. As the co-founder and COO at Real Estate Skills, where we help people start and grow profitable real estate businesses, I talk to investors all over the country regularly. I hear so many new wholesalers who I can immediately tell are brand new, just by the way they carry themselves.

These wholesalers are pitching deals worth tens of millions of dollars—like hotel deals, large apartment complexes, or vast acreages of land—as if they are gold mines. The reality is, many of these wholesalers have no idea what they have and don't understand why the deal even makes sense as an investment. It’s not that the deals are inherently bad; some are actually decent opportunities. But without understanding what makes a deal good, they can’t communicate anything beyond what they’ve heard from a seller, another wholesaler, or a broker.

This problem is especially prevalent in the JV culture, where new wholesalers focus on daisy-chaining deals from other wholesalers. If that’s your main strategy, it’s a poor approach and frankly kind of lazy. While you can make money this way, if you’re serious about this business, you’re capable of so much more. You can provide more value in the real estate ecosystem and actually make money.

Here are three steps that can guarantee you stay broke as a wholesaler and waste a ton of time along the way.

• Step 1: Ignore Your Game Plan
• Step 2: Talk to Every Seller Who Has a Pulse
• Step 3: Don’t Waste Months on the Wrong Deal
• Final Advice

Step 1: Ignore Your Game Plan

If you’re in the business of buying and selling single-family homes, don’t try to wholesale commercial buildings that you don’t know how to underwrite or get under contract. Maybe someone sent you a property via email or a call—don’t drop everything to chase it. If your knowledge is in single-family homes, stay in that lane.

Value your time like a high-earning CEO. Time wasted is opportunity cost. Once you gain exposure to an asset class and get some experience operating or underwriting those deals, you’ll have more success in other types of real estate.

Many people sign up for real estate programs or mentorship but don’t stick to the plan. At Real Estate Skills, our Pro Wholesaler VIP program teaches acquisitions step by step. Many students close deals within 30–60 days because they follow the system, attend coaching calls, and ask for deal reviews.

However, students who ignore the process, chase shiny objects, and stray off the straight path often waste time. This might look like endlessly driving neighborhoods to make lists of distressed properties (“driving for dollars”) or hopping between strategies like MLS offers, creative finance, co-living, and midterm rentals. This dopamine-driven behavior wastes energy and prevents consistent success.

I want the best for you. Learn from my mistakes, understand the traps, and don’t fall for the get-rich-quick mindset. Focus on a strategy and stick with it.

Real-Life Student Example: Amy’s Misguided Deal

One of my students, Amy, reached out with what she thought was an amazing deal. She submitted it through our Cash Buyer Concierge program, which helps students bring deals under contract and get them sold. Amy had barely started our program and wasn’t following our advice, attending coaching calls, or contributing to our community.

The deal was a 36-unit student housing complex in a small town in Georgia. The seller had bought it in 2017, renovated it over five years, and wanted to exit with their desired return. Amy thought there was a huge profit spread because the property was listed at $5.2 million, and she could buy it for $3.9 million via a broker.

Upon analyzing the deal, the net operating income showed a 6% cap rate, which was not very exciting for that market. Amy wasn’t even active in that market or specializing in apartments. She was chasing a large deal without experience or a focused strategy.

Why Experience and Focus Matter in Large Deals

Large deals, especially niche ones like student housing, require specialized buyers who understand operations. Not every investor is interested in these assets. Amy’s perceived urgency for the deal was manufactured—the property had been on the market for three years.

The lesson: stay focused on your specific criteria. Investors are pitched deals constantly. If it’s not in your buy box—asset class, location, price point, return profile, risk profile—say no. Focused investors make money faster and more efficiently.

When I started in acquisitions, I chased a deal in Corpus Christi, Texas, a waterfront resort development raising $7 million. My cash buyers didn’t invest in resorts, yet I was chasing it, thinking it was my golden ticket. In the end, the deal went nowhere. Focus on the deals your buyers actually want to avoid wasting time.

Personal Story: Chasing a Bad Deal in Corpus Christi

Here’s a story from one of my students, Amy. She brought a 36-unit student housing complex deal in Georgia to us, thinking it was an amazing opportunity. The property was listed at $5.2 million, but she could buy it for $3.9 million. She assumed there was a massive profit spread.

However, she wasn’t in that market, she wasn’t positioned as an apartment investor, and she didn’t understand the financials. When I calculated the cap rate, it was around 6%—not very exciting for that small market.

This taught her a valuable lesson: chasing deals outside of your experience or market can waste months of your life. My own experience in Corpus Christi chasing a $7 million resort development with no knowledge of underwriting or local conditions taught me the same lesson: focus on deals that match your buyers’ needs and your experience.

Step 2: Talk to Every Seller Who Has a Pulse

Step two is to avoid wasting time on every motivated seller you find. Just because someone wants to sell doesn’t mean it’s a good deal for you or your buyers.

In our Pro Wholesaler program, we teach starting with the exit in mind—your cash buyer. If your cash buyer is a fix-and-flipper, you need to know:

• What types of deals they buy
• Where they buy them
• How they fund deals
• Their desired profit
• Their expected timeline

Without this clarity, you risk wasting your time and the seller’s. Stay laser-focused on your buyers’ criteria and avoid shiny object syndrome. Switching asset classes, markets, or strategies without focus leads to paralysis, wasted energy, and missed opportunities.

Why Buyer Criteria Matters

To make a good wholesale deal, you need to know exactly what to offer and at what price. Without this knowledge, you risk locking up properties at too high a price or relying on rough, back-of-the-napkin calculations like the 70% rule, which can easily waste your time if sellers reject low offers.

To avoid this trap, you must understand your buyers’ investment criteria. Ask yourself:

• What types of properties do they buy?
• Where do they buy them?
• What price points and profit margins are they targeting?
• How quickly do they want to close?

Get laser-focused on these criteria and stick with them. If you haven’t established them yet, start there—start with the end in mind.

Shiny object syndrome is a major risk in wholesaling. It happens when you jump from single-family homes to commercial deals, land, mobile homes, or retail centers—or when you constantly switch markets thinking better deals exist elsewhere. This inconsistency leads to wasted energy, paralysis, and confusion.

Chasing deals outside your experience zone is another common trap. If you don’t know how to approach or close a deal, pursuing it will likely waste time and resources. Energy is everything in wholesaling, so focus it on deals you are prepared to execute. This is how you close deals, generate revenue, and avoid burning out before achieving success.

Step 3: Don’t Waste Months on the Wrong Deal

The third step of how to stay broke as a real estate wholesaler is wasting months on deals you probably shouldn’t have pursued in the first place. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone—but it’s also why many new wholesalers get stuck.

The way out is to circle back to your blueprint:

• Do you have a step-by-step process that you know works if you follow it?
• Focus only on deals you can realistically close, within your experience and capabilities.
• Don’t chase opportunities that look good on the surface but are outside your scope—this wastes time, energy, and momentum.

Avoid spending all your time on one deal that’s unlikely to close. This is a major reason new wholesalers burn out before cashing their first check. Stick to a process and work deals that fit your skill set and strategy.

Final Advice

Here are my parting words of advice to save you years of trial and error and help you become a pro:

Stay focused. Follow a proven process and don’t get distracted by the noise. Ignore the “get rich quick” promises and stick with the strategy until you succeed. Consistency is everything.

Never quit. The only way to fail in real estate is to quit. If you keep going, you will succeed.

Stay in your lane. Choose your focus, stick with it, and build your reps. Success comes from doing what works repeatedly, not chasing every shiny opportunity.

Know what you can close. Push yourself, but don’t pursue deals you have no experience or ability to close. Being busy doesn’t equal being productive—only revenue-generating activity counts.

Focus on high-value actions. Submitting strategic offers to motivated sellers and having cash buyers ready is where the real money is. Avoid wasting time on busy work like random cold calls, door knocking, or bandit signs with no strategy.

Learn from tough love. Success in wholesaling comes from focus, persistence, and strategic action. Energy is precious—spend it wisely on activities that actually produce results.

Following these principles will allow you to scale efficiently, avoid burnout, and achieve long-term success. Keep your process simple, stay disciplined, and your results will follow.

*Disclosure: Real Estate Skills is not a law firm, and the information contained here does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney before making any legal conclusions. The information presented here is educational in nature. All investments involve risks, and the past performance of an investment, industry, sector, and/or market does not guarantee future returns or results. Investors are responsible for any investment decision they make. Such decisions should be based on an evaluation of their financial situation, investment objectives, risk tolerance, and liquidity needs.