The Difference Between a Real Estate Agent, Whole Seller, and Home Buyer/Investor

Real Estate Agent
A real estate agent is responsible for using their knowledge of local real estate markets to help individuals buy, sell or rent residential or commercial properties. Their duties include meeting with their clients to discuss their ideal property requirements and price points, overseeing open-houses for sellers and showing clients properties that align with their expectations.

Real estate agents require property showings, which means you must keep the house clean at all times, be ready to leave at last minute request for showings, and weekends away from your home. For a family this can be the biggest headache of it all. Most people are looking at homes on their days off and after work—meaning after 5pm and on weekends, which is when your family is trying to relax or unwind from a hard day’s work.

They also require you to pay commissions or fees. They get an average 6-7% (combined listing agent and selling agent) of the total sale price of your home. For example, if you are selling a $200,000.00 home, you would pay $12-14k in commissions.

Whole Seller/Whole Selling
A whole seller is a merchant who sells chiefly to retailers, other merchants, or industrial, institutional, and commercial users mainly for resale. They are basically a middleman trying to get their fee just for being part of the deal.

Most whole sellers get owners to sign a contract that gives them a rough amount of time to either buy or sell the property for the owner, promising no fees. The whole seller then contacts people they may or may not know to sell that “contract.” If they can’t sell it within the allotted time frame then they lose the contract, also known as “first right to sell.”

We like to look at this like a pyramid scheme because we have seen contracts assigned to others as many as 4-5 people deep. The way it can work is that Whole-Seller A sells this contract to Whole-Seller B for $2,000.00, then Whole-Seller C buys it for $4,000.00, and so on. In the end, the owner (you!) still has the property when the contract deadline is up.

Yes, with a whole seller you don’t have showings and you don’t pay commissions like you do with real estate agents. But just think about this for a minute… Who would buy a property without seeing it at all or even seeing the contract from all of these whole sellers?? That is right… most of the time, the whole sellers won’t let the buyer see the contract that they have to agree to or inspect the home. It is a hard sell for a buyer.

Now there are some honest whole sellers out there, but most of them are actually a home buyer/investor, or become one.

Home Buyer/Investor
A home buyer or investor is someone that actually buys the home or property. You don’t have to worry about showing the home to others, costly commissions or fees, a waiting time frame, or repairs.

We come out once to meet you, do our inspection, talk about solutions to help your situation, and make an offer onsite or within days of meeting. Offers are all cash and fast closing. No obligations or waiting for others to buy, no marketing, etc. One and done dealing. Doesn’t that sound like the best way to sell?