Recently, I was visiting family in Brockport, NY, where I grew up, and caught up with a cousin at The Rooster. He told me he was interested in real estate investing, but admitted he didn’t know much about how to fix up houses to sell. So, he thought there was no chance. This gave me an excuse to point out at the Erie Canal and talk about how no one thought it was possible to link the Lakes to the Hudson. 

The point? There is always a way to do things. If you want to be a real estate investor in New York without rehabbing, you can get into wholesaling. 

Wholesaling real estate in NY is when you buy a property and quickly sell it to another investor who will do the fix-and-flip. You make a ‘finders fee’ off the sale and they get a house from a motivated seller. It’s a win for everyone. But, you have to be able to find buyers. 

Finding buyers for wholesaling real estate in Upstate New York takes a lot of work, the right connections, and the right resources. It can be done, and you have the potential to be successful—if you have a goal and a plan. 

The Erie Canal took a lot of work, too. 

The Importance of Finding Buyers For Your Wholesaling Business

Wholesaling is sort of an odd business. You need to have buyers before you actually have a product. Because once you have a product—in this case, a house—you want to sell it as soon as possible. 

In wholesaling, sitting on a property is business failure. You don’t want to wait for the market to bounce up—that could take years. All you are doing when sitting on it is paying taxes and insurance. Like most states, New York has a wide range of property tax rates, from surprisingly low in the city (around 0.9%) to close to 2.5% in counties like Suffolk. Buffalo, at 1.88%, is right at the state’s average. 

But, no matter where you are in New York, and no matter what you are paying for property taxes, it’s too much. Wholesaling operates on tight margins. Anything that eats into that hurts your business. 

So, you need to be able to sell the house quickly. The first rule of wholesaling is to create a strong network of buyers so that when you have a property, you can turn around and sell it. This network will be other investors who will do the fixing part of the fix-and-flip. 

How do you build this network of buyers for your wholesaling real estate in NY? There are a few ways. 

How To Find Buyers For Wholesaling Real Estate in NY

When looking at networks, there are a few considerations. Do you benefit from this network? Are the buyers serious? Is it worth your time and sometimes your expenses? Because you don’t ever want to waste time. 

Here are a few ways to find buyers that I have used, with one way that stands head-and-shoulders above for me. 

1. NY Real Estate Investor Association 

The New York REIA has close to 20,000 members throughout New York State. That’s a lot of people, which makes it maybe the largest single network in the state. Of course, not everyone is serious. Not everyone is active. And not everyone is near you. 

2. Local real estate Meetups

Needless to say, there are hundreds of local real estate groups in New York. After all, people in the area know the market better, a truism whether you’re in the Bronx or near the border. These groups are people who understand the prices in the region, and who you can probably work with pretty easily. Of course, there is also a lot more direct competition in these networks among investors scouting the same grounds. 

3. Advertise in online forums 

There are a lot of real estate online forums in New York, filled with people looking to buy. These can be great marketplaces since there is no shortage of interest. The only downside is that you will get a lot of interest, and not everyone is actually ready to buy. When you are online, it is a lot easier to kick the tires a little bit. You don’t want to sift through and respond to dozens of inquiries from people who might not ultimately buy. 

4. NY-based Facebook Groups

I started counting how many Facebook groups there are for real estate investors in New York but realized it was like counting raindrops during a storm. They’re everywhere. Some are very active, some mostly fallow. You don’t know if you are going to get a bite or not. 

5. NY Craigslist 

There are some good aspects of Craigslist but I’ve never felt selling real estate was one of them. There’s too much potential for scammers and other people who aren’t really in this business to win. The cost is usually pretty low, though, so if you feel you can get it done there it doesn’t always hurt. 

So those are five potential ways to find buyers for wholesaling real estate in New York. Depending on your time, it doesn’t hurt to be in any of these. But if you want to start your wholesaling business on the right foot, there’s one that I’ve found to be the best.

The Best Way To Find Buyers For Wholesaling Real Estate in New York

I’ve always enjoyed networking, whether in person or online. It’s a cool way to meet people, to learn, and to gab about the business. But I didn’t ever really get my wholesaling career launched until I became an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchisee. Doing so allowed me to tap into a truly superpowered network of buyers. 

See, HomeVestors® franchisees have a few different ways to reach buyers. We have local ad councils that connect me with buyers right in my area, and we also have DealVestors®, a nationwide website where I can list my property. 

But the most important thing is that the potential buyers are serious people. These are some of the most ambitious and knowledgeable professionals in the state. They can look at a house and see it 6 months down the road after rehabbing it. They are ready to buy. 

It means I have a canal to buyers. There’s nothing in the way of turning around my wholesale deal. From Buffalo to Staten Island, and from the Adirondacks to the Finger Lakes, it’s the best way to supercharge your business. 

If you’re interested in getting connected to serious buyers for wholesaling real estate in New York, request information today. 

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.