How to Wholesale Real Estate: The Steps, the Assignment Fee and Why Ryan Pineda Quit
Ryan Pineda says wholesaling is “much easier than flipping a house.”
“You can just wholesale Which is far less risky and way quicker cash,” he says in his 2022 video “Make $10,000 In 30 Days”.
“Ten thousand dollars is a small wholesale fee for us,” he adds.
Small. Ten grand. Sure, Ryan.
Four years later, he shut his wholesaling business down.
Hmm.
Short, fair answer: wholesaling is easy to describe and hard to do. You put a house under contract and sell the contract. The hard part is finding the seller, and that’s where the money goes.
Why Most Real Estate Coaching Sucks
How to wholesale real estate, step by step
Ryan’s own channel puts it in one sentence: “you find a deal and get it under contract, but instead of buying it yourself, you sell it to another buyer who is willing to pay more than what your contract is for!”
One sentence. One exclamation point. Six steps.
So, wholesaling real estate for beginners, in order:
- Check your state’s rules first. Several states now require a license, a registration or written disclosures.
- Find a motivated seller. Someone who wants to sell fast, usually below market. This is the job. Everything else is paperwork.
- Get the house under contract at a price low enough to leave room for your fee.
- Find an end buyer, usually an investor, who’ll pay more.
- Assign the contract for a fee, or do a double close, which AmeriSave describes as “two separate transactions on same day.”
- Close, collect, start over. The next deal starts from zero.
Step 6 is the part the thumbnails crop out.
It’s a hamster wheel with a closing table.
What is an assignment fee?
It’s your spread. “The wholesaler makes money by assigning their interest at a higher price than they offered to pay the property owner,” the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors explains.
| Source | Assignment fee |
|---|---|
| Real Estate Bees survey, cited by AmeriSave | $13,000 average |
| Same survey, North Carolina and Georgia | Around $22,000 |
| Same survey, Arizona | Closer to $5,000 |
| Ryan Pineda, 2022 video | “over twenty five thousand dollars” average |
| Ryan Pineda, Wealthy University bundle page | “$20k on my average wholesale deal” |
His average has a better average than the national average.
The bundle page adds: “I don’t even need to spend a dime to do it.”
Not a dime. Just a team that, in his own words, closed “hundreds and hundreds of deals, not me.”
In Pennsylvania, PA Realtors says an assignment “is a taxable event.” Uncle Sam wants an assignment fee too.
Finding motivated sellers (and what the leads cost)
Wealthy Investor’s homepage names the problem: “Tired of Sweet-Talking Ice Cold Sellers And Battling Every Wholesaler In Town For Leads?”
Yes. Everybody is.
Ryan’s 2022 math on cold outreach: “if you talk to enough people one percent of them will say yes they want an offer.”
One percent. Of people who want an offer.
| Lead source | Price |
|---|---|
| MotivatedSellers.com, county-level leads | Start at $75 each |
| PropStream list plans | $99, $199 or $699 a month |
Now combine them. If those hundred conversations came from $75 leads, that’s $7,500 to find one person who’d like to hear a number.
$7,500 for a maybe. That’s a hell of a first date.
And MotivatedSellers.com says its leads go by real-time auction. So you’re bidding against the exact wholesalers you’re “battling.”
Calling and texting those leads has its own rules. Wealthy Investor’s terms bar violating “the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).” Homerun Offer, a company linked from Ryan’s site, faced a 2020 TCPA suit over an alleged 29 calls; Ryan wasn’t a defendant, and it settled. Details in what the court records show.
Wholesaling licensing laws now
The rules have changed fast:
- Pennsylvania: PA Realtors says anyone doing a wholesale transaction for themselves “must have a real estate license.”
- Oklahoma: a 2021 law requires wholesalers “to obtain a real estate license.”
- Illinois: assignable contracts “on 2 or more occasions in any 12-month period” count as a “pattern of business.”
- Connecticut: wholesalers must register with the Department of Consumer Protection starting July 1, 2026.
- Philadelphia: its own wholesaler license, $200 a year.
I’m not a lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice. Talk to a real estate attorney in your state before you sign or assign anything. Sources are in is wholesaling real estate legal.
Why Ryan Pineda stopped wholesaling (2026)
On his Wealthy Way podcast in October 2026: “for the last uh call it 3 years, it’s been mainly wholesale,” he said. But “the last two quarters this year in 2026 um have basically like broke even,” or lost, depending on the accounting. “Rates ain’t coming down.”
On the business itself: “There’s no enterprise value.”
The “far less risky” business, with no enterprise value. Cool cool cool.
To be fair: “I don’t think you can’t make money flipping or wholesaling,” he said.
Ten Gs in 30 days in 2022. Break even in 2026. That’s a fucking steep slide for “way quicker cash.”
More in why Ryan Pineda quit flipping.
Is wholesaling still worth it?
For some people in some markets, maybe. But look at the shape of it. Buy leads at auction. Talk to a hundred people to find one offer. Collect one fee. Start over.
Luke Van Der Veer, a guest on Ryan’s podcast, on wholesaling: “Fast money. It’s just it wasn’t recurring.”
Luke now rents websites to local businesses. When Ryan asked “how fast do you think I could get to a million dollars a year?” doing it, Luke said “I don’t know. Two years.”
“All right. I’m done. See you,” Ryan joked. Five days later he posted the shutdown episode. Comedians call that a callback.
Thinking about paying for coaching to learn this? Read is real estate coaching worth it first, and my full Ryan Pineda review.
Show Me What I'd Do Instead of Wholesaling
What I’d look at instead
Digital real estate. A website that ranks on Google for a local service, rented to a business that wants the calls.
No motivated seller. No contract to assign. No hamster wheel. The site keeps getting rented after the first month.
That’s the model I’d point you to, and I may earn money if you like it. You found this page on Google. Nobody had to cold call you.
The video shows how it works.
Q&A
- Q: How do you wholesale real estate?
- A: Get a property under contract from a motivated seller, find a buyer who'll pay more, and assign the contract for a fee. Check your state's laws before step one.
- Q: What is the average assignment fee?
- A: $13,000, per a Real Estate Bees survey cited by AmeriSave, with big regional gaps.
- Q: Do you need a license to wholesale houses?
- A: In a growing number of places, yes or close to it, including Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Philadelphia. State by state.
- Q: How much do motivated seller leads cost?
- A: MotivatedSellers.com says county-level leads start at $75 each. PropStream's list plans run $99 to $699 a month.
- Q: Why did Ryan Pineda stop wholesaling?
- A: He says his last two 2026 quarters broke even or lost and that "Rates ain't coming down." The full story.
- Q: What would you do instead of wholesaling houses?
- A: Something that pays monthly, not per deal: a website that ranks on Google and gets rented to a local business. Watch this short video.