Is Wholesaling Real Estate Still Profitable in 2026?
In this video Nathan Payne explains why real‑estate wholesaling remains a lucrative, low‑risk path in 2026 and how it can fund a location‑independent lifestyle. He begins by describing current market dynamics—rising interest rates, increasing foreclosures, and a slowdown in MLS activity—that create a surge of distressed sellers willing to sell at discount. He argues that despite new legislation, wholesalers can still close deals using trusts, direct assignments, or other structures, and notes that many inexperienced wholesalers are exiting, reducing competition. Payne then compares wholesaling to flipping, rental ownership, and being a real‑estate agent, emphasizing that wholesalers avoid the capital outlay, renovation risk, tenant management, and licensing burdens of those alternatives, while retaining full schedule control. He outlines how newcomers can start with little or no money by cold‑calling, door‑knocking, networking, joint ventures, and leveraging credit cards, while acknowledging that having some capital accelerates lead acquisition and mentorship access. He shares his own earnings—$5k on the first deal, $19k on the second, $96k in six months, and later six‑figure fees—while warning that excessive marketing spend without a solid sales process can lead to debt. Finally, Payne describes how wholesaling has allowed him to relocate from Georgia to a farm in Canada, work from anywhere (including future trips to Colombia), and spend more time with family, positioning wholesaling as a vehicle for freedom rather than pure wealth. Throughout, he promotes his “Painless Flipping Apprenticeship” as a hands‑on shortcut for aspiring wholesalers.
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Wholesaling real estate has changed my life. It's given me the ability to work wherever I want, whenever I want, and run my whole business from my laptop. It's even enabled me to move out of the country to Canada where I can live on a farm with my family. And if you're getting started in real estate, you're probably wondering, well, why is right now the time to get started in wholesaling real estate? Is wholesaling even legit? Can I get started with $0? Is it as easy as they say it is? What makes wholesaling better than flipping real estate, fixing, rehabbing, or owning rentals? In the next couple minutes, I'm going to be breaking down for you 5 powerful reasons why you should be getting into wholesaling real estate ASAP, especially if you want the life where you can be your own boss, you can create the freedom you want, and you can run your business on your own terms. I'm Nathan Payne. I've wholesaled millions of dollars in real estate, and I've helped hundreds of other wholesalers do the same. So let's dive right in. So let's start with the big question: why should you start wholesaling ASAP? There's a lot of different reasons, but we're going to start with this one: the market is shifting. Interest rates are rising. A lot of people aren't able to make their mortgage payments. Pre-foreclosures are going up. The market is kind of stale for a lot of people on the MLS. So where do they turn when they can't sell their properties on the MLS? They're willing to sell them more at a discount to get it done. And no matter what economy we have, people are going to continue to buy real estate at discounted prices. So whether or not there's a great market going on and it's a buyer's market or if it's a seller's market, it doesn't matter. Real estate wholesaling will always exist because you're always finding discounted properties and investors are always going best. So with more and more people defaulting, with more and more people getting behind on their payments and credit card debt, they're going to be needing to sell their properties, and we can be there to help them know that they have options to sell their house fast instead of just listing on the MLS and hoping and praying someone will buy it. So with people being behind on their payments, there's going to be more opportunities for you to find and work with people that you can buy their houses for cash and wholesale their properties. There's less competition than ever now with a lot of the legislation coming out that's outlawing wholesaling or putting restrictions on it. A lot of the wholesalers that don't know what they're doing are leaving industry, making it so there's more opportunities for us to do deals. Now, I've been wholesaling for 7 years, and I know no matter what legislation comes out, we're going to be able to always do deals because there's always ways to get around it. You can sell properties in a trust, you can get paid outside of close, you don't have to assign a property to get paid, you can get paid directly from the flipper that you give it to. There's just a lot of different ways. So if you're concerned with legislation and the rules cutting you out or not letting you wholesale, there's always going to be ways to do it. Okay. So don't worry about that, but there are wholesalers that don't know and they've left the industry, so there's less competition. If you want to get into real estate but you've been waiting, waiting only delays your success. So if you want to get into this, I would get into it right now because there's so many different opportunities that are arising right now, and right now is the best time to get started. So if you've been wanting to get into real estate but you don't know exactly where to start, you want someone to hold your hand, that's exactly what I do in my Painless Flipping Apprenticeship. You can learn more at the link below, so check it out. Next, why would you choose wholesaling over being a real estate agent, fixing and flipping properties, or owning rentals? The risk that wholesalers have is a lot, lot less. They don't take on buying the property. They don't have to own the house. They don't have to fix it up like a rehabber and put all that money into the property and hope that they'll be able to sell the property for a profit. Now, flipping makes good money, but also there's a giant risk. I was flipping properties in 2022, '23 when the interest rates increased. And I freaking got hosed. I had a couple of properties that I had bought. I bought them for like, let's just say $500,000. And when the interest rates went up, they dropped by like $100,000. So I ended up owing and losing like hundreds of thousands of dollars that I've had to pay back, which is fine because I know how to get out of debt and I've used wholesaling to get out of debt. But anyway, there's a giant risk when you flip. You can make a lot of money, but you can lose a lot of money and you can talk to any rehabber. I would say 99% of rehabbers are going to be honest with you and tell you, yes, I've lost money on flips because that's just how it is. You don't know what you're getting into, and sometimes you feel like you're buying it at a good deal, but you're not. So the risk of wholesaling compared to rehabbing and fixing and flipping yourself is there's a lot less risk. The best part that I like about real estate wholesaling is you're your own boss. You get to control your schedule. You can do it from your laptop. You can do it remotely. You don't even have to live in the city or the area where you wholesale real estate. I live in Canada right now. Outside is a farm. There's corn, and I just look over tons of fields of grass, and I just love it. I love being out here in a remote rural area where I can still do deals anywhere in the United States. So that is why I love wholesaling compared to fix and flipping, because you can fix and flip remotely too, but it's a lot more difficult in my opinion than if you were just to wholesale a property that you find. Another thing I like about wholesaling compared to rehabbing is you don't need permits and you don't need to invest all that capital into a property that you might not know if you're going to get the money out of. Another thing is you don't need to do any manual labor. I don't mind working. I don't mind working with my hands. Like I said, I live on a farm, but I'm grateful that my job doesn't require it as a wholesaler. Now, when it comes to owning rentals and is wholesaling better than rentals, I think it's better mainly because if you own a rental, it is a lot of work. Most people are like, oh no, I'm just going to own rentals and it's passive income. Look, there's nothing less passive than owning a rental that you're managing yourself. Now you can hire it out, right? You can hire the property management, but a lot of the time those problems people are calling you late at night about their toilets, there's issues, one furnace breaking, or any— if the tenants break, like mess up your carpet, all that cash flow that you had for that year is gone, right? You're gonna keep the cash flow, but you're betting on appreciation. With wholesaling, you make the money and then you're on to the next one. Now, I've had rentals, and the thing is, it's nice, but for me, I'd have to worry about it, I'd have to think about it. I'd rather just make my money and be done and not have to think about it. So for me, I like wholesaling because I again, less stress, less headaches, less thinking about it versus owning some rentals. Now, being a wholesaler is better than being a real estate agent because I never really wanted to show properties. I don't want to work on someone else's time because as a real estate agent, you need to work on the weekends. You have people that want to see houses at night. I want to work my own schedule, and I want to be free and not have people that are like, hey, can you show me this? So that's just for me, the lifestyle that I wanted. Being a real estate agent is not something that I wanted to do, and to have lifestyle. So that's why I think wholesaling is better. You have to be licensed as an agent. Intense. And with AI coming, I honestly think real estate agents are going to be obsolete in a little bit, where people aren't even going to need a real estate agent to list their home. Because I list my properties on the MLS for $100 using websites where it's flat fee listing services. I don't need a real estate agent, and most people don't, in my opinion. So no offense and no hate on real estate agents, but I just think with technology and AI, it's not going to be a service that's really needed, or they're not going to be paying such fat giant fees and commissions for people to list their homes because it's pretty dang easy to do it. I've done it a lot. So if you've been wanting to get into wholesaling, you don't want to waste your time, your energy, or money trying to figure out yourself, just check out the link below. Now let's tackle one of the biggest questions and fears people have. Can you really get into this business with $0? Now guys, I got started in this business with $0. When I told my wife I wanted to get into wholesaling, she said, go ahead, but just, you're gonna have to figure it out. We're not going to spend any of our money for you to do it. So I had to go knock doors, cold call, and I networked, and I was able to get a deal. Now, if you're interested in knowing how I would go and get a deal right now with $0, if I had to start over, I have another video that breaks down exactly what I would do and explain like step by step. But basically, you can get into this business with little to no money. You can leverage credit cards like I explained. You can go knock doors, you can network, you can JV. There's a lot of different ways to get in this business, but you don't need money. Now, having money makes this business a lot easier because you're able to get leads and you're able to expedite and get coaching if you need help or mentorship. You're able to know what leads to buy. And you're able to generate more opportunities. But yes, you can do this business with no money, but it's a lot easier if you have some capital to start. That's why I tell people, if you want to get into this business and succeed quicker without having to mess around and make all the mistakes yourself, you should join a mentorship or apprenticeship like I have. So if you're interested, check out the link below. So you probably want to know what kind of money are we actually talking about with wholesaling? How much can you actually make? Well, on my first deal, I made $5,000. And then on my second deal, I made $19,000. And as I keep going, it was about $96,000 I made in my first 6 months of wholesaling. Now, that was a couple years ago, and some people have done better, some people have done worse, but you can make good money in wholesaling. One of my biggest deals was $86,000, and another one I made $94,000. So there's big spreads you can make with wholesaling, okay? So there's a lot of money you can make, but also you can make $1,000 on a wholesale fee, $3,000. So the money is there. You just need to know how to negotiate and you need to know how to find those right opportunities, how to work with sellers to have the right sales process. But the money is there. Now, where the money cannot be there and where you can waste money is if you spend too much money on marketing and you don't know how to close and you're just— that marketing spend keeps piling up and you're not able to close and you start going into debt, right? Or you're not able to pay that off. So that is the con with wholesaling is if you go in and you don't know what you're doing, you can spend yourself into oblivion. In, you can spin yourself into debt, which I did when I first started. I just was like throwing as much marketing at the wall thinking that that was the problem. I was targeting the wrong people. I was doing the wrong marketing channels. My sales process wasn't that good. But now with time, I've dialed it in and I know exactly what marketing to go for and the sales process that's going to convert the most. But anyway, yes, you can make a lot of money wholesaling. You can make millions. I've done millions of dollars in wholesaling. But the thing is, it just really depends on how good you are at the sales process and negotiating. All right. And how consistent you can be. If you're interested in learning more about how you can close big deals like that or even get help doing it, just check out the link below. And finally, how did wholesaling change my life personally? Well guys, right now I live in Canada. I live in a completely different country. I was born in the United States, I grew up in Georgia, but now I live in Toronto, in the Toronto area in Ontario, Canada. How am I able to do that? How am I able to work from a different country and still wholesale real estate? Because I do it all remotely from my computer. So this has changed my life because it's enabled me to build the life I wanted. I've always wanted to live on a farm with my family in a rural area where we can have fields, we can have farm animals, we can grow our own food, we can be self-sufficient, self-sustaining. That's what I wanted. A lot of people want the Ferraris, they want to live in the high-rise in the city. For me, I wanted the quiet life, the simple life, to live out and look over the fields and just breathe some fresh air. That's what I wanted. And I love the green. I look out and I see the green fields and pastures and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so relaxing. I love it. I've lived in the city my whole life and it's fine. I can live anywhere and I'm grateful for anywhere I live in the world, but this has just been so amazing to live out here by her family, my wife's family, and it's just such a blessing that I can do it all remotely from my computer and I can teach people how to do it as well. It's been great having also the freedom and being my own boss. I work whenever I want and like I said, wherever I want. I'm about to go on a trip to Colombia right now later tonight and I'm going to be able to work from there. Now I'm going to try not to work. I actually like working, but I can work there if I need to. There's people that I've hired, people that live in Colombia that worked for me as virtual assistants or closers. And the thing is, I can do it from there too. So this job is amazing. It's changed my life because I can do it from anywhere in the world. And it's absolutely such a blessing that sometimes I overlook and I take for granted. But wholesaling has changed my life because I'm my own boss, and that's always what I wanted. I didn't want to have to clock in and answer to other people. Not that because it's like I think I'm better than anyone, but it's just like I wanted to be able to be free and freedom of time. Of having time with my family is the most important thing to me. I don't really care about money. I just happen to get into an industry that gives you money and you can make a lot, but I care more about my family and spending time with them. So right now, after I'm done with this video, I'm about to go hang out with my family, all right? And my wife's probably wanting me to be done with this video right now. But anyway, real estate wholesaling has changed my life. And if you want that kind of lifestyle, if you want to be able to be your own boss, work whenever you want, wherever you want, move anywhere in the world, and be able to do it all remotely from your laptop, this is the job for you. I would highly recommend that you do this. Now, if you're interested in doing this business and you don't want to have to try and figure it out all on your own, that's exactly what we do in my painless flipping apprenticeship. So just check out the link below. And like I said earlier in this video, if you want to know exactly what I would do if I had to start all over again wholesaling real estate with $0, check out the video on the next screen. I break down for you exactly step by step what I would do.
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