Houston Flip Buyer in 48 Hours: A Hypothetical Walkthrough
This is a hypothetical walkthrough, not a real customer story: a made-up Houston wholesaler puts a 3/2 in Oak Forest under contract and has a flipper’s accepted offer 48 hours later, for a $13,000 assignment fee ($178,000 − $165,000). The people, property and numbers are illustrative, not a Deal Run customer’s results. The point is the sequence: analysis, buyer search, deal page and follow-up, all inside the Texas option period.
Disclosure: Deal Run is our product. An earlier version of this page presented this as a real deal, dated before Deal Run launched, and said our Investor Score put the eventual buyer at the top of the list. None of it was real, and the page also overstated the buyer’s margin. It is now labelled as an example and the math is fixed below.
Background: maximum allowable offer and wholesaling in Texas.
The hypothetical deal
| Item (illustrative) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Property | 3 bed / 2 bath, 1,650 sq ft, built 1962, Oak Forest, Houston TX 77018 |
| Contract price with the seller | $165,000 (10-day option period) |
| ARV (4 renovated sales within 0.3 miles, last 5 months) | $285,000 |
| Repairs (cosmetic: kitchen, baths, flooring, paint, exterior) | $40,000 |
| Asking price to buyers | $180,000 |
| Buyer’s gross spread at asking: $285,000 − $180,000 − $40,000 | $65,000 (22.8% of ARV) |
| Buyer’s net at asking, after assumed selling ($22,800) and holding/financing ($9,000) costs | about $33,200 (11.6% of ARV) |
The 70% rule would cap the price at $285,000 × 0.70 − $40,000 = $159,500, so $180,000 is above it. Selling costs of 8% of ARV are an assumption; agent commissions are negotiable since the August 2024 NAR settlement. On a light cosmetic job with a fast resale, many flippers accept an 11–12% net; others won’t, and showing the net lets them decide fast.
Day 1: analysis and buyer search
Within two hours of signing, the wholesaler finishes the analysis: ARV from four sales of renovated homes in the same subdivision, and repairs from a 20-minute walkthrough with photos of every room.
A search of recent buyers within half a mile turns up 37 investors: 22 landlords and 15 flippers. The most active flipper has bought four homes in Oak Forest in the past 18 months; the biggest landlord owns six rentals within a mile. The wholesaler skip traces the top 25 and gets usable contact details for 19 (76%). They build a deal page with every photo, the comps, the repair breakdown, flip and rental numbers, and an offer form, then email it to those 19 plus 45 buyers already on their list: 64 emails in all.
Day 2: replies and walkthroughs
By 10 AM, three investors have replied (4.7% of 64): two flippers who want to see the house and one landlord asking about rent. Both flippers walk it that afternoon. One brings a contractor and stays 45 minutes; the other stays 20 minutes and says he’ll think about it.
Day 2 evening: the offer
The flipper who brought the contractor submits an offer through the deal page: $178,000 cash, a 7-day close and $3,000 earnest money, with proof of funds. It’s $2,000 under asking, but fast and well documented, so the wholesaler accepts. Assignment fee: $178,000 − $165,000 = $13,000.
At $178,000, the buyer’s gross spread is $285,000 − $178,000 − $40,000 = $67,000 (23.5% of ARV), and the net after the same assumed costs is about $35,200 (12.4% of ARV).
Key numbers (illustrative)
| Metric | Example |
|---|---|
| Investors found | 37 (22 landlords, 15 flippers) |
| Skip traces with usable contacts | 19 of 25 (76%) |
| Emails sent | 64 |
| Replies | 3 (4.7%) |
| Walkthroughs | 2 |
| Offers | 1 |
| Time to accepted offer | 48 hours |
| Assignment fee | $13,000 |
Lessons from the example
- Speed inside the option period. Analysis, deal page and emails went out the same day, leaving most of the 10 days in reserve.
- Buyers who already bought nearby. The buyer was a flipper with recent purchases in the same neighborhood. A ranking is a place to start, not a prediction of who will buy.
- A deal page that answers questions. Comps, photos and a repair breakdown let a buyer decide after one walkthrough.
- Honest pricing. Show the buyer’s net, not just the 22.8% gross spread.
- Texas disclosure. SB 1577 (Property Code §5.0205, effective January 1, 2024) requires written disclosures for assignments: to the seller that you may assign, and to the end buyer that you’re selling your contract interest, not title. See Texas wholesaling compliance and our state-by-state guide. Not legal advice.
How this maps to Deal Run
Deal Run is our product. It pulls comps and an ARV, gives an AI repair estimate from the property’s photos and a Max Offer, and builds a Package: a deal page with photos, comps and an offer/showing form, with view tracking. On Analyze + Sell it finds landlords and flippers who recently bought near the property (from public records), skip traces them, ranks them by Investor Score (proximity 35, beds/baths/sq ft 25, price 20, recency 15, purchase count 5), and sends a Blast from your own Gmail. See finding buyers and the MAO calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a real customer case study?
No. It is a hypothetical walkthrough with made-up numbers. The wholesaler, the buyers and the property are illustrative, not a Deal Run customer’s results.
What does the flip buyer make in this example?
At the accepted $178,000 price, the gross spread is $285,000 − $178,000 − $40,000 = $67,000, or 23.5% of ARV. After assumed selling costs of 8% of ARV ($22,800) and $9,000 of holding and financing, the buyer nets about $35,200, or 12.4% of ARV.
Why does the Texas option period matter to a wholesaler?
On the standard Texas (TREC) contract, the buyer can terminate for any reason during the option period by paying an option fee. A 10-day option period gives the wholesaler a fixed window to find a buyer before deciding whether to go forward.
What does Texas require when you assign a contract?
Texas SB 1577 (Property Code 5.0205, effective January 1, 2024) requires written disclosures: to the seller that you may assign the contract, and to the end buyer that you are selling your contract interest, not title. Not legal advice.