Savvy Investor Interview: Wholesaling Fundamentals and Off-Market Strategy

Transcript

[00:00]

Host Mike Ponte opened the episode by framing the central question the podcast addresses: how do new investors get started without capital? He noted that wholesaling almost always comes up as the default answer, and explained why he brought in Wade Fenner to speak to it with real experience.

"Wholesaling isn't really as easy as people think. To be very honest, it really does require a ton of work, especially at the very beginning of your investing journey."

Ponte described the episode as covering off-market deal sourcing, what a good wholesale deal looks like, how to protect assignment fees, and how to build the systems around a wholesaling business.

[05:00]

Fenner introduced himself, noting that long-time investors from the REIN network knew him as the bicycle guy. He described arriving in Calgary in the late 1990s after losing his job following a medical episode, moving to the city with no connections, and completing his first deal nine days after arriving using a creative financing approach on an assumable mortgage.

"I bought an assumable mortgage, made some creative financing. I owned it for nine days, made $9,000 and quit looking for work."

He described flipping over 100 houses between 1997 and 2007, running a mentoring group and seminar program out of a hotel in Red Deer, and then stepping away from wholesaling after the 2008 global economic downturn to start a concrete replacement business. He exited that business in mid-2024 and returned to wholesaling in late 2025.

[10:04]

Fenner described his reentry into wholesaling. He printed 50,000 flyers in December 2025, sent the first batch in January 2026, and received seven calls in the first week. Two deals were moving toward close at the time of recording, with one already assigned.

He also described a third deal involving a complex title situation: a bankruptcy from 2012 that a trustee had been discharged from in 2015, with a $40,000 writ still registered. That deal required six weeks of legal work before a title transfer agreement could be reached.

"I spent six weeks emailing lawyers and trustees, getting a lawyer for the seller, a different lawyer for me, and I had to get the house appraised for the bankruptcy thing."

[15:00]

Fenner defined wholesaling in plain terms: getting a property under contract at a price good enough that you can sell the paper in days or a couple of weeks, not months. He explained the difference between his approach and a realtor's: he reaches motivated sellers through his own marketing before they get coached by an agent on retail pricing.

"You're not selling pretty houses at retail. It's got to be a wholesale price. And that's why you're able to do it in a couple of weeks or a couple of days."

He also explained why sellers choose wholesalers. The Spruce Grove couple example came up here: an affluent pair who owned a free-and-clear rental on Alberta Avenue, had no financial pressure, and sold below market because they liked the conversation and the proposals Fenner put in front of them.

[20:03]

Fenner expanded on the bankruptcy deal as a case study in problem-solving. He contrasted his approach with what a realtor would typically do when encountering a title with a bankruptcy and a writ: walk away. He described how he researched the trustee, engaged lawyers for both parties, arranged an appraisal, and negotiated a settlement structure that allowed title to transfer.

"A realtor is not going to do that. And a lawyer who sees no equity in the house and they don't have money to pay the lawyer as a retainer to fix the problem. They're not going to do that. I see a golden nugget at the end of it."

He drew on his earlier seminar work, which focused on foreclosures, as the foundation for that problem-solving ability. He described buying 85 to 90 houses directly from homeowners in foreclosure situations over the years.

[25:06]

The conversation turned to what new wholesalers should focus on learning. Fenner's main point: stop being passive. He noted that sellers who have already talked to ten realtors and posted on Kijiji are the hardest people to get a good deal from. The better targets are people who have not yet made a move, which means reaching them through your own outbound marketing before they reach out to anyone else.

"Generating their own phone calls from lazy sellers is more the idea."

He also made the case that learning marketing is essential regardless of which investment strategy someone pursues. If you do not understand it, you cannot evaluate whether the people you hire to do it are doing a good job.

[30:01]

Fenner described the persistence required in wholesaling, including tolerance for rejection. He noted that you will hear no far more than yes, and that building the ability to keep going anyway is the real skill being developed in the early stages.

Ponte shared a personal example of paying a $40,000 assignment fee on a multifamily deal because the numbers made sense for the acquisition he was doing. He used it to illustrate that buyers who are active in the market do not resent a wholesaler's fee when the deal is solid.

[35:02]

Fenner laid out his flyer campaign structure in detail. He described splitting a target area into two territories and rotating mailings between them every two weeks, so each territory gets hit once a month. He recommended starting in older neighborhoods where deferred maintenance is more common and sellers are more likely to be open to an off-market conversation.

"Experts say that a customer has to see you nine times before they call. Like if you're a Green Thumb lawn fertilizer. People see the mail that you buy houses consistently."

He described a call that came in from a flyer he had sent to the town of Redwater years earlier. The seller had kept the yellow postcard pinned to a corkboard for nine years before reaching out. He used this as an argument for never changing your marketing phone number: the return on past mailings can arrive years later.

[40:00]

Fenner discussed bandit signs as a lower-budget alternative to flyer campaigns. He acknowledged they produce some response but noted they are time-intensive to place and maintain. His approach was to differentiate his signs visually by using three colors instead of the standard yellow, making it harder for people to lump his number in with the many other we buy houses signs in the market.

He also described a strategy for new wholesalers who have no budget at all: approach active renovators, offer to run their marketing using a phone number they own, and split any deal that comes through. The investor controls the number and keeps the future benefit; the wholesaler gets deal flow started without spending their own capital.

[45:10]

Fenner explained how he thinks about buyer sourcing. He described using Facebook investor groups rather than marketplace, because buyers in those groups understand assignments. He noted that he does not maintain a traditional email buyer's list and prefers Facebook Messenger because it keeps the whole conversation thread visible and he associates messages with faces rather than email addresses.

"People email me and that's why I'm not going to do a buyer's list an email buyer's list. I'm going to do a group."

He described his plan to start a moderated Alberta wholesaling Facebook group with strict rules excluding retail-priced listings and realtor inventory. He pointed to existing groups like Alberta Wholesalers as examples of what happens when groups are not moderated and become cluttered with irrelevant content.

[50:02]

The conversation moved to the question of how much money a wholesaler should expect to make. Fenner's position was that the assignment fee should never be disclosed up front. He described how he sets his price so the deal is the story, and the buyer commits before seeing the split.

"What I'm earning on my deal does not become part of the negotiation. It is a smoking deal to the buyer or it's not."

He described a current deal in Mill Woods: a 1,220 square foot property priced at $320,000 with an estimated after-repair value of $480,000. He noted that at that spread, nine times out of ten the first person who walks through buys it. He does not allow condition periods or extended financing timelines.

[55:07]

Fenner described the mechanics of how he closes once a buyer is interested. He requires a bank draft deposit before going unconditional. If an inspection is needed, he will agree to the price and closing date but not allow the deal to go unconditional until the buyer is ready. If another buyer appears willing to go unconditional, the first buyer gets 12 hours' notice to match or lose the deal.

He described the deal he was actively working at the time of recording, involving an older house in a part of Edmonton where 1910-era homes are being purchased by builders for infill development. He described identifying active builders by photographing their permit signs around the neighborhood and texting them directly about properties he had under contract.

[01:00:10]

Fenner commented on the infill trend in Edmonton, drawing a distinction between areas where multiplex development is appropriate and areas where it is damaging to neighborhood character. He noted that older, lower-income streets near 118th Avenue are suitable for density increases, while affluent ravine neighborhoods are being negatively affected by large multiplexes built to the property line.

"In poor areas it's a good area for multiplexes."

When asked for closing advice to aspiring wholesalers, Fenner kept it direct: go meet people in person, write offers on paper, show up at the door, and do not leave an offer with a seller who is not accepting it. Take it back and follow up.

"Don't just sit there calling for-sale-by-owner signs. Get on the street. Get out writing deals. Meet the homeowner. Put pen to paper and be real."

[01:05:07]

Fenner directed anyone wanting to connect with him to Facebook Messenger rather than email. He described a planned Facebook group for Alberta wholesaling that would allow members to follow his deal flow and post their own off-market opportunities under moderated conditions.

The episode closed with Ponte thanking Fenner for sharing his experience and committing to post his contact information in the show notes.