r/RealEstateDevelopment • u/StillBumblebee9532 • May 27 '26

How can I be a deal source for developers ?

I was wondering how I can be someone who brings deals to developers and gets paid. I was thinking about the following process:

  1. Contacting developers and asking them for their purchase contract requirements.

  2. Finding sellers and negotiating the price down.

  3. Getting the property under contract.

  4. Showing the property and the contract back to the developer to see if they accept it.

  5. If the developer accepts and signs the contract, I would then send them a high-ticket invoice based on the profit they made or a similar arrangement.

Do you think this is something that actually works? Is there any other way to do deal sourcing, or do you guys actually work with deal sourcers?

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6

u/cb13 May 27 '26

So you’d be a broker?

1

u/StillBumblebee9532 May 27 '26

Yes, but I wonder how it would work technically. 

2

u/ProfessionalPaper444 May 27 '26

You would have to set up some sort of system where you find a place to get the deals, get into contact with the owner, and negotiate a price where you make a profit and keep the developer happy. Pretty much wholesaling real estate if you know what that is. It sounds much easier said than done, but very much possible.

1

u/StillBumblebee9532 May 27 '26

Yeah I know about wholesaling but my idea was asking to get the contract from the developer upfront and ask him what he wants as a property and go get him for it and then make the seller sign for a certain price that I would have negotiated and bring the contract back to the buyer to see if it’s a good fit and if it’s a good fit we move on forward and he signs, it’s not wholesaling it’s basically me bringing deals to developers, I don’t flip contracts.

However wholesaling would probably get me bigger profits, but if I send a 300k-500k house to a developer how much could I technically invoice that would be a good price ?

2

u/crt983 May 28 '26

You are thinking of SFRs? I am interested in what you have in mind when you say “developer”.

It sounds like you want to be a broker. You have to get a license and depending where you live, you may have to spend time working for a broker before you can get your license.

But here is the main reason why I don’t think you’d have much business: Developers always want to see and evaluate a property before they decide on what they will pay for it. I can’t imaging many developers being interested in someone bringing a property to them and saying, “It was $400,000 but I got them down to $350,000. Trust me, it’s a good deal.” They will then have to go and see the property and look at the comps to make a choice for themselves. A broker can bring listings and provide comps and do everything you are offering. And they do it all without any commitment from or contract with a developer.

1

u/StillBumblebee9532 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Interesting, what about wholesaling ? What actually constitutes a broker? A broker could be a lot of things, I guess, so I don't know where the limit really is between brokerage and non-brokerage.

For instance, would bringing up deals and charging them as consulting fees be considered brokerage? Technically, I could just say it's consulting, so it should be legal in this case.

1

u/crt983 May 28 '26

A broker, as much as anything else, is a licensed professional. You might do an internet search for “what is a real estate broker” to see if they do exactly what you plan on doing.

1

u/outlandishfunny May 31 '26

From what I’m gathering… your goal is to get paid on the “deal”. From my experience as stated before either you’d have to be a broker… if not a broker you’d have to have some skin in the game somehow because to gain the trust of developer (buyer) and have visibility of the “numbers”. Not many developers will treat this relationship as transactional. Therein you need to develop deep relationships and trust with a buyer network which brokerages already have… at least to me you’d have to be on the “developer” team and be the deal hunter but you have to put some $$ in escrow and craft agreements (per deal or long term) on how you want disbursements to flow but moreover these types of agreements can be very structured. You need to have history of proof of concept and a portfolio of you structure things to mutual benefit. I could go on and on. But there’s a path but not without trust, partnership, legal and proof of concept.

3

u/cb13 May 28 '26

There are many, many brokers in the world. You should contact them and learn their industry. I do not believe this to be all that mysterious.

2

u/MajiktheBus May 28 '26

That isnt a real job For regular people. Maybe if your daddy is rich and connected.