Wholesaling - putting a property under contract, then assigning that contract to another buyer for a fee - is widely practiced in Florida, but the state has no law written specifically for it. That does not mean it is unregulated. Existing real estate license law still applies to how a wholesale deal is marketed and structured, and the line between a legal assignment and unlicensed brokering activity is narrower than it looks.
| What is being marketed | The wholesaler's contract rights - not the underlying property itself, as if they were the owner or a licensed agent |
|---|---|
| The purchase agreement | Must actually be assignable, with earnest money delivered as the contract requires |
| Disclosure to the end buyer | UNVERIFIED - fair-dealing disclosure obligations are commonly cited under Fla. Stat. 475.278, but whether and how that licensee-focused statute binds an unlicensed wholesaler specifically is itself part of the contested legal question this guide describes - confirm with an attorney |
| Compensation structure | Assignment fee tied to the wholesaler's contract interest, not a commission for selling someone else's property |
Yes, in the sense that no statute bans it outright. Florida does not have a wholesaling-specific law the way some other states have recently enacted. But a wholesaler is still bound by Chapter 475, Florida's existing real estate license law, and by general contract law - the absence of a wholesaling statute is not the same as an absence of regulation.
UNVERIFIED: several states have introduced or passed wholesaling-specific disclosure and licensing bills in recent years, and Florida's regulators (FREC) have reportedly increased enforcement activity in this area - confirm the current state of any pending Florida legislation before relying on this guide as settled law.
Marketing your interest in a specific purchase contract - the right to buy a property on agreed terms - is generally treated differently than marketing the property itself as though you own it or represent the owner, which without a license can cross into unlicensed brokering activity.
The practical test used by practitioners: does the marketing describe what you are selling as your contractual right to purchase, or does it read like a standard property listing? The latter is the higher-risk pattern.
It needs to actually permit assignment - not all standard purchase contracts do by default, and some sellers negotiate an anti-assignment clause specifically to prevent wholesaling. Earnest money also has to be delivered according to the contract's own terms; failing to fund an earnest money deposit that the contract requires undermines the legitimacy of the whole structure.
Fla. Stat. 475.278 sets fair-dealing disclosure requirements relevant to these transactions. UNVERIFIED: the exact scope of what must be disclosed, to whom, and in what form under 475.278 as applied to a wholesale assignment is a legal compliance question - confirm the specific disclosure language with an attorney before using it in a real transaction, rather than relying on a general description here.
Not to assign a contract they personally hold, in the general case. A license becomes necessary once someone is acting on behalf of another party - representing a seller, negotiating for a buyer who is not themselves, or otherwise performing licensed brokerage activity for compensation rather than assigning their own contract interest.
This is a fact-specific line, and structuring a deal to stay clearly on the assignment side of it - rather than assuming any wholesale deal is automatically exempt - is the safer approach.
Marketing the property, not the contract - listing photos and a price as if selling real estate directly, without the license required to do that, and without making clear that what is actually for sale is a contractual right to purchase. This is the pattern regulators and courts have focused on.
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