FREE WHOLESALING SCRIPT
Wholesaling Cold Calling Script That Locks Contracts
Word for word: the opener, the assignability and title questions most wholesalers skip, repair discovery, price anchoring, the offer range, the contract-lock close, plus voicemail, text templates, and rebuttals for the six objections you will hear today.
The short version
The wholesale cold call script in six lines
- Opener: Hi, is this [First Name]? … I'm calling about the property at [Street Name]. Are you still the owner there? … We buy houses in [City] directly, as-is. Can I ask you two quick questions about it, and if it's not a fit I'll let you go?
- Title: Is it in your name alone, or is anyone else on the deed? Do you still owe anything on it? Is it listed with an agent right now?
- Condition: If I walked in the front door today, what's the first thing I'd notice needs work? Is anyone living there right now?
- Motivation: What has you even open to selling this one? And what happens if it doesn't sell by then?
- Price: Selling it as-is, no commission, closing when you say — what's the lowest you'd take to be done with it this month?
- Next step: Based on what you've told me, the next step is [a walkthrough / a call with the person who makes the offer]. Is tomorrow at 11 or Thursday at 4 better?
That is the whole call. Each line has its own section below with the follow-up questions, the rebuttals for the six objections and the one-screen version to keep on a second monitor. The cash buyer script for the other side of the deal is at the end. All of it is in the free printable script pack.
A script only works on numbers that ring. Typical skip tracing runs $0.10–$0.25 per record. LeadsUp Tracer is $99 for 10,000 — carrier-verified mobiles, built-in DNC scrub, packs never expire.
Skip Trace for $99 →Know what a contract actually costs in dials
Before the words, the arithmetic — because the script does not fail, the volume does. On a clean, skip-traced list, plan on about 1,500–2,300 dials per qualified motivated-seller lead. One full-time seat's month — about 69,000 dials and 30–45 qualified leads — typically produces 1–2 signed contracts. Multiply it out and one contract costs you somewhere between 34,500 and 69,000 dials. Those are planning ranges, not promises; your market, your list, and your offer discipline move them either direction.
Run the money side. One dedicated caller on a multi-line dialer, 8 hours a day across 23 working days, places about 69,000 dials and reaches about 6,900 owners a month. At the ranges above that is roughly one to two contracts a month from a single seat. If your average assignment fee is $10,000 and a managed caller runs the typical $1,500–$4,000 per month all-in, the seat pays for itself on the first contract and everything after that is margin. Unmanaged offshore callers at ~$5–$7/hour look cheaper on the invoice and usually are not, once you count the dials burned on bad data and the leads mishandled at the price conversation.
Data is the other half. Pulling 10,000 records at a typical $0.15 each is $1,500. The same 10,000 through LeadsUp Tracer is $99 — about a penny a record, a $1,401 difference on a single list, which in most markets is the entire first month of a caller. Same script, same seller, a fraction of the cost to reach them.
The opener: permission, not a pattern interrupt
Forget the gimmick openers. A wholesaler calling a homeowner has one job in the first ten seconds: confirm you have the right human, name the property, and ask permission to keep going. Permission-based openers get you a real conversation; tricks get you a hang-up and a complaint.
You: Hi, is this [First Name]? … Hey [First Name], my name is [Caller] — I know I am calling out of the blue, so I will be quick. I am calling about the property at [Street Name] in [City]. Are you still the owner there?
Seller: Yeah, that is mine. Who is this again?
You: [Caller], with [Company]. We buy houses in [City] directly — cash, as-is, no agents, no fees. I am not going to pitch you. Can I ask you two quick questions about the house, and if it is not a fit I will let you go?
Seller: Sure, go ahead.
That "two quick questions" frame is doing real work: it caps the perceived cost of staying on the line, and almost nobody says no to two questions. Never pitch a number before ownership is confirmed, and never argue with a hard no on the opener — tag it, log it, and let the cadence work. The general-purpose version of this opener lives on our real estate cold calling scripts page; the version below is wholesaling-specific.
Qualify for assignability and clear title before you fall in love
This is the step that separates wholesalers from everyone else, and the step most new callers skip. A gorgeous discount on a property with three heirs, a missing spouse on title, or a mortgage balance above your max offer is not a deal — it is two weeks of wasted follow-up. Ask early, in a conversational order, and write the answers into the CRM as you go.
You: Just so I do not waste your time later — is the house in your name alone, or is anyone else on the deed? A spouse, a sibling, a trust?
You: And is everyone on there on the same page about selling, or is that a conversation you would still need to have?
You: Do you still owe anything on it — a mortgage, a HELOC? Rough ballpark is fine, I am just checking the numbers can work.
You: Anything unusual on title I should know about? Back taxes, a lien, an old contractor bill, probate still open?
You: Last one on the boring stuff: is it listed with an agent right now, or under contract with anybody else?
Five questions, ninety seconds, and you now know whether a signature is even possible. If the property is actively listed, stop — note the expiration and follow up. If probate is open or an heir is missing, the deal is not dead, it is just longer; route it to your acquisitions manager instead of to a walkthrough.
Condition and repairs: get the seller to build your discount
Every repair the seller names out loud is a dollar they have already discounted in their own head. Your job is not to inspect the house over the phone — it is to get an honest picture and let them talk themselves down the price ladder. Ask open, never leading, and never react to a bad answer.
You: If I walked in the front door today, what is the first thing I would notice needs work?
You: How old is the roof, roughly? And how about the HVAC, water heater, electrical panel?
You: Kitchen and baths — original, or has somebody updated them?
You: Any water in the basement or crawlspace? Foundation cracks anybody has mentioned?
You: Is anyone living there right now — you, a tenant, family? If it is a tenant, are they current and are they on a lease?
You: If you had to guess, what would a contractor say it needs to be fully rent-ready or resale-ready? Ballpark.
That last question is the one to practice. Sellers who name their own repair number — even a wrong one — have accepted the premise that the house needs money, and your range lands as arithmetic instead of an insult. Occupancy matters more than most callers realize: a delinquent tenant is a discount, and a month-to-month is a very different deal from a fourteen-month lease at below-market rent.
Motivation and timeline: find the reason, then the deadline
Price is a function of motivation. Two identical houses on the same street get two different contracts depending on whether the owner is curious or the owner has a date on the calendar. Ask for the reason, then ask for the date, and stay quiet in between.
You: What has you even open to selling this one? Most people I call tell me to get lost.
You: How long have you been thinking about it?
You: If we could close on your timeline, what would the ideal date look like — 14 days, 30, end of the quarter?
You: And what happens if it does not sell by then? Does that create a problem for you, or is it just annoying?
You: Where are you moving to after — do you already have the next place lined up?
"What happens if it does not sell" is the highest-yield question in the entire script. A seller who says "nothing really" is a nurture lead. A seller who says "then I am carrying two mortgages into the winter" just told you the deadline, the pressure, and roughly what the discount is worth to them. Score it in your CRM the moment you hang up; that score is what turns a call log into actual motivated seller leads.
The price anchoring conversation
Never give the first number. Not because of some negotiation folk wisdom, but because the seller's number tells you whether the next twenty minutes are worth spending. Anchor the frame first — cash, as-is, no fees, their timeline — then ask.
You: Okay. So you would be selling it as-is — you do not fix anything, you do not clean it out, no agent commission, no closing costs on your side, and we close when you say. With all that in mind, what number would make you say yes today?
Seller: I do not know. What would you offer?
You: Fair — I will get you a range in a minute, I just do not want to throw out a number that insults you. Have you had it appraised or had an agent give you a value recently?
Seller: An agent said around $240 if I fixed it up.
You: Got it — $240 fixed up, with commissions and a couple of months of showings. And if you did nothing to it at all, what is the lowest you would take to be done with it this month?
That final phrasing — "the lowest you would take to be done with it" — is doing three things: it separates retail-fixed-up from as-is-today, it attaches a date, and it invites the seller to price their own convenience. Whatever they say next is your working ceiling. If they refuse to give a number at all twice, that is not a dead lead, it is a walkthrough lead; book the appointment and let the property do the talking.
Presenting the offer as a range, with the math out loud
Never present a single number on a cold call — you have not seen the house, and a hard number you later reduce is how wholesalers earn their reputation. Present a range, show the arithmetic, and make the walkthrough the thing that narrows it.
Worked example on the $240,000 house above. ARV $240,000. Repairs, based on what the seller described, call it $45,000. At a 70% basis: 0.70 × $240,000 = $168,000, minus $45,000 in repairs = $123,000 all-in maximum. Carve out a $10,000 assignment fee and your buyer-facing number is about $113,000. So you present $108,000–$118,000, pending walkthrough — wide enough to survive a surprise, tight enough to be credible.
You: Here is how I get to a number, and I will show you my work. Fixed up, your agent said $240. You are telling me it needs a roof, the HVAC is 20 years old, and the kitchen is original — on our end that is usually somewhere around $45,000 to get it resale-ready. Our buyers need to be in around 70 cents on the dollar of that finished value to make it worth doing, and we have to make something too.
You: So sight unseen, I am in the $108,000 to $118,000 range, cash, as-is, we cover closing costs, and you pick the date. If the house shows better than you described, I move toward the top of that. If it is worse, I would rather tell you now than renegotiate later. Is that in the neighborhood of workable, or am I way off?
"Is that workable, or am I way off" is a permission question, not a close. It gives the seller an easy honest answer either way, and a seller who says "that is low, but not crazy" has just told you the deal is alive. If they say "way off," ask what number is not way off — and if the gap is more than 20%, put them on the 30/60/90 follow-up instead of arguing.
The contract-lock language and the next-step close
You do not close a contract on a cold call. You close the next step — and you close it before you hang up, with a name, a date, and a time. The single biggest leak in wholesaling call floors is a great conversation that ends with "I will send you something."
You: Great — then here is what happens next, and there is nothing to sign right this second. I will send you a simple one-page purchase agreement at that range. It gives us a short inspection window to walk the property and confirm the condition, and it lets us assign it to the buyer on our side who funds it — that is how we close in cash without a lender. You can cancel inside the inspection window for any reason and it costs you nothing.
You: Two things I need from you so the paperwork is right: the exact spelling of every name on the deed, and the best email for the e-sign.
You: And to walk it — I have Thursday at 10 or Friday at 2. Which is easier for you?
Seller: Thursday works.
You: Thursday at 10, [Street Name]. You will get the agreement in the next hour from [sender name] and a text from this number so you have it. If anything changes before Thursday, call me first — I would rather hear it from you than find out at the door. Sound fair?
Disclose the assignment in plain English on the call and put it in writing in the agreement. Wholesalers get in trouble two ways: implying they are the end buyer when they are not, and springing the assignment on a seller at the closing table. Saying "we assign it to the buyer on our side who funds it" costs you nothing and kills the most common blow-up in this business. Some states now require that disclosure explicitly — check your own state's rules and have a local attorney review your contract.
Voicemail and text follow-up
Most dials do not reach a person. Keep voicemails under 15 seconds, name the street, and give one callback number twice. Texts stay short, lowercase, and human — and always carry an opt-out.
Voicemail (first attempt): Hi [First Name], this is [Caller] with [Company]. I am calling about your property on [Street Name] — we buy in [City] with cash, as-is. Wanted to run a number by you, no pressure either way. [Phone]. Again, [Phone]. Thanks.
Voicemail (after a good conversation, no answer): Hey [First Name], [Caller] again about [Street Name] — I ran the numbers with our buyer and I have a range for you. Two minutes and you will know if it is worth your time. [Phone].
Text 1 (after voicemail): Hi [First Name] — [Caller] with [Company]. Left you a voicemail about [Street Name]. We buy as-is, cash, you pick the date. Open to hearing a number? Reply STOP to opt out.
Text 2 (after the offer range): [First Name], recapping our call: $108k–$118k as-is, we cover closing costs, walkthrough Thursday 10am. Agreement is in your email from [sender]. Any questions before then?
Text 3 (long-term nurture, 30 days out): Hi [First Name], [Caller] here — checking in on [Street Name]. Still holding it, or has anything changed? Happy to re-run a number either way. STOP to opt out.
Cadence that actually produces contracts: day 1, day 3, day 7, day 14, then monthly, rotating call times across morning, lunch, and early evening. Most signed contracts come from touch four through eight. The callers who quit after two attempts are handing their deals to whoever calls third. If you want to hear what these touches sound like in real recordings before you hire anyone, we publish unedited calls on our audio proof page.
Word-for-word rebuttals for the wholesaling six
"Are you an agent?" No — I am not an agent and I am not listing your house. I am a buyer. We purchase directly with our own funds and our buyers' funds, which means no commission, no showings, and no repairs on your end. If at some point you decide listing is the better move, I will tell you that straight, because sometimes it is.
"I'm not paying a fee." You are not. There is no commission, no listing fee, and nothing comes out of your pocket — we cover the standard closing costs on our side. We make our money on the spread between what we pay you and what our buyer pays us, and that is baked into the number I already gave you. The figure I quote is the figure you get on the wire.
"How did you get my number?" Public property records — ownership and address are public, same source agents and investors all use. If you would rather not hear from us again, say the word and I will take you off the list right now, permanently. While I have you though: if the number was right, would you even want to hear it?
"I want retail price." Completely fair, and honestly if the house is in retail shape and you can wait, an agent will beat me — I will say that out loud. What I am selling is different: no repairs, no cleanout, no strangers walking through, no financing falling apart, and a date you choose. If you list at $240 and net $215 after commissions and the buyer's repair credits, four months from now — is that better than $118 in your hand in three weeks? For some people it genuinely is. Which one are you?
"I already have an offer." Good — that tells me the house is worth calling about. I am not going to ask you to break your word to anybody. Two questions: is it signed, and does it have a financing contingency? Because a lot of the offers I hear about fall apart at the appraisal. If yours closes, congratulations, genuinely. If it does not, I want to be the first call you make — can I check in with you in two weeks?
"Call me later." Absolutely, I will set it now so I am not bugging you in between. Is later next week or later this year? … And so the next call is actually useful instead of annoying — is it the timing, the price, or something with the property that makes [date] the right window? That way I come back with something worth your time.
One rule underneath all six: handle the objection once, then move forward or move on. Callers who rebut the same objection three times generate complaints, not contracts. If you want the general-market versions of these — "not interested," "what is your offer," "Zillow says it is worth more" — they are on the scripts page, and the campaign structure that runs them is on our wholesaling cold calling page.
Get all of this as a printable PDF. The free Cold-Calling Script Pack has both of our scripts, all 11 rebuttals, and the voicemail and text templates — name and email, no phone number.
Get the PDF →What not to say
The fastest way to lose a wholesaling business is not a bad script — it is a caller who says something they cannot walk back. Train these as hard rules, and QC against them.
Never say you are an agent, broker, or "working with" one if you are not licensed. Never say "I represent the buyer" in a way that sounds like agency. Never hide the assignment — say plainly that the contract may be assigned to the buyer who funds the purchase, and keep that clause in writing. Never promise a guaranteed closing date before a walkthrough, and never say "this offer expires today" when it does not; manufactured urgency is the single most common complaint sellers file.
Never imply you are with a bank, a county office, or any government agency, and never open with a probate or foreclosure reference as leverage. Never call outside 8am–9pm in the seller's local time, and check your state's rules: some states set narrower hours. Scrub against federal and state DNC before the list ever reaches the dialer — DNC scrubbing is built into our skip tracing for exactly this reason. Honor a do-not-call or STOP request immediately, in the CRM, permanently — not "after this cadence finishes." Check recording consent in the state you are calling; several require all-party consent, so use the disclosure line rather than assuming.
Tone rules matter almost as much. Do not talk over a seller. Do not laugh at a repair estimate. Do not say "that house is a dump" — you are talking about somebody's mother's home. Do not fake a local accent or a fake local address. Every one of those costs you the deal you were about to sign, and the referral behind it. This page is education for operators, not legal advice; wholesaling rules vary by state and a few now require licensing or specific disclosures, so have a local attorney bless your contract and your disclosure language before you dial.
The whole wholesale cold call script, start to finish
Every step above, cut down to the lines a caller actually says, in order. Keep this version on the second monitor; use the long version to train.
1. Opener: Hi, is this [First Name]? … I'm calling about the property at [Street Name]. Are you still the owner there? … We buy houses in [City] directly, as-is. Can I ask you two quick questions about it, and if it's not a fit I'll let you go?
2. Title: Is it in your name alone, or is anyone else on the deed? Do you still owe anything on it? Is it listed with an agent right now?
3. Condition: If I walked in the front door today, what's the first thing I'd notice needs work? Is anyone living there right now?
4. Motivation: What has you even open to selling this one? And what happens if it doesn't sell by then?
5. Price: Selling it as-is, no commission, closing when you say — what's the lowest you'd take to be done with it this month?
6. Next step: Based on what you've told me, the next step is [a walkthrough / a call with the person who makes the offer]. Is tomorrow at 11 or Thursday at 4 better?
If the answer at step 2 is “it's listed,” stop there, note the listing end date and move on. If the answer at step 4 is “nothing really happens,” it is a follow-up lead, not a deal this month — log it and call back on the schedule. A printable copy of our scripts is free.
The cash buyer script: building your buyers list by phone
A wholesale deal has two calls in it. The seller call gets the contract; the buyer call gets it assigned before the closing date. Most wholesalers write a script for the first one and wing the second — then find out they have a signed contract and nobody to sell it to.
Calling a buyer before you have a deal
Start with people who already bought for cash in your area: recent cash sales in the county records are the cleanest list there is. The goal of this call is their buy box, not a sale.
You: Hi [First Name], this is [Caller] with [Company]. I saw you picked up [Street] last [month]. Are you still buying in [City]?
You: What does a good deal look like for you right now — which areas, what price range, and how much rehab are you willing to take on?
You: And when you like a deal, how fast can you close, and is that cash or a lender?
You: Got it. When I have one that fits, what's the best way to send it — text or email?
Calling a buyer when you have a contract
You: Hi [First Name], it's [Caller]. You told me you're buying [area] up to [price] with [level of] rehab. I have one under contract at [Street]: [beds/baths], needs [repairs], asking [price], closing by [date]. Want me to send you the numbers and photos?
Say plainly what you are selling: your rights in a purchase contract, not a house you own. Several states now regulate wholesaling and how it is marketed, so check yours before you advertise a property you have under contract. The same calling rules apply as on the seller side — scrub the Do Not Call list and stay inside the calling window. If you would rather hand the dialing off, our wholesaling cold calling service runs the seller side of this script every day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should you say in a wholesaling cold call?
Confirm you have the right person, name the property, and ask permission to continue. Then qualify in order: who is on title, condition and repairs, motivation, timeline, and price last. Sellers who describe the roof, the tenant and the reason for selling before they hear a number accept a cash range far more often than sellers who are pitched in the first ten seconds.
How do you lock up a contract on the phone?
You do not close the contract on the cold call. You close the next step: agreeing on a working price range, confirming every person on title will sign, and booking a specific walkthrough or e-sign time while the seller is still on the line. Send the purchase agreement the same day with an inspection period and a written assignment clause, and confirm receipt by text within the hour.
How many cold calls does it take to get a wholesale contract?
Plan on about 1,500 to 2,300 dials per qualified motivated seller lead on a clean skip traced list. One full-time seat's month, about 69,000 dials and 30 to 45 qualified leads, typically produces 1 to 2 signed contracts, depending on how disciplined your follow up and offer math are. That is about 34,500 to 69,000 dials per contract, which is why volume and data quality matter more than any single line in the script.
Is there a short version of the wholesaling script?
Yes. It is six lines: confirm the owner and ask for two questions, check who is on title and whether it is listed, ask what needs work, ask why they would sell and what happens if they don't, ask for the lowest number to be done this month, then book the next step with two specific times. The one-screen version is on this page.
What do you say when calling cash buyers for a wholesale deal?
Before you have a deal, ask for their buy box: which areas, what price range, how much rehab, how fast they close and whether it is cash. When you have a contract, lead with the facts that match that buy box — address, condition, asking price and closing date — and be clear you are assigning a contract, not selling a house you own.
Want this script run 8 hours a day, by someone who has run it a thousand times?
A dedicated LeadsUp caller runs this exact wholesaling framework on your list and your market — with in-house data and skip tracing, QC on the calls, and weekly reporting. You pick your caller from real recordings on our audio proof page before you commit. Month-to-month and live in under 72 hours. Real estate investors: your first week of calling is free. If we don’t hand you at least 3 sellers who want an offer, you pay nothing.
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