How to Tell a Real Jacksonville Cash Buyer From a Wholesaler

Most of the companies advertising "we buy houses" in Jacksonville do not buy your house. They put it under contract, then sell that contract to an actual buyer for a fee. That's called wholesaling, it's completely legal in Florida, and it is not automatically a bad deal for you.

The problem is the ones who don't tell you. When the person on your contract still has to go find the person with the money, your closing date is a hope rather than a commitment — and if they can't place it, the number you agreed to has a way of dropping right before closing.

I'm Beth. I buy houses in Duval, Clay, and St. Johns Counties with my own funds, and I've been renovating here since 2016. Here is how to tell which kind of company you're on the phone with.

The five questions

Ask these before you sign anything. A buyer using their own money will answer all five in a single call.

1. Whose name goes on the contract, and does it say "and/or assigns"? Those three words after the buyer's name are the assignment clause. They let whoever signed hand the contract to somebody else. Ask directly: "Are you going to close on this yourself, or are you going to assign it?" The answer should be immediate.

2. Can I see proof of funds in the buying entity's name? Not a screenshot of somebody else's bank statement, not a lender's letter of interest — a current statement or verification in the name of the entity that appears on the contract.

3. How long is the inspection or due-diligence period? A buyer who already knows what they're buying needs days, not weeks. Long free-look periods are how a contract gets shopped. If the period runs 21 or 30 days and they can walk for any reason, you have taken your house off the market for a month in exchange for nothing.

4. How much earnest money, and when does it go hard? Real money, deposited with a title company or attorney, that becomes non-refundable at a defined point. A $500 deposit that stays refundable until closing is not a commitment.

5. Who is actually going to be at the closing table? If the answer is "our acquisitions team will let you know," you're being assigned.

A wholesaler can legally market their contract. They cannot legally market your house without a license.

That distinction matters. Under Florida law, assigning your own purchase contract is legal and requires no real estate license — the principal-buyer exemption in Florida Statute 475.011. But advertising the property itself, describing it, putting it in front of buyers as if it were a listing, is brokerage. Doing that without a license is a third-degree felony under Florida Statute 475.42. If you see your address posted in a buyers group before you've closed, something has gone wrong.

Why this matters more in the market we have

The Jacksonville market right now rewards certainty, because the open market isn't offering much of it.

That's the third straight year the metro's median asking price has fallen — down 10.4% from July 2023 — and nearly half of everything on the market in July 2026 had already taken a price cut. Median days on market for the metro was 63.

Duval County specifically closed June 2026 at a $350,000 median single-family sale price, 25 days on market and 3.5 months of supply. Clay County: $368,140 and 29 days. St. Johns: $579,000 and 34 days.

A seller in a market like that has two honest options, and a wholesaler in the middle degrades both of them.

Cash offer or list it? Be honest about which house you have

I'll say this plainly even though I'm the cash buyer: if your house is retail-ready and you can wait, list it. In Duval County the typical listed home found a buyer in 25 days in June. Even after commissions and Florida's documentary stamp tax on the deed — $0.70 per $100 of the sale price, which is $2,450 on a $350,000 sale, and customarily the seller's under the standard contract — a clean house usually nets more on the open market.

A cash sale is the better answer when one of these is true:

• The repairs cost more than you have, or more than you'll get back
• There's a tenant, a code violation, or an insurance problem
• It's an inherited property and the heirs are in different states
• You need a specific closing date and cannot risk a buyer's loan falling through
• You genuinely do not want strangers walking through your house

In those cases you're not really comparing price to price. You're comparing a certain number today against an uncertain number after repairs, months of carrying costs, showings, an appraisal and a financing contingency.

What I do differently

I'm the buyer, not a middleman. I fund purchases in house, which means there's no lender interest and no assignment fee built into my number, and I'm the person who shows up at closing. I'm also a licensed Florida agent, which means if listing is genuinely the better move for you, I'll tell you that and I'll tell you why.

Ask me all five questions above. I'd rather you asked everybody.