Should your assignment fee be a percentage or a flat fee?

What is an assignment fee percentage?

An assignment fee percentage is your assignment fee expressed as a share of another number in the deal — the contract price, the buyer's price, the ARV or the room in the deal. The first question about any percentage is: percentage of what?

New to assignment fees? Start with the complete guide to wholesale assignment fees.

If you're new, here's why this matters. When someone says "I charge 10%," they rarely say 10% of what. On the sample deal, 10% of the contract price, 10% of what the buyer pays, 10% of the ARV and 10% of the room in the deal come out to four completely different fees. Before you copy anyone's percentage, ask what it's a percentage of — and then ask whether it has anything to do with what buyers pay for your house.

What percentage should an assignment fee be?

There is no percentage an assignment fee should be. The highest fee buyers would still pay on four sample deals ranged from 2.2% to 20.3% of the ARV — and from 3.9% to 48.8% of the contract price. The room in a deal doesn't grow in step with the price of the house, so no single percentage can land on it.

A percentage can describe a fee after you've worked it out. It can't work it out for you.

What percentage do wholesalers charge?

Wholesalers don't all charge one percentage. Some aim for a share of the contract price, some for a share of the ARV, some for a flat dollar amount, and many simply take whatever gap they can find between their contract and what a buyer offers. When fees are looked at after the fact, they land all over the place: on the four sample deals in this guide, the fee buyers would pay ranged from 3.9% to 48.8% of the contract price.

So if you've heard "wholesalers make 10%," treat it as one person's habit, not a standard. What wholesalers actually earn is set by the room in each deal, not by a percentage they chose.

Why doesn’t a 10% assignment fee work on every deal?

A 10% fee doesn't work on every deal because it follows the contract price, and the room in a deal doesn't. The same 10% rule on four sample deals:

Look at why each row goes wrong. On the $245,000 house, the room is small, so 10% of the contract asks for more than buyers will pay. On the $300,000 and $600,000 houses, the room is large, so 10% leaves most of it on the table. On the $680,000 house, heavy repairs eat the room, so 10% of a big contract price is far too much. The percentage follows the contract price; the right fee follows the room in the deal. They're simply different things.

Too high on two deals, far too low on the other two. The rule only multiplied the contract price — it knew nothing about the house or the buyers.

Percentage or flat fee: what’s the difference?

A flat assignment fee is the same dollar amount on every deal — "$10,000 per deal." A percentage fee changes with a number in the deal — "10% of my contract price." A flat fee ignores the size of the deal; a percentage scales with it. Neither looks at what buyers will actually pay.

What’s wrong with a flat assignment fee?

What's wrong with a flat assignment fee is that it's the same on every deal while the room isn't. A flat $10,000 on the same four sample deals:

That said, flat fees aren't useless. They work well as a filter before you sign a seller: "we only take on deals with at least $7,500 of room." That keeps you from spending weeks on deals that can't pay for your time. The mistake is using that same number as your price once you've signed.

A flat fee is a fine business target — "we want deals worth at least $10,000." As a price, it's right only when a deal happens to have exactly that much room.

What's wrong with a percentage assignment fee?

A percentage fixes the flat fee's most obvious flaw — it scales — but scaling a guess doesn't make it right. A bigger contract doesn't mean more room: the $680,000 house under contract for $375,000 has room for $14,750, while the $600,000 house under contract for $250,000 has room for $122,000.

A percentage also feels more precise. "My fee is 8.7%" sounds more analytical than "$10,000" — but if the 8.7% didn't come from the deal and the buyers, it's the same guess with a decimal point.

Should your assignment fee be a percentage of your contract price?

No — a percentage of your contract price treats deals with the same contract as the same deal. Two sample houses are both under contract for $140,000. On one (ARV $245,000), buyers pay a fee of at most $8,750. On the other (ARV $300,000), they pay $47,800. Ten percent of the contract gives $14,000 on both — too much on the first, far too little on the second.

Should your assignment fee be a percentage of ARV?

No — a percentage of ARV ignores the repairs, your contract price and what buyers pay. Five percent of ARV on the $680,000 house is $34,000 — more than twice the $14,750 buyers will pay, because heavy repairs eat the room. On the $600,000 house it's $30,000 — a quarter of the $122,000 buyers will pay. See why the 70% rule doesn't set your fee — the same problem with a bigger percentage.

Is there a typical wholesale assignment fee percentage?

There's no typical wholesale assignment fee percentage you can rely on. Averages of past deals give numbers that sound tidy, but they mix thin deals with rich ones, cheap markets with expensive ones, and light rehabs with heavy ones. A typical percentage from someone else's deals is a description of their deals — nothing more.

If you want one number to remember, remember this: the fee that works is whatever is left between what buyers will pay and your contract price. On one sample deal that's 2.2% of the ARV; on another it's 20.3%. See the average wholesale assignment fee for the dollar averages.

Should you take a percentage of the spread — or split it with the buyer?

Taking a share of the spread is closer, because it at least starts from the room in the deal — but it depends on how you worked out that room, and the share is still a guess. "Half for me, half for the buyer" sounds fair, but there's no reason the split should be 50/50: the buyer is putting in far more money and taking the rehab and resale risk.

What the buyer needs is a profit worth their money, time and risk on this house. Leave them that, and the rest of the room is yours to charge. See how much profit to leave your cash buyer.

Can a big percentage be fine — and a small one too much?

Yes. On the $600,000 sample deal, a $122,000 fee is 48.8% of the $250,000 contract — a percentage that sounds outrageous — and buyers still pay it, keeping 35% themselves. On the $680,000 deal, just 5% of the contract ($18,750) is already more than buyers will pay.

The buyer never sees your percentage. They see their price and their profit. That's what decides whether a fee works.

Why do wholesalers like percentages and flat fees?

Wholesalers like percentages and flat fees because they're fast and they feel consistent — one rule, every deal, no judgment calls. Without data on what buyers near you actually pay, a tidy rule is the easiest thing to reach for.

But a rule is only consistent with itself. Buyers aren't consistent: they pay what a house is worth to them at their costs. A process that works out the fee from the deal every time is just as consistent — and it's right far more often.

Why don't real fees come out as round percentages?

Real fees don't come out as round percentages because they come from the deal, not from a tidy number. The story at the start of this series — a $100,000 contract where the same buyers would have paid $114,750 — gives a fee of $14,750: 14.75% of the contract. Nobody would pick 14.75%. It's simply where the buyers were.

If you find yourself rounding a worked-out fee to make the percentage look neat, you're giving money back to the buyer for the sake of a spreadsheet.

Can you still use assignment fee percentages?

Yes — percentages are useful for looking back and running the business, just not for setting the next fee. Track what share of the contract, the ARV or the room in the deal your fees came to, and compare markets, lead sources and months. A minimum is useful too: "we don't take on deals with less than $7,500 of room" is a sensible business rule.

What doesn't work is turning a pattern into a price. If your fees averaged 9.4% of the contract last year, that tells you about last year's deals — not what buyers will pay on the next one. See the average wholesale assignment fee.

Before you use a percentage on a deal, test it. On the sample deal (ARV $300,000, repairs $30,000, your contract $140,000):

1. Turn the percentage into a fee.
   10% of the contract = $14,000. 10% of the ARV = $30,000.
2. Turn each fee into the buyer’s price and its share of value.
   $154,000 → ($154,000 + $30,000) ÷ $300,000 = 61.3%. $170,000 → 66.7%.
3. Compare with what investors near you paid.
   Here, recent investor purchases ran 69–75% of value, with a buyer-supported fee of $43,000–$49,900. Both percentages sit below every purchase: money left on the table. How to find the range: how to determine your assignment fee from real buyer data.
4. Record the real fee as a percentage afterwards.
   After the deal closes, write down the fee as a share of the contract, the ARV and the room in the deal. That’s the right job for percentages: learning from past deals.

Should your assignment fee be an input or an output?

Your assignment fee should be an output — the result of what the deal and your buyers bear — not a number you pick and force the deal to fit. Work it out in dollars first; the percentage can come after:

1. Get the deal right — ARV, repairs and the buyer's costs.
2. Work out what buyers near you will pay from what investors actually paid.
3. Subtract your contract price — that's the room for your fee.
4. Count who's still buying at each fee and take the highest that holds. Then, if you like, express it as a percentage.

For how to work out that dollar figure by hand, see how to determine your assignment fee from real buyer data.

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