Ohio's New Wholesaler Disclosure Law
Somebody offers to buy your house, then sells your contract to someone else at a markup. That is wholesaling, it is lawful, and until recently spotting it was entirely your problem. Ohio changed that in March 2026. Here is the document you are now owed, and what happens if you never got it.
A modest white clapboard house with a small front porch on an ordinary residential corner in autumn
Since 2 March 2026, a wholesaler buying residential property in Ohio must hand the owner a separate written disclosure, in boldface type of at least twelve points, before any binding contract — and may not enter that contract unless the owner has signed and dated it. Skip it, and the owner may cancel any time before closing without penalty and the escrow agent must pay the wholesaler’s earnest money to the owner within thirty days. No contract clause can waive it.
A wholesaler is not a buyer in the way you probably mean the word. They sign a contract to buy your house, then sell that contract to somebody else for more than they agreed to pay you. The difference between the two numbers is their income. Whether your sale actually closes depends on them finding that other person.
None of that is illegal, and it is not necessarily a bad deal. But it is a materially different transaction from the one most sellers think they are agreeing to, and Ohio has now decided you are entitled to be told which one you are in.
What Ohio now counts as a wholesaler
The definition is narrower and more precise than the casual use of the word. A wholesaler is a person or entity that, for a fee, commission or other valuable consideration — or expecting one — enters a purchase contract for residential real property in one of two positions:
- As the grantee — the buyer — and then assigns or novates that contract to someone else.
- As the grantor — the seller side — without holding legal title to the property, and then assigns or novates the contract to someone else.
"Residential real property" here means property improved by a building or structure with one to four dwelling units — so a house, a Cleveland double, a triple or a fourplex. Two situations are carved out of the definition: an assignment to an individual related by blood, and an assignment to a parent, affiliate, subsidiary or affiliated group under common control.
The document you are owed, before you sign
This is the heart of it. Before entering a binding contract, a wholesaler acting as the buyer must provide the record owner a conspicuous written disclosure statement that is separate from the purchase contract, printed in boldface type, at a font size of not less than twelve points, in substantially the form the statute lays out.
The prescribed wording is unusually blunt for a legal form, and it is worth knowing what it says on your behalf. It tells you that the person in front of you is a wholesaler; that they are acting on their own behalf and do not represent you; that they may assign their interest in the contract to a third party without your consent before closing; that they may charge that third-party buyer a separate fee for profit; and that you are entitled to seek legal or professional advice before signing anything. It also states that failing to present or complete the form is an unfair or deceptive act or practice, and that a wholesaler is prohibited from entering a binding contract unless the record owner has signed and dated it.
Not sure what you have been handed?
Send us what you were given and we will tell you what we think it is — a purchase agreement, an assignable contract, or the disclosure this law requires. We will give you a straight read even if the answer is that the other company is doing everything properly.
What happens if you never got it
The remedy is unusually direct, and it does not depend on proving you were harmed.
Read the money part again, because it runs the opposite way to what sellers expect. When a deal falls apart, the usual argument is about whether the buyer gets their deposit back. Here, if the disclosure was never made and you cancel, the escrow or closing agent shall disburse any earnest money paid by the wholesaler to you, the record owner, within thirty days.
You cannot be asked to sign this away
The obvious worry with any new consumer protection is that it turns into another paragraph of waiver in a contract nobody reads. Ohio closed that door in the statute itself: no provision of this section may be modified or waived by any oral or written agreement. Any portion of an agreement executed, modified or extended after the effective date that modifies or waives one of these duties or remedies is void from the outset and unenforceable.
What a violation exposes a wholesaler to
| Consequence | What it means | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| You can cancel | Any time before the close of escrow, without penalty, and their earnest money comes to you within thirty days. | ORC 5301.95(C)(1) |
| A consumer claim | A violation is an unfair or deceptive act or practice, and you are entitled to the same relief available to a consumer under Ohio’s consumer sales practices law. | ORC 5301.95(C)(3) |
| Attorney general enforcement | The powers and remedies the attorney general holds under the consumer sales practices sections are available to enforce this one too. | ORC 5301.95(C)(3) |
| Licence discipline | Failing to comply while acting as a wholesaler is its own ground for disciplinary sanctions. | ORC 4735.18(A)(40) |
The last row reaches licensees only — ORC 4735.18 is the licence discipline section. An unlicensed wholesaler is not immune, but the pressure on them comes from the first three rows, not the fourth.
Comparing offers from more than one company?
We will look at all of them with you, ours included, and tell you what each one actually commits the buyer to. If somebody else’s number is better and their contract is sound, we will tell you that.
Where this leaves advice we gave you earlier
We should be straight about something. Our own article on whether "we buy houses" companies are legit tells you to ask directly whether a buyer intends to close in their own name or assign the contract, and to look for wording like "and/or assigns" next to the buyer’s name. That advice is still worth following — but we wrote it without mentioning this statute, which had already been in force for six months.
The practical difference matters. Under the old picture, catching a wholesaler depended on you asking the right question and getting an honest answer. Now, if they are a wholesaler acting as the buyer, producing that separate boldface statement is their obligation, before you sign. You do not have to be the one who thinks of it, and its absence tells you something on its own.
Your options, honestly
Keep the house
Nothing here is a reason to sell. If an unsolicited approach started this, the approach is not a reason either.
Repair and list it
The ordinary route, and often the best net. Commissions in our area commonly run 5.5% to 6%, and that is negotiable rather than fixed.
Rent it out
No transfer, so none of this applies. Worth weighing if the pressure is income rather than the house itself.
Sell it yourself
You will deal with buyers directly, which is exactly when this statute is useful. A wholesaler approaching a for-sale-by-owner still owes you the disclosure.
Sell to a wholesaler, knowingly
A legitimate choice once you have the facts. Understand that your closing depends on them finding an end buyer, and that they may charge that buyer a separate fee. Get the timeline and the assignment terms in writing.
Sell direct to a company that closes in its own name
We buy in our own name rather than assigning contracts, so this duty does not fall on us. Do not take that on trust — use the test below.
It would be easy to write this as a warning about other companies. The useful version hands you a test you can run on anyone, and the test works on us: ask whether we will close in our own name or assign the contract, and ask for the answer in the contract rather than in conversation. If any company — this one included — gets cagey when you ask that, you have learned what you needed to know.
This describes Ohio statutes as we read them and is not legal advice. Whether a particular company is a wholesaler within the definition, and whether the disclosure obligation was met in your case, depend on facts we cannot see. This is recent law, so talk to an Ohio real estate attorney before acting on a cancellation right.
If you want someone to read the contract with you
Call or text and tell us what you have been offered. We will go through it clause by clause at no cost, and we will say plainly when the right move is to walk away from everyone, us included.
Frequently asked questions
Someone who, for a fee or other valuable consideration, enters a purchase contract for residential property either as the buyer and then assigns or novates that contract to someone else, or as the seller without holding legal title and then assigns or novates it. There are two carve-outs: an assignment to an individual related by blood, and an assignment to a parent, affiliate, subsidiary or affiliated group under common control.
A written disclosure statement, separate from the purchase contract, printed conspicuously in boldface type at a font size of not less than twelve points, in substantially the form the statute sets out — and they have to give it to you before entering a binding contract. They are prohibited from entering that contract unless you have signed and dated the statement.
Among other things: that the person is a wholesaler; that they act on their own behalf and do not represent you; that they may assign their interest in your contract to a third party without your consent before closing; that they may charge that third-party buyer a separate fee for profit; and that you are entitled to seek legal or professional advice before signing.
You may cancel the contract at any time before the close of escrow, without penalty. The escrow or closing agent must then disburse any earnest money the wholesaler paid to you, the record owner, within thirty days of the cancellation.
No. The statute says no provision of it may be modified or waived by any oral or written agreement, and that any portion of an agreement executed, modified or extended after the effective date which waives one of these duties or remedies is void from the outset and unenforceable.
Two. A violation is an unfair or deceptive act or practice under Ohio’s consumer sales practices law, giving you a cause of action and the same relief a consumer gets, with the attorney general’s enforcement powers also available. Separately, if the wholesaler holds a real estate licence, failing to comply is its own ground for discipline.
No. It is lawful and now expressly regulated. The law does not stop anyone assigning a contract for profit; it requires them to tell you plainly, in advance and in writing, that this is what they are doing.
Ask whether they will close in their own name or assign the contract, and read the buyer line for wording like "and/or assigns". But you no longer have to rely on asking: if they are a wholesaler acting as the buyer, the separate boldface statement is something they must produce before you sign. Its absence is now informative in itself.
Find out what we would pay
Free, no obligation, and no pressure. If our number does not work for you, that is a perfectly fine answer.
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