By Gren · September 17, 2026
Start with the correction, because it is the single most important thing on this page and half the internet has it wrong.
North Carolina has no wholesaling statute in force. H797 — the bill that would require wholesalers to hold a license and give sellers a 30-day right to cancel — passed the House only. It went through 103-0 on April 30, 2025, and has sat in Senate Rules since May 1, 2025. It is not law. Its licensing mandate is not in effect. Its 30-day cancellation right is not in effect. Its 14-point-type notice, its 10-business-day refund rule and its unfair-trade-practice treatment are not in effect.
You will find write-ups stating flatly that H797 was enacted effective October 1, 2025, and that it amended G.S. 93A-2. That date was the proposed effective date in the House version. It has come and gone with the bill still in committee.
Why getting this wrong cuts both ways
If you believe H797 is law, you will conclude you cannot wholesale in North Carolina without a license, and you will pass on deals you are entitled to do.
If you believe it and then find out it is not law, the temptation is to assume North Carolina is wide open. It is not. The state polices unlicensed brokerage actively, and unlicensed brokerage here is a criminal offense — NCREC states it is a Class 1 misdemeanor, and the Commission can also pursue injunctions through the Attorney General. The correct posture is neither "I need a license" nor "anything goes." It is: know exactly which activities put you on the wrong side of §93A-2.
Recheck the bill's status before you rely on any of this. A short session can move a bill that has already cleared one chamber quickly, and if a version is ratified, the effective date and the exact notice wording will be in the ratified text, not in the House version everyone quotes.
The law that actually governs you today
Two sections and one bulletin.
N.C.G.S. §93A-1 makes it unlawful to act as a real estate broker without a license from the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.
N.C.G.S. §93A-2(a) defines a broker as anyone who, for compensation, lists, sells, buys or negotiates real estate for others. Those two words carry the whole analysis. Assigning rights under a contract you signed, as a bona fide buyer dealing in your own interest, sits outside that definition. Brokering someone else's transaction sits inside it.
The Commission's December 2023 bulletin on unlicensed activity is the closest thing North Carolina has to wholesaling guidance, and it is where the practical lines are drawn.
The six things NCREC flags
The Commission's guidance is unusually concrete. Each of these is described as unlicensed brokerage:
- Soliciting sellers with "we buy houses for cash" pitches when there is no real intent to buy. The pitch is not the problem. The absence of intent behind it is.
- Misrepresenting an ownership interest. Saying or implying you own a house you hold a contract on.
- Handling other people's due diligence fees or earnest money. Do not touch it. It goes to the closing attorney or the escrow agent, never through your account.
- Negotiating between the seller and the end buyer. The moment you are working both sides toward a meeting point, you are brokering.
- Acting for investor entities without being an officer or W-2 employee of the entity. If you are contracting on behalf of somebody else's LLC, your relationship to that LLC matters.
- Soliciting buyers generally, apart from a specific contract you hold. Building and working a buyers list as a standing sales operation is different from finding an assignee for one contract.
Read that list as a description of a business model, not a checklist of separate sins. The through-line is whether you are a buyer dealing in your own contract or a salesperson working other people's deals.
There is no numeric frequency threshold in North Carolina. No "three deals a year." The test is the activity, and volume only matters because it makes the activity visible.
What a clean North Carolina file looks like
A real contract with the seller, signed by the assignor as buyer. The Commission's position is that an unlicensed bona fide buyer may assign its own purchase-contract rights. The word doing the work is bona fide. A file showing you never actually intended to buy is the file that turns an assignment into brokerage.
An assignment clause — "and/or assigns" at minimum — plus a signed assignment that states the fee.
Written disclosure to the seller that you may assign and may profit by doing so. No statute requires this today. Do it anyway. It is one paragraph, it is the thing H797 would eventually force, and it removes the argument that the seller did not know what he was signing.
Model clause (seller): Seller understands that Buyer may assign this Contract to another buyer for a fee, that Buyer is not acting as Seller's agent or broker, and that Seller may consult an attorney or licensed broker before signing.
Closings here are handled by attorneys. Confirm the assignment and the fee appear on the settlement statement — a fee that exists in your paperwork and not on the settlement statement is a question you do not want asked later.
Marketing
Advertise the assignor's contract interest in a specific property, clearly labeled as an assignment. That is the safe shape, and it maps directly onto the Commission's list: it is specific, it is yours, and it does not claim ownership.
What to keep off your marketing: the property presented as if you own it, anything that reads as a listing, and open buyer solicitation untethered from a contract you actually hold. Licensed brokers are not a workaround either — NCREC can discipline brokers who assist unlicensed wholesalers, which means the agent helping you has more to lose than you do.
If H797 becomes law
Plan for it, do not paper for it yet. If it is enacted in something like its House form, soliciting homeowners and marketing or assigning contracts for compensation would require a license; sellers would get a non-waivable right to cancel until the earlier of 30 days after signing or the deed transfer, with refunds due within 10 business days; the cancellation notice would have to be set in 14-point type; and any violation would be an unfair or deceptive trade practice under Chapter 75. It would apply to contracts signed on or after its effective date.
That is a genuinely restrictive regime, and it passed the House without a single no vote. Treat it as likely eventually, and as not law today.
The short version
No wholesaling statute in force. H797 passed the House and is stuck in the Senate — not law, whatever you have read. What governs you is §93A-1 and §93A-2, plus NCREC's December 2023 bulletin. Be a real buyer, assign your own contract, never touch other people's earnest money, never negotiate between the two sides, never claim ownership. Disclose to the seller anyway.
And check the arithmetic before the paperwork — the free MAO calculator is faster than a lawyer.
Cut the noise. Catch the signal.
— Gren
This is general information about North Carolina law as of September 2026, not legal advice. Statutes change and facts differ. Before you rely on any of it for a specific deal, talk to a North Carolina real estate attorney. Citations: N.C.G.S. §93A-1; N.C.G.S. §93A-2(a); NCREC Bulletin, December 2023; H797 (2025–26, pending).