For many graduates, paying off student debt takes years. But one driven woman, Sadie Earl, cleared $16,000 in just 11 months using a powerful real estate side hustle: wholesaling. She did it without investing her own money and shows how anyone can follow her path.
A real estate side hustle means earning extra income from housing deals while keeping your day job. Wholesaling real estate is one of the easiest and cheapest side hustles. Here’s how it works:
You don’t need big investment money. You need drive, a team, and a system to find good properties quickly.
Tech side hustle tip: Tools like DealMachine make this easier. You drive neighborhoods looking for houses that need work, then drop pins in the app to track properties for follow-up. It helps scale your hustle.
Sadie Earl graduated from college in May 2020 and started working for Mainstate Property Group in Indianapolis. She had $16,000 in student loans and no plans to wait years to pay them off.
“I had bigger dreams than having this cloud stand over me,” she said.
Her plan? Use her wholesaling real estate side hustle as her engine. She joined a “driving for dollars” contest at her company and leaned into it.
To win the contest and win back her financial freedom, she:
She built a repeatable process: spot, log, contact, contract, repeat.
Mainstate’s bonus setup rewarded sales brought in through the side hustle program. Sadie earned about 50% of the total deal revenue because she sourced the contracts herself.
Within two deals, she earned enough to pay off the entire $16,000 in loans in less than a year.
Many new wholesalers fail by adding every run-down home they see. Sadie found focusing on high-probability signs gives faster results:
Stick to a shortlist of these red-flag indicators. You’ll close more quickly and with better results.
Remember: Quantity is a distraction. Quality gets deals.
Let’s talk dollars:
The takeaway: even part-time wholesalers can unlock enough income to pay off student loans or build a nest egg quickly.
Here are ways to start or improve your real estate side hustle:
Use apps like DealMachine to catalog distressed homes in a market. Drive consistently and watch for key signs.
Choose only homes with visible neglect or vacancy. Avoid wasting time on any old run-down house.
Use skip tracing, mailers, or direct calls. In wholesaling, speed matters more than volume.
Connect with cash buyers or rehabbers ready to close fast. The easier you make the transaction, the faster you get paid.
Your goal is to secure a contract price low enough to leave room for your fee. Know your margins.
Log how many drives, calls, contacts, contracts, and deals you make. This turns your hustle into a repeatable process.
Sadie didn’t stop after one contest. After paying off her debt, she became VP of Marketing at Mainstate, and she’s now building her investment portfolio with her husband.
If you want to grow your side hustle into real income, follow these steps:
This builds a long-term business, not just one-off deals.
Not in most states. Wholesalers don’t buy homes; they assign contracts. Still, check your state’s rules or talk to a real estate attorney first.
Typical fees range from $2,000–$10,000 for starters. In bigger markets, $15,000–$25,000 is common. Sadie cleared $8,000 per deal on average.
Apps like DealMachine, skip tracing tools for phone numbers and mailers, and a CRM to track contacts. Even just a phone and a notebook work if you follow up consistently.
From driving to assignment, deals can close in a few weeks. With the right buyer network, it’s a fast cycle compared to flipping homes.
Treat it like a business, and your side hustle can provide serious income, fast.
This side hustle approach helped Sadie pay off $16,000 of student debt in 11 months. You don’t need to be a full-time investor or have deep pockets.
With consistent work, you can earn enough to crush loans or jumpstart a real estate portfolio.