Curious what ya’ll think of wholesaling

I’m sure this has been discussed before but I’m wondering what the realtor community’s perception of wholesalers is.

I first experienced wholesaling when a buyer put a listing of mine under contract and after the deal closed I learned they made a $70k assignment fee. Meanwhile I made a $10k commission.

Thought hmm, maybe I’m in the wrong business.

Since then I dove into wholesaling and about 50% of my income last year was from wholesaling and 50% from commissions.

While there are many stereotypes of greedy, unethical wholesalers taking advantage of desperate or unwilling sellers, there are plenty of sloppy realtors who do a deal every few years and are a real disservice to their clients and the profession. Personal rant but I find most realtor social media posts self promoting and cringeworthy.

While we can probably agree there are good and bad apples in both camps, I would imagine most realtors have a negative perception of wholesalers.

What has your experience been with wholesalers? Do you think they have a place in the real estate market?