Guide · Deal counts
Most wholesaling laws ask what you did. Illinois and Virginia ask how many times. Both states wrote the same test into their license laws: dealing in contracts — expressly including assignable contracts — on 2 or more occasions in any 12-month period is a pattern of business, and a pattern makes you a broker.
It is a rolling window, not a calendar year: every new deal looks back 12 months. In Illinois the count aggregates across partners and entities under common ownership — rotating LLCs does not reset it (225 ILCS 454/1-10 (definition of broker, as amended by Public Act 101-0357); license required by § 5-5). Virginia's version (in force since July 1, 2024) mirrors it through Va. Code § 54.1-2100.
One principal deal sits outside the pattern test in both states: your name on the contract, your own contract interest marketed, never the property itself. The danger is amnesia — operators cross the line on deal two without ever deciding to. Track the count from day one; the kit includes a rolling 12-month tracker with the thresholds flagged.
Minnesota presumes you are 'in the business' at 5 transactions in 12 months — a general statute, not a wholesaling law, and most guides miss it. Rhode Island joins the count club on 2027-01-01, with the same 'more than once' trigger plus disclosures and a 3-business-day cancellation.
Illinois: Civil penalty up to $25,000 per violation (§ 20-10). Each transaction is a separate violation. Virginia: Unlicensed-activity penalties under Virginia's real estate licensing law, enforced by the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR).
The checker takes your deal count as an input and applies your state's threshold to it.
A printable 12-month deal-count tracker with the Illinois, Virginia, Minnesota and Rhode Island thresholds flagged before you cross them.
Included in the $49 Compliant Path Kit