Aspiring Wholesaler in Lansing Michigan with a few questions.

[James Dean-Howell]

I attended a real estate investment club meet-up in my home city when I was visiting family and the head of the association told me I should start mailing letters immediately to start wholesaling.

I've done some research, watched a few videos on youtube, and read the book "The Art of Wholesaling Properties: How to Buy and Sell Real Estate Without Cash or Credit" by Aram Shah.

1. Is there a better way to mail quickly outside of writing by hand, while being on a low budget?

I've heard a few sources say that wholesaling is the quick and cheap/free way to get into real estate. However I've already spent at least 100 dollars so far. I had to go buy Stamps. I just bought 100 to start with, which was 55 dollars. I had to buy colored greetings cards. I bought 2 packs of 50, which were pretty cheap. About 7 dollars a pack. However now I'm probably going to need to buy a Laser printer for printing off Legal documents. That will be 150 dollars right there. Not to mention travel expenses for visiting any person that calls and wants to meet. Then there is the list. I spent 50 dollars on Listsource generating a list of 94 properties In my area which owe taxes.

Why are people saying wholesaling is free?

2. Now that I have my letters I've written and mailed about 25 so far. However I write each letter by hand and each letter takes about 10 minutes to write. It's just a small paragraph that I write. The time I take to attach the stamp to the letter, write my address, write the correct address of the person I am mailing on the envelope. Then write the message on the actual letter I put inside the envelope, while making sure everything is proof read correctly since I'm using an ink pen. IT takes a lot of time per letter. And people are talking about a 5 percent call back ratio, 10 percent if lucky.

I have a full time job. Is this wholesaling? Is there a faster and cheaper method I'm missing? If this is it I plan on doing it anyway because I want to buy my first rental property this year. So wholesaling seems like a good way to learn rehab costs, how things are generally priced in my area, and other useful information for my first home purchase. This process of writing letters to mail by hand simply doesn't seem like the method people teaching how to wholesale are talking about. They definitely didn't explain the details in the book I read. They are talking about a starting campaign of 1000 letters minimum. Are they seriously sitting down and spending 5 to 10 minutes writing out each letter by hand?

Thoughts?