I guess I need to become my own wholesaler?

[Tom Lafferty]

Okay, I feel like an idiot admitting this, but over the last few months that I've been researching and learning about rei, I assumed that marketing was only done by wholesalers. I originally set out to buy several buy and hold rentals in crappy shape, rehab and rent them and end up with instant equity in the 100-130k ARV range. Apparently I'm about six months late to the party in the Dallas area, and the deals everyone was scooping up all day long are not so plentiful now. Then I decided I had to look into wholesaling, which does not really interest me. I've even been talking to Homevestors for the last month regarding an associate franchise. It seemed like that would be a great way to keep the best ones for rental or rehab and assign the rest.
I've been scouring the marketing forums on BP and didn't even consider the fact that one could market just for their own deals. I guess all the studying I've done on wholesaling and the consistency and volume necessary to be successful clouded my thinking.
Finally my question. Is it reasonable to think that smaller amounts of marketing would be effective enough to find a deal here and there to rehab and sell or hold for rentals? I was listening to an interview with a successful wholesaler this week who does about 4 deals a month, and spends $10,000 a month on marketing to do so. WOW. While that is still a profitable endeavor, do I need to set my expectations accordingly? I realize lots of factors affect the success of anyones marketing efforts, but I sure hate to start dropping thousands a month in yellow letters and postcards only to find that its not near enough.
I'm working on cultivating some relationships with realtors and wholesalers in the area, but I'm thinking as a newbie, its gonna be tough to find deals with decent margins in such a tight market.
Another possibility might be to find a rehabber in the area that has had some success but might be willing to partner with me using my capital, and let me learn along the way.
I canNOT seem to write small posts so thank you if you read this far! Any insight would be appreciated.