To Direct mail or not, that is the question.

[Don Crandell]

Okay, yes I am a noob.

I have experience buying a home at an auction, which went fairly well for me. I plan on selling this place during the summer of 2015 and will need a replacement home to do a live in flip with.

My credit score is around 760.

I have a considerable amount of construction experience.

Currently I earn around $75K a year.

I live in Riverside County, CA

I also have a real estate salespersons license.

Plan A

So on to the question, I can go the easy, although from what I have read, the more risky rout and buy a home or contract from a wholesaler. Risky because being a noob I don't know who to trust as far as a wholesaler goes.  

Or

Plan B

I can go and try my hand at direct mailing to supply myself with a possible project. The problem I have here is that I am out of town half of the week and would not be able to babysit a telephone. I could however hire out an answering service to handle all of the incoming calls and get back to the callers within a day or so.

My job represents the biggest hurdle.

Plan A, in order to double check or fact check a wholesalers facts I would need access to the MLS to do comps. In order to do comps I would need to be employed by a real estate Brooker........,,,,or maybe I can gain access without being attached....any info on this? I remember one podcast mentioning MLS access through a site outside of the MLS which carried the same and current info as the MLS.

Plan B, I would need to get back to callers in a reasonable amount of time before the leads go stale.

If I go with Plan B I might be able to go with traditional financing. I also posted a question about buying from a wholesaler and using traditional financing, which also looks possible, so Plan A might work.

I am looking for a good strategy given the information I have supplied. Thanks in advance./DC