Newbie in Wholesaling.....HELP! :)

[Yuki Battan]

My husband and I are just new into the REI game. We are wanting to start off with wholesaling and move into rentals of single family and small multi. We live around Auburn/FW area, so are starting off 'localish'. We have found some places and had a few referred to us as potential abandoned homes. Our biggest issue at this point is getting in touch with the owners. I'm sure a bunch of other stuff will come up after that , but for now, that is what we are trying to figure out.

Also, kind of in the same line of thought, how do you find sellers?  It seems we have a list going of flippers, but am having issues trying to figure out how to find the houses with motivated sellers? 

I'm now off to dig through all the content and forums in this site, which I am sure will answer some questions, but wanted to pick some brains of my local fellow investors.

Thanks in advance for ALL and ANY advise!!!  :)