Narrowing down absentee owners

[Daryl Williams]

hello all, after reading a few books and following many topics on here i decided to take some action and mail out a few (30) letters to absentee owners. Now i know that 30 is not nearly enough to get any leads but thats not why i'm writing.

From those 30 letters i have received five calls so far from sellers looking to sell. The only problem is that there was not enough profit to be made from any of these deals because of the amount left on the sellers mortgages. 

How much equity should i look for in a property before i add it to my list? Is there a formula or minimum amount i should look for?

Any and all insights will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks