The early grind of wholesaling...what's next?

[William Brown]

I met up with a friend Wednesday who is also educated in real estate to talk about starting a small wholesaling business. We decided to make it work, and to take action immediately. Instead of wasting time ordering business cards we took massive action and went driving for dollars for 6 hours the next day. We got a couple good possible addresses and deals, but theres a lot of money in Loudoun County, Northern Virginia so it was pretty bare. We decide to do some research and the next day drove around for 5 hours in Winchester, VA with much better success. We have over 50 addresses in a spreadsheet and currently looking up the basic property information on realtor.com/redfin/etc and reverse searching the owner's contact information on whitepages. Once we get the majority of the contact information we will start cold calling the houses and finding out what the owners want to do with their maintenance deferred properties to try and create a deal. We are in contact with a local realtor who owns rental properties herself, and am meeting with a settlement/title attorney next Wednesday to discuss future business opportunities.

That's the backstory, here's my question to you. Besides getting an agent to pull comps for the ARV, how do I go about determining repair costs and "as-is" value without paying possible thousands to inspectors/appraisers so I can offer my highest price to the seller while also leaving meat on the bone for my end buyer? Thanks!