I'm mainly doing land deals right now but it's the same concept - market for properties buy really low and flip the property (except I actually close and resell). I started out printing letters and stuffing envelopes and hand addressing them. It's really time consuming and doesn't save you much money when compared to using a mailing company. It's also hard to scale up. So the one thing I can say is don't send your own mail. Use a mailing company. Maybe you already knew this, but wanted to mention it.
Other thing I use - Dropbox - but any cloud-based file storage system will work. It's not necessary, but it's nice to be able to access your documents on any computer or smartphone. A really good document scanner helps too. I use the scansnap s1300i by Fujitsu.
Right now I have my calls going to a google voice number and that's free. I need to do some research on phone systems like RingCentral but have been putting it off.
One thing I haven't figured out yet is a system to record incoming leads and to organize their information. So far the volume I'm doing hasn't made that a big isuue. I can see that eventually if I scale my marketing, I will need something to organize this.
I think once you start getting deals you can decide what would help you the most. You don't have to have everything set up before you get started. Too many people get caught up in setting up an LLC, getting a PO BOX and getting a website and lots of other details. The most important thing is to get letters/postcards in the mail so that you can get deals. Everything else is secondary.
