But I decided to keep trying and hone my craft.

I'll be in Denver for the craft beer show for my other job all week..... if anyone is interested in grabbing a beer/coffee, I'm happy to share my insights on my hometown and its RE market. 

A well-crafted lease and checklists for established procedures (marketing, screening, lease signing, inspections, move-out, turnovers) that you do the same each time take a lot of effort and time to develop, but once you have them in place you can rely on them to take care of 80%-90% of the work for you, with only minimal tweaks needed now and then.A really good businesses with consistent policies and procedures could run without us at the helm for a week or a month, which is good if you want to enjoy vacation/time-off.   

My marketing includes professional pictures and carefully crafted language in my online ads.

College/education learned to do your craft isn't deductible.

We have crafted our lease from many ideas here and need to pay a good Real Estate lawyer to review it.Anyone have a good NY lawyer to recommend?

Michelangelo certainly needed paint and ladders to craft his masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

My intention is to practice this craft with integrity and honesty.Here are a few things that I am currently trying to establish:Title companies in the Des Moines/Polk County area that are investor friendly and can work with assignment contracts/double closingsNetworking with Realtors that are investor friendly.Looking for purchase and sales agreements specific to my market and the common contingency clausesLooking to connect with other successful wholesalers in my area. 

It's not so much the technical skills that make the best wholesalers.The best wholesalers understand that their job is to first understand the specific needs of the seller, then to help the seller craft the best solution to their particular problem, and finally to bring on whatever skills and resources are necessary to complete the transaction profitably.If, at the end of any wholesale transaction, both the seller and the end-buyer are not better off (however they each define better), then that wholesaler did not do their job properly.

The sellers were fantastic to work with, and a win-win deal was crafted for all.