There’s no secret sauce.

I like Zig Ziglars "Secrets of Closing the Sale."

Then in 2017 I had a knock on my door and it was the Secret Service. 

The secret to finding homes to flip is to be direct to seller or direct to good wholesaler.

That said, from 32,000 feet, I’d have a lot of questions. 1) Asheville is definitely not a secret, the boom started many years ago.

Here is a secret to get rid of it, but I recommend you doing it outdoors because the fumes will be very strong- muriatic acid - dilute 1:1 with water and scrub away. 

It's not like reputable hard money lenders are running some secret racket where you find out nothing was as it seems.

Again, other might feel differently here.b) Skin in the game: as a conservative investor, I understand that the dirty secret of industries that the waterfall compensation is in the line with me and incentivizes sponsors to take more risk.

That's all wholesaling is as it's taught in these programs, it's brokering real estate except instead of being up front & telling the distressed seller that you'll sell their property for X amount & take X amount as your commission / fee you are taught to lie to the seller & pretend you are going to buy the property while you secretly attempt to "assign" your contract.It doesn't work.

Yeah, the secret is out.