I agree with Bjorn, doesn't matter if it's a friend or stranger selling it, or if it's brand new.

There's no way we would have paid what we did for this house if we had bought it from a stranger and we shouldn't have from family either.

I know many preach "find a deal and the money will find you" but your 1st deal out being green if that's your strategy talk to friends and family (why would a stranger invest in someone with no experience?).

Your letter can tell them how easy you can make it for them to sell their house without having all sorts of strangers walk through.You need to invest in some marketing to find these diamonds in the rough, but agreeing with @Jason Burr, it could be much more expensive in the long run to buy in the truly low end towns.

I told my neighbors so they wouldn’t be alarmed at seing strangers coming and going.

@Michael Raposo instead of asking a bunch of strangers that have no experience in your city, you should contact the city and ask them.

I'd use that real estate to list more benefits of working with you rather than a conventional broker (no showings with strangers going through your house, Help with clean out etc)

They don't have to fix things up they won't have strangers traipsing through their home looking at everythingyou will clear out everything they don't want to take with themYou can suggest movers, yard sale people etcYou can move fast and get cash right awayAnother segment could be Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS). 

Paying cash-as-is is a "feature" the benefits are - they don't have to fix things up or have strangers traipsing through looking at everything.

Then you can argue with strangers on BP about the legalities of wholesaling...