First up, I intend to mail to substitute trustees and people who are nearing or in pre foreclosure.

Not sure what you mean by too early.I’d still buy pre-foreclosure if a seller contacted me; we just don’t target market for those anymore.what I mean is 99.5% of people are still in major denial.. and so trying to spend a ton of time dealing with them at the substitute trustee stage will be fruitless.people in this situation in my humble experience only get serious the day before they lose it or 2 days before.we never even contacted them until 5 days before auction.. and the reason we KILLED it is we had little competition.. most need loans to buy we did not.. most rely on attorney or title company for the transfer we did not we did it ourself..

A - Invest $100, add value to $120, market corrects to $100 in year 1, but you achieve an 8% return from cash flow and principal reduction.B - Invest $100, add value to $120, market remains as-is (or it takes longer to correct), you achieve target returns of 15-20%C - Invest $0, earn $0.Substitute appropriate figures...just trying to generate dialogue.It's hard to model things like a market correction or rising cap rates, get excited about lower returns, and make a purchase but idle cash and the war chest strategy (scenario C) can be costly relative to scenario A (except with an appreciation only/market timing strategy...let's ignore that one for simplicity).Many of us have analyzed and turned down a ridiculous number of deals and we see a lot of posts about waiting for a correction but the math seems to suggest otherwise if investors are adding enough value (and generating cash flow, using long-term debt, buying in solid locations, or investing for the very long-term).  

I'm learning that there is simply no substitute for going and seeing the market for yourself.I do have a question as it relates to the Birmingham sub-markets.

I think I paid lawyers 4 or 5 times to do the steps but twice I was appointed as the SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE and saved myself about $1,000-$1,200. 

So the only way to transform a seller carry into a 1031 (or 1031 substitute, if you will) is to (1) put the note into the exchange and then (2) Buy the note with outside funds?

This allows me to be completely comfortable with the ARV of a potential rehab, the rental rate for a 3BR unit, etc.Although a license certainly isn't necessary to succeed, I don't believe there's any substitute to direct MLS access for quickly learning the market and analyzing deals.   

As a means to building wealth, however, there is no practical substitute for homeownership.”

Then, dates started slipping by a lot, I noticed they were substituting cheap materials, and they weren't doing some things I asked for.

There are strategies to protect your ssn and substitute for an entity TIN but most likely to late now.