Aside from permits, real estate fees, commissions, taxes, etc.

I have since purchased 3 buildings, 26 parcels of land, and one referral commission.

Do you have a commission split with the broker on off market properties?

That 5K could be eaten up quickly by repairs that were not visible up front, and then there is still the fact that there will be closing costs too that will consume that 5K (even flat fee listing on the resale with a 2.5% commission to buyer's agent will take more than 3K alone).Maybe this can work as a "subject to", but that is another topic - and it might not be a good candidate for that approach because you still have that big rehab number.

Offering your contract at public auction, in my opinion is a great way to gererate interest and to expose the property.As a professional auctioneer - depending on what price you are in for and what you will accept as a net-equity profit - I would suggest a reserve public auction (you'll have more participants if you do an absolute auction).Not all auctioneers are good at marketing real estate - you'll need to interview them - you'll need to know the following:how much advertising money do they want up front to market the property, commission, time frame, how many real estate deals have they done, are they honest, will they do an assignment, are they respected in the community, where will they market your deal, get references, are they authorized to conduct real estate auctions?

GOOD LUCK with that.Some OOS commissioned sellers said the samething about LA every year for the past 5 years.  

We negotiated the commission on the sell side because I was very easy to work with and closed quickly on the purchases.

I have never seen a tenant have to pay the commissions for the agent.

You can go to AREC (Alabama Real Estate Commission) website to get some options of approved courses.

That way you can buy houses from distressed homeowners (wholesaling) and sell the homes in good condition for a nice commission.