The energy companies and automotive industry are not ones that like new competitors either. 

It would have been cheaper to swipe a credit card for the purchase (please don't tell me this is what you did).

Most of my over priced competitors homes sold for LESS then I originally told the seller they could get.   

All in all, I am analytical by nature and refuse to offer what competitors are paying in the area for REOs.

Once you determine the specific motivation of that particular seller, it should give you an idea of whether timing your offer will improve your chances of getting the deal or whether it's better to just make the offer before a competitor does.

It is not something to promote my SEO, It does DAMAGE for me to tell others not to do bandit signs, because I get a LOT of my leads because of my competitors doing bandit signs.

Bird dogs are generally competitors, since they're finding properties and feeding them to investors.

Don't know about you @Dick Rosen  but do you find that the really bad "wholesalers" look at you as more of a competitor, rather than the lifeblood of their business?

So you KNOW you WILL need a website eventually and doing this first will give you the advantage over every other competitor that will start their website AFTER you start yours!

You can also go for a rental arbitrage,  rent from someone the exact same house,  make all the cash flow,  scale faster,  get a better ROI, and much more benefits. ( ofcourse put in the lease that you can sublease/do STR.)You Also must add vacancy based on your competitors it should be between 10%-60% vacancy.