Additionally, it is a hard pill to swallow when a cash buyer for a rehab project sees the middle men/women make $50k or more on a spread when the rehabber will be lucky to make that same $50k with a whole heck more work and more risk to make that same money.You could be better off finding deals and double ending or even triple ending the listing and make more money without all the nonsense that is typical in wholesale transactions (and often illegal with those unlicensed).

Looking for properties in my area but the pickings are slim.

The chances of that working out are very very very slim, unless the lien is small and the equity is large.

Profit margins can be slim if your intent is to Fix & Flip.

The increasing property prices are a hard pill to swallow.

There needs to be enough margin for it to be worth a damn and most homes in the class C neighborhoods would yield slim to no margins. 

I've been searching on loopnet.com but residential properties are slim pickings.

Worked well until one of my carpenters took some pills, sprayed high-gloss cabinet paint everywhere (including brick on facade) and then shot my refrigerator (yes, with a gun) when I fired him.

Cashflow is extremely important if you don't have income from other sources or are operating with a slim reserve fund.

With little capital, your options are slim.