I've found a pretty good niche for myself in my own little city but I feel like I shouldn't put all my eggs in one basket and I know I need to work on new things in new places in order to learn and grow more...but this uncertainty is killing me.

Just too much eggs in one basket.

An example is if a note had 3 years remaining that was paying 4,000 year but you paid $10k for it, your ROI is 40% but your overall return (interest rate you paid yourself which is IRR) is much lower.Where to find notes - you can find them everywhere but the low hanging fruit you will pay retail and have lower returns.

The downside is that the money is tied up, but that also means it is more likely to be there when you are retired and no longer able to work.No one is arguing against investing in real estate (we wouldn’t be on BP if we didn’t think it is a great way to build wealth), but why put all your eggs in one basket especially if you can use someone else’s money to diversify?

As for customer service and relationships...my bank agents are nice and easily accessible, however, those relationships have yet to be fruitful in terms of lending.

If the guests think everyone is getting a hand written note/welcome basket, it just becomes part of the expectation. 

Im in the Atlanta and Cleveland markets from Texas and have enjoyed the fruits of out of state real estate with 6.08% yields on a couple of properties after 2 years and 14.07% YTD. 

Most of the high-volume wholesalers are getting a premium for their deals and sometimes they are buying them and "wholetailing" them.The market will change with the housing bubble and wholesalers will be less valuable as bank own properties "REO's" will be the low hanging fruit, per the investor buyer perspective (just like what happened in 2008).

We leave them in a small basket on the counters in every bathroom and embroidered on them MAKEUP so it is pretty obvious what they are for.We have a mix of standard terry cloth and microfiber in each room.

It can be a fruitful but frustrating market to work in.I don't send mailers as it takes too long to get to the seller and they will probably have relisted by the time they get the mailer.