I've had contact with merely a dozen or so personal reps with the idea of wholesaling to another investor, but I am curious as to what percentage of probate deals can be expected using other strategies such as seller-financing, lease-option, etc. and what tips you off that will determine the best strategy to use.

Please take my assessment with a grain of salt as I am merely working on acquiring my second deal.Having said that...I don't know Brian Gibbons.  

I've primarily focused on finding cash flowing properties rather than ones I believe may appreciate, but when you live in a place with so much historical evidence supporting strong appreciation I guess it's something that should definitely be considered rather than dismissed as mere speculation. 

Your tax returns won't change merely by operating it as an LLC.

Funny that @Aaron Mazzrillo made the same remark about Halbert that I was reminded of.Not unlike Denny's restaurants, no one intends to move to Boron but merely ends up there.Besides the Federal Prison, US Borax is a major employer with their massive boron open-pit mine. 

Now it is true that you will sign an affidavit saying you intend to live in the property X amount of time, typically 6 or 12 months...but again...you do not have another property picked out..you are merely planning for the future in that you would like to move, but you may not actually be able to.

Merely knowing nights rented is not enough.

I am also a Canadian from Toronto and getting conventional financing is a mere wishful thinking in the US.

- You might not know when things are done up to code.Overall I decided to start using a GC for the mere fact of saving time.

The first paper discusses momentum and how very short-term trends tend to snowball into trends that are just relatively short-term; it doesn't claim any predictability over long periods of time and doesn't give any indication that momentum is predictable before it starts or is predictable in its reversal.The second paper merely indicates that there is less correlation between capital markets and housing markets than one might assume; I have no idea how that supports any theories of appreciation, but it did somewhat change my opinion of how capital markets impact (or don't impact) housing markets?