Although I wouldn't count this out on your search, as recently I've had a successful launch in the Poconos and have seen high rental rates ever since. 

Honestly I never listened to any podcasts (real estate or otherwise) until Bigger Pockets launched it's podcast.

With that list, I will be launching a 6-12 month direct mail campaign (combination of yellow letters and postcards), with the hopes of wholesaling any deals I come across.My question is, are there any additional other criteria I should be looking?

However, for that to happen they need to hang their licenses somewhere (I assume), because their brokerage does not want them working for someone else type thing without taking a cut.. so it starts to make since to launch my own brokerage.This is for the state of Virginia. 

Thank you Lane, and thank you Brad.As far as a business plan goes, I would like to start with single family homes or condominiums.

I use Tellus App for rental property management stuff and it seems they have launched investment feature these days.

For me 1-4 set me up for success, but 5 was the way that I learned the most and launched into RE. 

Put your money to work without your name on a mortgage for the three years and you could be im a great position to launch in the fourth.

Would appreciate any advice on what you would think would be reasonable for the homeowner and convey sincerity to the traveler.TIA, Mike    On a separate note - When is the website launching?

I'm an interdisciplinary designer & marketing consultantI'm fairly new to RE, however, don't think of me as naive.This post gave me the idea of House Hacking: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/2872/blog_post...I learned how to do a simultaneous close from a brilliant man & mentor for a different purpose.That specific technique piqued my interest in REI & seemed practical for what I'd like to do & simultaneously allow me to find housing.I love what I do it's profitable, however, I want to do more.This is my vision:I'm initiating a new startup co Seven Times Eight a new platform for co-working & education technology.After months of strategic planning & close examining we’ve decided to put our initial focus on uniting the best and brightest minds to solve the ongoing problem of education reform.We plan to launch around Jan '16.