That weeds out lots of folks, and leaves me showing the place to people who are fairly likely to be qualified.Also, I start showing a place when I still have some minor stuff to do (put up blinds, final cleaning).

The biggest differences I've noticed have to do with:Where to get the list for your direct mail marketing - from a data service or directly from the county (my course teaches both ways and the pros and cons of each)What kind of mail piece to send out - postcards/neutral letters or blind offers (my course explains both, includes several mail templates for both strategies and explains the pros and cons of each)There are other subtle differences too with things like:What kind of pricing framework to use when sending offersWhat kind of software and services to useWhen the due diligence should be done during the processHow deep the due diligence research should goJust to clarify @Amy Aziz's point, the postcard approach is one of the direct mail strategies out there, but definitely not the only one I do (like anything, there are some scenarios when it makes sense and other scenarios when it doesn't).

I think sometimes our excitement can be blinding to us. 

Are you saying I should just blindly look the other way on a piece of real estate that I have nearly 200K of my money into, when my tenant could be in violation of the lease agreement, which could put me at legal and financial risk?

We do not recommend that you collect email addresses (of FSBOs, lists you buy on the Web, etc.) without them opting in to receiving mail from you and then sending them blind advertising (SPAM).

"Why don't you get a nice 6-figure job with free coffee, snacks and a ping-pong table?"

Real estate investing is blind...

So, I didn't jump blindly.  

The only work that appears to have been done is a basic cleaning and removal of the old blinds.

I don't see how people just blindly recommend others to go invest out of state.