I always put an yellow and black or black and white, "I will buy this house today if the owner will call me at 000-000-0000" yard sign by the sidewalk, and it has gotten me a call back about 46% of the time.

Preferably more like the 6% a Realtor would have cost them.Only you can decide whether that is enough meat on the bone for you.

Hi,Looking at the property is most important. if you tell her you can just drive by or look inside to determine if you will make a full offer or if she will have to bring money to the table she may help out more.When you get the address you might be able to google it and at least see the outside and the neighborhood the street view.Short sales take a lot of time and red tape, it has to be approved and the seller will have to prove she can no longer make the normal payments.If that is the case the mortgage holder is looking for a magic number, I have done a few of these.What else is going on with this deal?

@Mike Nuss man do I miss the Lucky Lab, have an extra IPA for me at the next meeting!

Admittedly the tone may have been more confrontational than necessary, although I did try to preface with the fact that I don't have any direct knowledge of the matter to avoid giving others the wrong impression.Back to the meat of the subject - the flow of your deal certainly makes more sense as you lay it out more fully, namely that you were fully transparent with the seller throughout the process - which is a great best practice and example for others to follow.I would still caution newbies against language such as "selling through a wholesaler".

Plenty more houses out there with much more meat on the bone for you to get your first deal. 

Using invitation style envelopes, red handwriting, and first class postage will all help your open rate but I think if you want to get more quality leads it's going to be in the message of the letter.For example, the standard "Hello, My name is Justin and I want to BUY your house at Address." letter will get you a lot of calls.

The most important thing as an investor I believe is to make sure when you do your due diligence on a property you plan to buy or put under contract you take a look at the folder the building inspector has on that address down town at the courthouse... to make sure there isnt or was not a red tag on the issue of lead based paint abatement or poisoning that may have occurred at that address.

A "yellow letter" is most popular as a handwritten letter in red ink on a sheet of yellow lined paper, although I've seen it done with different variations.

I felt that there was no more upward mobility for me at work, and with both my wife and putting in 11 hours a day so we could afford to live in one of the few useable school districts for our son (that we weren't seeing for more than a couple hours a day), we felt it was time to realize the appreciation on our house and jump ship.