Do you see moms walking their babies in strollers, children riding their bikes down the street, and guys washing their cars in the driveways or painting their garage door?

Those that don't get washed away with all the other phonies.Get rich slowly in real estate and you're very likely to remain wealthy.

You need to at least do mailers for 3 to 6 months to get a CONTROL for your numbers and returns.You need to understand if you are getting a bunch of calls from the mailer than the message is affective you are just getting there TOO LATE from what the sellers are telling you.You have to analyze how you can get in early than everyone else.I use to mail to pre-foreclosures.Most investors were lazy and bought these lists from companies that assembled the notices.Instead I pulled the info from the court like these companies did.This gave me 1 to 2 weeks head start before most of the competition.Then by the time the others piece came in the mail I already had the property listed for sale.I beat out the mortgage brokers to refinance,investors wanting to buy,wholesalers wanting to lock up,loan modification companies,attorneys wanting them to file bankruptcy,other brokers and agents trying to list the property etc.Getting there first and becoming the authority in your area for doing deals is critical to success.Out of the 900 mailers you need to assign a code to those so you can log how many calls are generated from that mailing and how much deals are closed to get your return on investment.For my real estate listings I have people call sometimes 6 months to 1 year after I have been mailing them once a month.The key is to have targeted marketing so that you continously close deals in between the new contacts so you remain solvent and profitable.

I have a bulk mail permit and just put the labels on myself, or pay some illegal child a few cents to do it, then send them back out to wash my car.

Yes I can tell you the 50% rule rarely happens with properties.There are many,many buyers who do underestimate repairs and as long as they are solvent and look good banks will loan to them based on a high sales price.I would consider going higher than the 50% if the property had been recently renovated inside and out in a decent area and my hold time was only for a few years.The quads I bought at the height of the market went for 400,000 a piece back in 2008,2009.I didn't pay anywhere close to that but as the market comes back competition and CAP rate compression will hit driving sales prices up,up,up.Seasoned investors might not buy at those prices but plenty of other buyers will.I see people with 401k's retiring with 250,000.They plow it into buying a restaurant that when they work it full time might make the 40k a year.Little do they know how hard they will have to work and how small the returns will be.There is no way to hit the numbers you are hitting in the areas I would buy in.I have other exit strategies besides a long term hold and purely cash flow so motivation is different.

It could be doing handyman type work, power washing, fixing stuff, or whatever skill set you have that will pay nicely.Not trying to be a jerk here, but it's time to man up, stop whining about your problems, and get out there and hustle.

Wash, rinse, repeat Thanks so much for any and all help 

One is a cuz that us a Pilot instructor, haven't talked with hm in years so I'm not sure what or where he is or what he is flying , pretty sure he is flying the F22 Raptor or at least he was, he might be flying a few differant planes seeing how he us a instructor?

I would add laundry to each individual unit with partial refund on the washing machines from my  water company.

Those people wont work harder than their peers, they will probably actually pass on email that comes through hoping someone else takes care it for them so they can continue watching YouTube while their boss isn't looking.One more thing, I had 22 year old working at the printing business last year... not a dumb guy, also dropped out of college and wanted to do something his own way, but there was a problem and that problem was he had no motivation.