Big thanks to @Dave Foster.

About your concerns on rents: you'll be hard pressed to find an example in modern history where rents declined in a meaningful way, not even 2008. 

Kevin Foster, Business Development Manager, Evergreen Note Servicing, Puyallup, WA.

Now if you are seeing that almost everyone has a college degree except for a few outliers whose actions did not follow any particular course you can duplicate than its time to drop the lesser goal for the greater goal, suck it up, go to college and establish yourself in every meaningful way that will get you to where you want to be.My personal advice is just one of many voices but I'll give it.

Although it's s great market, it can vary neighborhood to neighborhood and zip codes are too geographically broad to be very meaningful.

Occasionally their speakers have something to sell but always educational and meaningful.  

Fortunately I was able to find skilled and trustworthy contractors, and share equity stake with them to give them skin in the game and ambition to be successful.To get the seller to closing, I built a short but meaningful relationship with the seller.

I would like to keep fostering this relationship as much as I can, but this market is starting to force my hand.Final question, being a cash buyer, how does it work when an agent isn't involved in the very beginning?

If you are a "one trick pony" and only trying to wholesale or fix and flip with 65 % LTV, and have very limited money to invest in marketing,  it is not unusual to go 9 to 12 months with very little to show for it, maybe longerIf you are a transaction engineer, with a full toolbox, helping sellers sell and maximizing their equity, you can buy on "sub to", wraps, lease options, and installment sales on free and clear properties.You can jv with sellers on minor rehabs that do not fit traditional numbers.See @Dev Horn s marketing video "the rule of 7" which means it takes seven mailings to one list to get a meaningful resultWhere I live in Los Angeles it's not uncommon for people to spend five to $10,000 every month when searching for wholesaling prospectsWholesaling is not for the faint of heart. 

The majority of calls I make do not end in any meaningful negotiations, but I imagine it's a numbers game and I will make a significant contact at some point.