Most deals coming from consistent direct mail.

It has been an affordable way for me to accumulate houses in the $40K price range that consistently rent around $900/month.  

My husband and I plan on teaming up to conduct our REI business. Any advice, thoughts, stories about married couples going into REI together?

My entire list consisted of landlords who recently bought the property and they just called me to get on my "buyer's list."

Not every deal has to be a home-run, but as long as you consistently make good, solid deals and no mistakes you'll be fine!

You follow the old ways, but you work hard and you do things consistently, day after day.  

I haven't studied all the figures as consistently as you, but I definitely agree with what you're saying, and have heard/seen the same things.I'm sure you've also heard from scared people over the years that the shadow inventory is going to cause the local market to plummet; it's always on the cusp of happening... but of course never has.

It worked great for the items we put on there but were not always consistent with uploading all the info and this cost us many trips and tons of time duplicating work that had already been done. 

California is much harder to find that 2% rule and I'll be interested to see what you come up with where the buying power is so strong and the rents are that strong and consistent.

I think you have to be consistent with strict rental criteria and stick to it.