So investing in a quality camera/ or professional photographer is a great investment.Also did you paint the siding or is it new?

(lower spread, lower conversion.)Moral of the story... both leads hold their place, but probates should definitely be a big focus, and a beginning focus, along with perfecting your systems and your actual DM piece.Here's a ROUGH breakdown of the last 6 months of deals comparing the 2 lead sources (just to give you an idea):Probate:Mailing 4,000 leads/month (6 months) (total mailed 24,000)-12-14 deals (240 leads roughly)-average assignment: $17,500 (our sales team is top tier)Absentee:Mailing 40,000 leads/month (6 months) (total mailed 240,000)-70-80 deals (thousands of leads...2400+)-average assignment: $9,500These are again, rough numbers, but paint the picture with the KPIs that I was able to track...Let me know if there's any questions, I feel as if this topic is very under discussed and I would like to spread some of what I have learned.

Then I painted the whole unit and replaced all flooring, including the renovation, with two more.

My vacancy was 2 weeks, but that is really only because i needed to get the house painted and new carpet installed. 

Learn how to repair, paint, landscape.

New paint, flooring, etc. 7 months.

Let me paint you a picture:Ivan Galamian is generally thought of as the greatest violin teacher who ever lived.

Are these C/D class properties that were treated poorly, and paying above-retail contractor rates to paint & fix holes? 

Most of the guys also have a min starting repair budget that adjusts based on their findings, but they assume off the top that the house will need a new roof, new windows, paint (inside and out), several thousands in landscaping,  and appliances. 

That's not how investing works.There will be bumps along the way, so plan for them and they won't be so surprising.There are many investors using myriad strategies, you could spend you entire life learning REI, or painting, or you could just grab a brush and start.