Does anyone know how the market is in Houston, Texas for buying distressed homes and and selling for a profit at this time of year.

Yes, I can see my reading schedule will be increasing :)  Right now keep an eye out for below market priced housing and distressed properties.

The only reason I have behind going with the distressed 10-20k properties is that is pretty much what we have to start our investment with.

My business partner @Tommy Mejia and I have done a great deal of research on market trends in our target areas to see which ones have already started to show signs of a distressed local economy.I'm assuming it can "help" the wholesaling industry when you look at the number of leads and motivation from sellers as times get rough.

They are contracted by HUD and various other lending institutions to sell their distressed real estate.

I have been essentially buying minority shares of distressed properties, living in them rent free, and fixing them up for re-sale for about 4 years now.

I'm looking for distressed properties such as pre-foreclosures, probate property, individuals with late payments and tax issues.

We're looking for distressed assets in each class. 

Market to potentially distressed homeowners, find out how you can help them with their situation, market the property to your group of investors that you have networked with from BP and the local REIAs.

On the buyer side, my advice would be to have one or two really strong investors ready to pull the trigger on short notice, so that when you find something in distress, you have ability to place it quickly, often while earning the entire commission with no split.