And most importantly, I want to conduct business in a professional and helpful manner, and do not want to be a scum bag. 

Sleeze bag.  

I usually recommend to make an offer that you will pretty much accept even if unforeseen things are there (go low and if it flies it is a grab bag, if not go for the next one).

Brown bag your lunch and drive a beater to your first closing with pride @Tori Hall!

Though I have heard some of the more affordable areas of San Rafael may be a decent market and not the bags of tech money being thrown around.Also check out condos.  

You could have discarded your letters in a public trash can, and the trash bag may have fallen from the city trucks.

But in the meantime, I am keeping the units as livable as possible, including installing new stoves, new carpet, new paint, new sub floors, etc...To answer your question, yes, I have given homeless sleeping bags, I have put up homeless in hotels, I have bought meals for the hungry, I have even had them sleep in my house.

How to wholesale gets asked umpteen times on this site.I am not a wholesaler.There are a few here where that is all they do.Hopefully they will chime in.No get rich quick stuff here.Just years and years of hard and intelligent work,learning,and blood.sweat,and tears.If everything was easy in life it wouldn't be worth achieving it.Of course the money is good in real estate but it helps if you actually love it as well.Lot's of professions out there that pay well but people can't stand what they are doing.Long term it doesn't work.When you make good money you want to protect what you have.This is why many wholesalers get ripped apart with their SUPPOSED DEALS.Many wholesalers are broke and just thinking of a quick buck when the purchaser is left holding the bag with substantially much more to lose in the end.I think you would do better to learn from a wholesaler that is highly successful and not a mediocre one that does a few deals and decides they are now selling systems to make money.Good luck

I have seen them as a homogeneous pool of Contract For Deeds (which for the reader also includes Land Contract, Bond For Title and Installment Contract For Deed...those are all the same thing) I have also seen a mixed bag of goods, where the pool contains both mortgages and CFD's.

The basements and garage were disgusting, years of trash (poor management prior to my takeover) trash bags were piled in the corner, and the dryers didn't even have vent hoses, they just vented straight into the basement.