The process I have heard of is setting a date, advertise it, and hold some open houses, and at the auction have a piece of paper listing bids and names.  

I've had one that tried to claim Landlord was liable because someone climbed up on their open air balcony and stole a piece of furniture they had left.

You came to the right place.One piece of advice that I wish someone would have given me when I was in your education phase.  

Just about every market is big enough for each of us to get our piece of the pie, while still being cooperative with other investors. 

I am considering getting my realtor license as an entry point in my investment journey mainly to gain a broader understanding of how all the pieces fit.

Do you get taxed on what you don't put into a second property or are you taxed on the whole deal of you take a piece of the profit for yourself?

Make sure your piece(s) are noticeable in a stack.

Curious to know what you said on your postcards and if you used handwritten fonts or a more polished production piece.

I'm not sure I understand Kevin's comment above......My best piece of advice is to get in the game now!

@Eric ClifftI love the fact that you are methodically & creatively designing your marketing strategy.Direct mail marketing traditional results dictate that response rates should be higher on a piece addressed to a specific person vs. anything that may resemble junk mail like a general mailing to "resident" or equivalent.However, higher response rates do not necessarily=higher profit.Run a split test on both methods to determine the profitability of each lead, not just response rate.