The investors that make a living fixing and flipping and/or building a rental portfolio are those that usually get the leads directly from the seller themselves, a bank contact, a real estate agent, or an attorney. 

This was a direct buyer-seller transaction.

You could've taken the more "stable" route and did the regular 9-5 routine.Your success is a direct testament to the risk you've taken over a # of years in this field. 

Now, if you are in a very competitive market, I can see the benefit of reaching out to the listing agent directly. but still, as a first time home buyer, you should get an agent.

Thank you for the direct replies.

My starting liquid funds are about 100k cash, 150k HELOC, and 250k in a self directed IRA.

Clearly the ultimatum is RUBS is free to implement and only costs a monthly fee to pay a company to do it for you or your own labor to do it each month vs. pay for a larger up front cost to install meters (that is not always cheap) and a monthly monitoring cost.

My partner is one of the biggest builders in the area so he gets low prices for materials, labor and lots and builds the houses for cost. 

I started my first direct mail campaign for wholesaling last week, and lo and behold, I actually got my first lead!

@Josiah Collins The buyers could be direct marketing to sellers and making an offer w/o a real estate agent.