Mailer response rates are always low (1-5%), so it is a high probability that the owner never responds to your letter.

$5,000 purchase price, I do come across properties that low but they will need a lot of repairs at that price that's what they don't understand.

THis appraisal is low - the comps were horrible, the selling agent just didnt fight it or help the seller in any way, and we simply 'waited' till timing was critical for the seller. 

So the line item for makeready, or painting if broken down that way, may be very low or not even there.  

That makes absolutely no sense.

Needless to say I did not want to insult the owner, and let them know I wasn't able to make an offer.Fast forward a few weeks and I get a call stating that another flipper was offering them a low number, and continuously calling.

I have never owned a Real Estate.Can I start my carrier as an investor & start making RE deals and do not use my first time home buyer opportunity i.e low interst rate for later ?

I would be getting this house for 35% of low conservative comps.

Low taxes, and affordable units.

Heres what i did, and i could have took the long way and i havent had any deals yet but ill break down my trial and error and the method i feel will work best for me.first, i searched zillow for homes that are selling for low cost, found the owners and mailed yellow letters of course-the problem with this is, a lot of these homes still have loans on them and probably bank owned already, the owner still lives there, theres already a realtor on the job, just way too many obstacles, i dont expect to get any calls from those letters but you have to start somewhere.next, i started searching on auction sites for homes that did not go up for auction yet or the auction expired-again, the problem with this is the homes are 9/10 bank owned. while some of them are foreclosures theres still extra loops to jump through.I considered buying lists of vacant homes and stuff but i am the most frugal person you will ever meet lol, its not that i cant afford to buy a list, its just that i know theres a different way and plus whoever made those list had to have someone else generating that list for them.