I've heard advice on varying ends of the spectrum on how to and even the possibility of wholesaling REOs.

Comp with as close of houses (in terms of proximity and housing stock) that you possibly can. 

I have spent the better part of the last few weeks going over one particular deal for a possible buy and in Harrisburg pa, contacting the seller once thus far in the last week to no avail.

Looking for a mentor/coach in the local Indy area, possibly further, if it could work out. 

I am mainly familiar with the deal structures in which I am a passive investor and that only covers a small percentage of the possible structures.#2 - You pay $50k as the sponsor, you raise $950k from private investors and you finance $4 million with the bank...$5 million total purchase price. 

My focus is primarily going to be to buy, renovate, and flip (possibly in the Metairie/Kenner location) to start out.

When wholesaling, it would be important to disclose to the seller that you are a real estate agent, but in this particular case you are not acting as an agent, but as a principal, operating solely in your own best interest, with no agency duty owed the seller.if the seller, their attorney, the real estate commission, etc. is able, after the fact, to make the case that in your wholesaling activity you were not a principal, but an intermediary, then you would be potentially subject to fine, license suspension or revocation, liability for seller's lost income, and possibly treble damages for deceptive trade practices.  

It seems like there are multiple military bases which is a good possibility for rental market, but just want to hear from the folks on the ground of how easy it is to find renters, and what area I should be looking at.

Possibly the need for a property manager, HOA...the headaches would be larger. 

The key is scale up using as little of your own funds as possible.