First its all in teh list and the more targeted the list the better the results.So a list that targets all home owners is going to not do as well as a list that might target something specific like:Out of State Owners - where you might get people who have moved away or inherited a house they don't want or burned out landlordsUnpaid Taxes - where people are in financial difficulty and going to loose their house to unpaid taxesOwned for a Long Time - where the people might own free and clear orHigh Equity Owners - again free and clearOr even other lists that you might build yourself -Expired MLS LIstings - people who want to sell but did notNOD - people who are have received a notice of defaultLate Pays - people late on their mortgageGarage & Estate Sales - people moving out of their houseAs for a good letter, I have recently used a yellow letter company for a simple I want to buy your house and they make a "handwritten" letter on legal pad paper, fold it weird to put in a thank you card size envelope, with a "handwritten" address, and grandmaesque return address label.It gets opened more, but we do get a lot of calls with people saying they don't want to sell or that we should say we are a company.We tested the straight Dear Mr Jones, we want to buy your house at 123 mainstreet with out our company name or website, just to call us . . that generated more calls than the letter that just went out that added in that we are an investment company and they can call or visit our website . . . can't tell if the results were much different.And personally, you can get all kinds of results, but it comes down to it, you want the motivated people to call you and those people are going to find you letter or not - if you have a website.

It's not a simple task when you're straight out of college and have no experience, especially when trying to go straight into brokerage. 

Offer a discount(flat rate or percentage) to the jv'ing wholesaler's cashbuyer who closes the soonest.Kudos,Mary 

Even if you get it at a great price, it may end up being more work than the discount justifies.

We will rehab the property to it’s peak condition using quality materials bought @ huge discount thru established relationships with various vendors.

With the loan-(which I would make in the amount of $16,000) I pay the seller and the closing costs, (something I agree to because I'm getting the house at such a discount) and pay the realtor I use for her time preparing the sales agreement and doing a title search.

This should be one of our last steps, because you want to have all your facts straight and have an idea of your end goal when you talk to them.

I tell them straight out from the beginning.

Brian can explain it much better.Again, using an RMLO continues to be the best way to ensure you're in compliance, even if you aren't doing straight owner financing. 

@Jacob Patterson Start here:http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc701.htmlI'm not a tax attorney, but it seems fairly straight forward to me.