I am about to secure private lending for a downpayment on a Single Family home that will generate positive cash flow.The loan will be $35K @ 5% for 5 years.

How many cards did you send out, and how many leads did it generate?

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.

Ok say for example, the marketing that I have done has paid off and I generate some leads and get some calls coming in.

When I searched BP - I found great horror storries of nude tenants, drug equipment, dead dogs etc. so I know it can be done.

I'm really avoiding spending any money at this moment because I need it to go to the Google Adwords campaign.My lead generation has to be done online because I work full time! 

The house is in preforclosure, the seller loses the property on October 23rd, that's the day an auction date is generated and released to the public.

I was a real estate agent in another state some time ago and one of my key lead generation techniques was direct mail.  

I invest in merchandise I can find locally (camera/filming equipment, IT equipment, inventory liquidations, video games, audio equipment etc.) purchasing from auctions and locals looking to sell and then sell the merchandise on my eBay or Amazon store.

Rental real estate will often generate depreciation expense and other direct expenses, so most investors will only pay rates at the lowest level of 10% (if they pay tax at all).