Wholesaling in high end urban areas

[Blake Smith]

I have been learning a lot about wholesaling in the past few weeks and have decided that I am going to pursue this as my starting strategy in REI. I live in the nicest part of Washington D.C. And the market here has a very high demand. Should I be focusing my marketing to suburban areas or rural areas first? Does marketing in a nice city like this make sense as a good market to start out in? I have heard that marketing to people that are more savvy and familiar with home values can be harder than to those who don't. Any thoughts on this. I have targeted absentee owners in a developing area of the city and sent my first round of 350 postcards thus far. Thanks in advance for the advice!!

[Russell Brazil]

My advice would be to get the most market knowledge possible. Almost every single wholesale deal I see on BP for the DC area, both proper and suburbs are pretty rediculous. 

Just a recently I saw someone trying to wholesale something in DC who had an ARV that was literally off by over $1 million. I don't know if the wholesalers are just that dumb, or are just crooks looking for a sucker. I actually lean towards the idea that they are just dumb, untrained in how to value property.

The DC market can be a little complicated.  Who the architect was 100 years ago can have an effect on the value today. You can not just compare a row house to another rowhouse, even if they are on the same block if they are built in a different style ie, federal vs Victorian vs wardman, etc.