HD stocks about 4 styles and offers maybe 12 others that can be special ordered, depending on what type of wood you are trying to replicate.

I can generate the same income by simply replicating this deal with a couple of more properties.

You can't effectively replicate what you don't know by delegating a task. 

What happened instead was that I thought I was doing something wrong for the next couple of years because I couldn't replicate that first deal with every hundred postcards I sent out.

Most people do not have extra cash from other resources so they must replicate their mortgage.  

I'd like to be able to replicate some successful techniques with an understanding that some variables will of course be different. 

Using those two pieces of data, perhaps we can do a high-level analysis of the value of your brand versus the value of your other marketing efforts, which presumably can be replicated without your brand.

I appreciate that you don't fit into that camp.Maybe you need a separate post titled "The HELOC Method is Unnecessary, Unless You Meet [These Criteria], Have Access to [These Financing Options] and Don't Mind [These Risks]".The only problem is that the HELOC model I laid out cannot be replicated with a mortgage. 

In addition, I have not been able to replicate this first purchase, and consider it a bit of a lucky buy. 

I wouldn't replicate someone else, but learn from them and add something unique.