I don't know that it was quite that simple, but in essence it's true.I had no budget apart from what was in my bank account, no experience either as a trainer or business owner, getting started in luxury industry (a relatively obscure one at the time) at the cusp of the Great Recession.

When you estimate a budget give some incentive for bringing the job in below the cost estimate, finishing the job ahead of schedule and the quality of work would be a given.

Seems you're putting together a RE brokerage operation and attempting to circumvent brokerage requirements by changing the names of agents to partners, going virtual instead of having an office, setting up an MLS system in a niche market and doing so on a budget. $5K in legal fees will go pretty quick and I doubt would open your doors.

Seems like the marketing budgets are misguided if they have too many investors.  

I was expecting it to be simple patch work but it requires either capping stairs or replacing them fully which is a bit more than I was budgeting for.I need the permits before I'm willing to close so I'm not stuck with a bunch of other unexpected cost to obtain occupancy permits and paying for repairs before closing is a bad idea based on previous posts and everyone else I spoken to.

Property management fees may also be in your budget if you don't self-manage.

I have been reading forum posts about there strategy, whether it is better to send one letter to many different leads or to send the same lead multiple letters on your set budget.

Besides the Black Diamond meetings, Justin's BP meetup and the meetings Paul mentioned there is the NEREIA in Chelmsford (Last meeting would have been last Wed but was canceled for the snow storm), the Boston AREIA in Medford and @Mike Hurney has a couple meetings on the North Shore.

For someone just starting out (like me), with a limited budget and a full time job, what would be the suggested strategy for a new wholeasller?

The total rehab budget was over $50K.