Advice Finding Off-Market Homes

[Anthony Perry]

Hi Folks! I'm hoping I could get some advice from this community on how to source off-market deals, as well as a pulse check on what I've been doing so far. I'm looking for an off-market home in my local market, Santa Barbara CA. This property would be for my in-laws to purchase and move into, but I'd ideally dovetail any success into finding investment properties as well.

So far, I've driven around the neighborhoods my in-laws would ideally purchase and jotted down the addresses of the homes that clearly need some TLC. I've gotten about 50 addresses that way. I plugged them into Invelo to find the owner information and have begun sending hand-written letters. Some of them have phone numbers as well, but pretty much all of them are marked as Do Not Contact.

Does this seem like an effective track to stay on? And has anyone noticed any particular nuggets to look for? For example, if a property is clearly a rental, does that typically have a higher chance of success? That's my intuition(less friction on the homeowner, they don't have to uproot and find a new place to live), but I'd love other opinions as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Anthony