Advice on working with realtor to find first rental

[Ming Ming Liu]

I'm local to Knoxville, and am looking to purchase my first rental in the Knoxville market. I'm looking at properties on MLS, because if my only access right now. The market here is such that it's hard to cashflow unless I'm offering 20% below asking on MLS properties. I found a couple of properties that sat on the marketing for close to a year. The couple of (buyer) realtors I've worked with seem to be very reluctant to make a 70-80% asking offer. They became slow to respond after seeing my offer amount, and it has limited my ability to make offers.

I would like to make some deals that makes sense from cash flow perspective, and not count on appreciation on a market that has passed its pre-recession peak.

What strategies have my fellow BPers employ to get realtors engaged? And/or ways to get offers through.