Denver-New Rehabber seeking advice

[Rick Lambert]

Hello all,
This is my first post on BP, but I have been trolling this site for a couple of years now and have found it to be an amazing source of information. So first off thanks to all of you out there who so willingly share your knowledge.

I'll start off by introducing myself to the community. I am a (fairly) recent college grad who has been working in the construction industry in one way or another for the past 3 years. In that time I have done many things from building parking lots to painting houses with responsibilities ranging from holding up a shovel to managing $400k+ projects. I stumbled into the construction field by accident, having graduated at the height of the "Great Recession" I found the opportunities in my preferred field of Commercial RE Development very scarce. I was offered a labor job with a small construction company in my hometown and, after several months of searching, decided it was better than nothing. I did well, eventually being given the responsibility of managing jobs, but didn't find it fulfilling. My passion has always been real estate (which a lot of people outside the business find hard to believe), so to me that job was always a jumping off point to get into some type of real estate development.

So as you can imagine, when a friend approached me with an investor who was looking to fund real estate deals in Denver, I jumped at the chance to get involved. Our plan has been to rehab properties, purchasing SFH's in the $90k-$120k range that need $30-$40k in work, doing as much of the work ourselves as possible. While we understand that we will need to hire a licensed contractor for any sort of plumbing, electrical, or major renovation work, we feel confident in our abilities to do the basics (paint, drywall, fixtures, etc). We've researched economic data, demographic trends and city development plans, not to mention spending hours upon hours here on BiggerPockets reading advice and trying to get a feel for how the rehabbing business actually works (as opposed as how it's portrayed on tv). After all this we've identified a few area's that we feel are good targets for our strategy, but here's our problem.... FINDING AN ACTUAL PROPERTY!

Now I'm aware of the current lack of inventory that seems to be prevalent in the SFH market, especially here in Denver. I'll even claim to have a basic understanding of the reasons behind it (increased interest from investors like ourselves, individuals with negative equity waiting for the market to rebound before selling, the supposed "shadow inventory" that has STILL not been released on the market). My reason for seeking advice from the wise posters here at BP is more basic than all of that, however. What I would like to know, especially from experienced rehabbers, is how do you get your leads? At the moment my only resource for finding listings is the google bar at the top of my browser, which typically leads me to looking at maps on zillow or trulia, wondering how the few decent deals I see on there went from "For Sale" to "Pending" without my being aware. Should I seek out an agent in the areas that we're targeting, even though it means giving them a fairly significant cut of our profits? Would it be a waste of time to walk into some smaller banks and ask them if they have any homes that fit our profile that they're trying to get off their balance sheet? Is there somewhere I can go to meet wholesalers who leave enough meat in their deals that we can actually make a decent profit? Any advice, especially from experienced rehabbers or those in the Denver-Metro Area, would be greatly appreciated.