Starting Out - Where is Time and Money Best Spent?

[Adam Rasmussen]

Hello All,

Looking for that first deal to get me started. I have done some driving for dollars and have about 600 properties that I have identified. At the moment I have all the properties in a spreadsheet and have been slowly looking up owner information. I am using county records to find the owner name and then looking at sites like truepeoplesearch.com to find phone numbers. From there I call all the numbers associated with the owner until I either run out of numbers or contact the owner.

While this is extremely cost effective outside of gas and time spent driving, this process is extremely tedious and I am finding out that the free sites that supposedly have phone numbers are mostly incorrect (big surprise).

My question is: where is time and capital best spent when looking for off market properties? I am strictly looking at single family houses and small multifamily with the hopes of either flipping or wholesaling. I have no problems spending money if it is not wasted. I also have no issues spending time to cold call prospective sellers myself but finding the information feels like it could be a lot easier and more efficient. 

[Cody Lewis]

Are you opposed to using a broker/agent in the area? If not, I would lean on them. But I would work within my local REI group to find ones that focus on investment properties.