How to incentivize real estate agents to find off-market deals?

[Ryan Kucey]

I'm based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and our multi-family market is insane. Average multi-family home is around $250-400K and any property listed close to or a bit above market value is gone within 24-48 hours, the odd agent will allow for 1 week of offers. The properties are going for 105-110% of ask. I just bid $321K on one that was listed for $299K and apparently missed by a lot. Our rental occupancy rate is literally 100% in this city, we can't build fast enough to keep up with population growth. This is not me speculating, there are articles released by the government about this.

I'm not giving into the "there are no deals to be had" mentality, so I'm wondering if there are ways I can incentivize my agent and her brokerage to find me off-market deals? There's a couple of areas in the city that have a ton of potential and are currently undervalued, so my agent has put the word out to other agents in her brokerage that focus in those areas to keep an eye out for us. 

In another area of the city, my agent is doing direct mail marketing and cold calls to see if anyone wants to sell, which I was pleasantly surprised that they'd do for a first time investor. But what else can I do to incentivize my agent and her brokerage's agents (who focus on my key areas) to send me off market deals? Can I offer to pay a bit of extra commission? A finder's fee? Or is it a why bother?

Thankful for any advice!