Where do you find your deals? Anyone using List Source or the like

[Josh Reborchick]

I'm new to the business but have been interested in Real Estate since my uncle gave me rich dad poor dad and the richest man in Babylon almost 20 years ago. Anyway, I was in sales for 3 years between Army stints. I've listened to a lot of the podcasts talking about yellow letters and the such, but I'm also aware that mass marketing has a very low return rate. I just think about how much "junk mail" I toss away without even looking at it. During the 3 years in sales I sold copiers and payroll services for two large companies. They both worked off of the strategy that you had to cold call to get contact information. From there you would make follow up calls. There was a formula that stated that X amount of calls would lead to X amount of appointments which would lead to X amount of sales. I know the average person dislikes rejection. In reality, everyone does. But we would sit around with a few drinks on a friday and talk about who had the worst encounter with a "gate keeper" or the harshest rejection of the week (i've had people tell me to kill myself). I'm not a fan of rejection, but it takes a lot of NO's to get to a YES! With all of this in mind, has anyone tried to use a company like List source to get numbers to dial? The yellow letter mantra is send them out numerous times to a set group and eventually you will get a response. Would this not also work with phone calls? When slinging copiers I would set up a list every day and try to get a little more info about the company from which I was trying to earn their business. I'd write it down and set a follow up reminder in 1-3 months to call them back. Has anyone used this process to get home deals? I've driven around the past 2 days from Austin and Georgetown to Killeen, Harker Heights and the greater Fort Hood area looking at MLS listings. I feel there are no deals on zillow or the like because everyone wants top dollar on their home. Who in their right mind would sell a house for x amount less then what it was worth? I feel that this is also where the noob looks and it's a bunch of people fighting over scraps. I know that the money is made in the purchase price. Just like the corner store that buys the gum at 50 cents and sells it for a dollar, their model doesn't work if they can only buy at 99 cents.

Sorry for rambling.  Just trying to find ways to find true deals.  Any thoughts?

Josh