How to facilitate off market transactions?

[Matthew Boutte]

I'm very new to real estate investing (never even purchased a property for myself). I've spent the last few months reading and listening to everything I can get my hands on (much of it from the BiggerPockets community, so a big thank you there!). I also have a background in data science, so I've been pulling together a data set with all sorts of data about population growth, migration patterns, income growth, job growth, number of building permits, local GDP growth, educational attainment trends, home price growth, and rental price growth. I've used that data set to narrow down my focus into a few out of state markets.

I've also got the data on tax delinquent properties in each of these markets. I plan on narrowing down that list a bit (out of state owners, size of the tax delinquency, etc.) and then mailing and/or calling the owners in an effort to find off market deals. I'd then like to BRRRR the properties (although I'm well capitalized, so I'm also open to deals that need less of a rehab).

Here's my problem. I'm not sure who to turn to to facilitate the transaction with these off market deals. Do I get a real estate agent?   Will they be willing to work the deal since it's off market? If so, how do they get paid? Is there some other professional who would help facilitate the transaction?

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer -- I really appreciate it.