That being said, there are more 1900 dollar two bedroom apartments available right now than you could have imagined a few years ago, and the sub-250k housing stock that used to be abundant is pretty much ancient history.

A good methodology to keep in mind is, let's say you get a response from 5% of the people your reach out to.

The clean solution was to track down the little old lady who owned the ancient 1st TD which had not been paid on since about 1988.

This is the approach I've taken after making one of my first mistakes early on in my investing career, and it's the same methodology we employ with all our investor clients.Good luck!

So our goal is to acquire the home/office addresses for owners of facilities in order to insure they see our mailers.My methodology so far has been to go county by county, identify all self storage facilities on Google Maps (double-checking with our database to make sure I don't miss any not on Google,) and entering the addresses into a tax parcel GIS unique to the county.

The way real estate is transacted is still pretty ancient, inefficient, and largely depends on a bunch of cartels that many of us are members of (Local RE Boards) that have a choke hold on each market.

and sometimes I'm not the most practical person in my methodology.  

Get your screening methodology in place.   

The hard working people who lived in a duplex, house hacked, improved cities, sacrificed.So the whole 3000 year old property ownership from the days of ancient rome are out the door. 

I believe the best way "to attract good contractors" is was explained almost 3 thousand years ago by and ancient prophet:  "Do justly, Love mercy, Walk Humbly."