It's difficult to see how a tenant will be after screened and signing a lease.

I got about 1.2M sitting and would really like to put it to work, I only own 1 SFR in Staten Island.

Here is some info: SF STR FAQAssuming the info is up-to-date, it must be your permanent residence (you must live at the property for a minimum 275 days a year), you can rent unhosted a max of 90 nights a year, you need a business license, and you need to pay the city $925 for a STR certificate.

Hi, pre foreclosure in all of its permutations, before the bank sends Notice of Default (NOD) or efter which is state even county dependant but often starts a 4 week clock till the trustee auction are the 2nd most difficult deal scenario and IMHO only experienced investors should bother, the 1st most difficult deal scenario are bidding at the court house steps on lord only knows what is being auctioned off sometimes even 2nd mortgages, you need to do so much home work to attempt to reduce your risk at the court house steps...Pre foreclosure no one talks about these issues, always about the nice sounding stuff like "motivated seller" get a good deal etc etc both are usually not the case.- 95% of folks in pre or post NOD want to stay in their house, keep their house inspite of them 100% will loose the house at the auction. 

on the chance that something comes to you somehow - you'd have to snap it up / put it under contract immediately, and again, that's very difficult to do remotely. 

We own and manage two and one is particularly difficult during the shoulder (slow) seasons.

Is anyone still using free classified sites to market for Motivated Sellers?

Quote from @Mike Klarman: So, the Ground Up Programs are the hardest to get into. 

sell it to the tenants 

It is an awesome system and does everything for single and multi family management, makes our difficult job so much easier.