Now, either I'm not posting in the right places of i.e Cragslist / BP etc or my ads aren't as well constructed as I think they would be to attract motivated sellers.

I was definitely on the fence about this one for a little while before making the purchase, but there were a number of attractive features that ultimately led me to move forward with the purchase.

They usually sell for a really attractive price because investment property financing is (obviously) difficult, somewhat limiting the buyer pool to owner-operator small business owners (who in turn are typically great clients, as well).  

Building a real estate portfolio might be attractive, but if you're crunched for time, perhaps you could do private lending in a SDIRA or get into syndications.

I realize this comes with the STR business but if I'm going to continue to use VRBO I need to find away to attract the "good" guests and minimize the bad ones.

The obvious attraction is the beach.

This season often poses challenges in attracting tenants.

By positioning the property effectively and highlighting its strengths, we attracted motivated buyers quickly, ensuring a successful sale without the need for renovations.

You have to attract interested parties that are willing to sell you their property cheaply because they need to vacate ownership for one reason or another.

-- We focus on verifying 2-year work history and verifying rent payments with last 2 landlords (unless in same property for 5+ years).3) MoveIn Specials: be careful with offering "free rent" as will just attract tenants with no cash.-- Try free TV or something else worth 25-50% of one month of rent.-- Or, what we do is offer the free rent AFTER & ONLY if they pay their first 3 months of rent on time to earn it.4) Lower the rent 5% every 2-4 weeks until activity picks up.5) Understand this is the worst time of year to find tenants.-- Starts picking back up end of February when this tenant pool starts getting their income tax refunds and aren't broke anymore.6) Section 8: where is the property being advertised?