“Disheartening,” she said next, as they approached the familiar gate of the Cyprus Apartments, their former home.

I’ve received a number of responses from investors essentially stating that they use a simple buy/rent/hold approach in small residential properties, and have accumulated net worths in the 1 - 3 million $ range starting with just one mortgaged SFR. 

What other approaches can I take into consideration that will allow me to achieve my goal of $1M/year?

When managing my own properties, I take the OPPOSITE approach to save time.

This route can help generate more cash flow than a traditional rental and offset holding costs, even if occupancy rates fluctuate.Rehab: Use part of your bonus to address those problem areas for a BRRR approach.

And if there is a smart way to approach this, I would like to know about it.

This approach works well for wholesalers who sell deals to flippers, and flippers or realtors can benefit even more by taking the extra step to generate their own off-market leads.No one said methods like cold calling, direct mail, or Facebook/Google ads won’t help a realtor find off-market opportunities.Just a friendly thought, especially given the high costs associated with Zillow leads.

No matter if you try to help, if they can exploit you they often will.Like others have mentioned you need a license and even when you don't if something goes wrong, you could face lawsuits if you even smell like giving them official advice.My REAL advice however is this, and I hope you take this warning seriously.Let's talk about foreclosures for a second.According to data a few years ago (it is worse now) every 3000 mailers will get you 1 deal, which makes the chances of them wanting to sell their house 0.03%.This means 99.97% of the time, when you approach someone in foreclosure they are not interested in selling.So understand what you are factually doing...You are going through all this trouble to EXPLICITLY try to find people that do NOT want to sell their house (people in foreclosure), to try to get them to sell their house?

A smarter approach would involve thorough market research, realistic projections on occupancy rates, and understanding that not every location is still a goldmine for STRs.

@William CoetThe big players definitely approach these markets differently from individual investors.