I’ve been thinking through the marketing piece and how to best to target certain market segments.

Regardless of where the author is coming from, the concepts and practices discussed and-or recommended in the Breaking the Appraiserseries are applicable to both the residential and commercial segments.

It's hard to stand out.There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance.

My view is the San Diego market has cooled significantly in the last 2 years but the entry level is the hottest segment.  

Also, it sounds like they have you competing with first time home buyers in a competitive segment of the market, you don't want to do that you will always lose.Finally, since you have 4 zip codes you are interested in consider finding one Realtor in each of the 4 zip codes, if one turns out to be excellent then you can give them a larger pool to prospect in.Let me know if that helps and feel free to reach out for more advice if needed.

Listen to the BP Podcast w/Chris Voss as there's a good role-playing segment on it.  

It's hard to stand out.There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance.

My experience is that risk can be somewhat subjective and there are ways to mitigate risk if you can gain expertise in a certain market segment, geography, or demographic.

You have to segment the two business as much as possible and in most states, you must disclose you have a RE license on off-market mailers.

Start with QuickBooks Plus where you have the ability to use the Class feature segmenting each property.For rental properties, I would go with QuickBooks Advanced as you can manage the tenants and track lease dates.What is in your bucket list for automation?