You are correct - most agents will not spend the time to write endless offers on your behalf if you have no intention of consummating most of the transactions.It seems to me that you would be better off concentrating on the quality rather than the quantity of your offers.

So concentrate on his desire to sell as your trigger point for this purchase! 

I am back in NYC and plan to look into some of these areas so that I can concentrate my efforts into 2-3 specific areas during my deal search.

We have not decided where to concentrate our efforts, that said we have a few potential possibilities, Houston Tx., Kansas City Mo., Detroit Mi. and we are looking to include Florida locations as possibilities also.

Huge corporations were over-leveraged and Rustbelt cities got put through the wringer because their employment is so concentrated on autos, auto components or even the shipping of these items.There are also overarching trends to be mindful of. 

Less than one-third of the U.S. population is black or Hispanic, yet four out of every five people living in metropolitan concentrated poverty communities are black or Hispanic.

Assuming you want to accumulate some significant cash to then concentrate on buying & holding only, then start with flips.

Concentrate on reading quality books relevant to your niche, listen to podcast related to it.

Here're the steps you need to take to get you where you want to be down the road.1) Figure out what RE strategy you want to concentrate on: flipping, buy&hold, something else.

There only so much inventory in one concentrated area.