Randomly picking from 2005 to now is going to give a skewed version of things as 2005 is when we hit the high water mark of home ownership on the entire country's history at a rate of roughly 69%.

Plus, they'll then think that you actually considered their property before sending out the card, as in it wasn't a random mailing, and since 'you' sent it, it seems more personal vs a letter from a company.Find a farm who's stats fit your requirements and market it hard.

Sounds just like random absentee owner leads and 400k is insane.

I believe an FHA loan requires you occupy the property for at least 12 months. while you need to double check this, if accurate, it means at month 13 you could buy another place, FHA insured at 5% down, and pick up a second property. that is a strategy you could implement over a number of years if the math works. as for a multi-fam that allows you occupy one unit, vs. single fam house or even condo, it just comes down to math. there is nothing wrong with having a friend or random occupant rent a bedroom from you, as long as the rent reflects fair market value (so I don't agree that charging a friend rent "could strain the relationship" - unless you're over charging of course). beyond all that, it is absolutely critical, obviously, that you screen your tenant / roommate rigorously - and living with "friends" isn't always a good idea. create an excel spreadsheet of these three verticals, any others I may have missed, with math predicated on what your local market reflects and feedback from lenders and see what it looks like. 

None of these examples I'm posting I am actually using, I just randomly found on sites. 

The first two could possibly be fixed by learning from a different investor, but even if you're just knocking doors or sending direct mail, five months is a long time to go without randomly running into someone who wants to sell.

Often criminals will have packages dropped at  random houses and hope to pick it up if no one is home.

This is just a random example, thought it might be easier to explain/understand with an actual listing to analyze.

When I dig deeper it turns out they were just boosting random posts from their Fan page, which is basically just throwing money away.Pointing out that people need to target homeowners that are likely to move is going to help out a lot.

I even have some random facebook friends I've never met giving me money because they read my posts and see my track record.