Had a ring of thieves break into a house and use it to store the stolen property. 

We also send out cards on Christmas, when they got married, etc.

I see where you are coming from but I like to find creative ways to get the biggest bang for my buck on vacations using credit card points (always pay off your card as soon as there is a balance) and finding the best deals. 

Get involved in the local community, pass out cards, tell everyone you meet that you are in real estate and ready to help them or anyone they know.

Just require a copy of drivers license/Gov’t ID card during the application.

Appraisal is the wild card and honestly not many ways around it other then a good agent...and even then can be hard.Catch the wrong appraiser on a bad day at worst your screwed at low price or beat case you challenge it and win...but this still takes time.Remove the appraisal and you have much more control of the situation but lack a lot of the lending options...But 30 day can still be done and is done often (and runs concurrently with inspection so assuming you get past that).

Saying only one is the answer for all investors is like saying people should only invest in Pokemon, Bitcoin, or 90's baseball cards, it's just bad investing advice.  

I think that property owner's simply trash post cards and letters these days. 

Good luck  We currently have around 30k in personal loans/credit card debt. 

You can take some of the CF from your investment and give them a gift card to grocery store or something similar on a monthly basis.