They are the ones that have that little earpiece in their ear and the cell phone is nowhere in sight.

The upside to this is I'm currently locked into a 30 year 6% interest loan and the new loan would be a 15 year 3.5% so my monthly payment would only be about $300 more and I'd get the second property and I'd have a 15 year loan.  

If people say they can't make it at that time, I take down their info and contact them again if the showing doesn't end up getting it rented.Another option is installing a combo lockbox, then having the interested party call or text when they arrive and then call when they've locked it back up (obviously get as much of their information as possible to mitigate the risk).  

I'm tempted to make an offer now to try to get locked in early at a good price (before other competing buyers show up).  

@Jake Walroth , how'd it go, did you lock it down? 

She was adamant that she does not want to list or work with a realtor (her mom lives with her and they have the tiny house packed with stuff) - though she has "called around" and thinks her house is worth maybe $450K when it's more like $415K as-is... so I'll need to reset expectations since my offer will be around $335K.QUESTION: What is a good way to lock up a deal with her given her longer timeline?

Interact with them, and be genuine.We each have two ears and one mouth.

Might want to investigate that with insurance provider and also make sure all fences and gates surrounding it are to code with the proper gate locks.

If anyone has tips or creative strategies to find off market deals I'm all ears ...I've considered direct mail ..for some reason I want to see if chatting with local PMs and brokers gets me anywhere first

I think she traded it in for some earings or something.