Please don't follow the teachings of all these gurus promoting DMM.It is not the "verbiage" of the marketing material that magically does the trick.It is your ability to show how credible, trustworthy, and competent you are that drives a conversion.The medium itself (mailers) works against you. 

I'm considering building a few on a large piece of land near a local college in San Diego.

Hi Laura, I have done a few deals with family and friends, and the Most important piece to this deal is ensuring that whichever direction you move in is clearly explained to all parties, written down on paper (preferrably with an attorney) and signed off on by all parties. 

They have about 10-20 properties a piece (mostly in OC).

I am also interested in possibly working the STR piece at some point. 

Have you already locked in the acquisition/horizontal/vertical financing piece?

Once we start talking about bigger pieces of land that that woulud appear to developers (i.e. homebuilders or developers who do self storage, medical office, industrial, retail/commercial) then I usually can market to them without necessarily having to put on the market, because I know who the players are in SoCal, and that helps especially when seller doesn't want to do an exclusive listing, but will let you bring offers off market.But in general, for random pieces of land that aren't necessarily for the big developers/builders, you certainly need to put it on the market. 

I'd add three more pieces to the "why sell" puzzle.  1.

Joshua,I would offer two pieces of advice the first would be to consider a cash out refinance over a HELOC.

I know about Pace and Ryan Pineda, but don’t think those are the best fit for me at this time.PS- Youtube and BP has become my best friend, I have gone through the 7-day WREIN masterclass, I’m reading books, so I am knowledgeable in many areas, but trying to put all the pieces together is where I’m at.