But it's a great tool for practicing analyzing deals :)

This effectively books the longer stays first and then fills in the vacancy gaps with shorter stays. 

What data do you gather and what tools do you use to optimize this process?

As an investor, your credit is  absolutely the most important tool you have. 

There are often cost effective solutions (ie a few thousand dollars) vs 10s of thousands when you consult the correct advisors.

if you do not find one, let me know I can send you an attorney we use to create them. probably not going to be the most cost effective, but will get it done. 

Seller financing can be a fantastic tool, especially for multifamily deals, and I’ve had a lot of success using this strategy.

The metric to measure whether it works or not is the CONVERSION RATE, not whether or not a deal was made.If your conversion rate is 0.03% (like it usually is for DMM), spending more money to get more mailers out does NOT change the effectiveness of that strategy.

The “tales” of nothing down/seller subordinates “down payment” done successfully almost always hide the most important information - that the buyer either provided additional collateral (such as real property owned “free and clear”, a certificate of deposit in an amount greater than the down payment required, or the buyer is financially strong enough that part of the financing was in effect a personal loan or line of credit. 

Do you find one of those tools more reliable than the other, or do you use both for different insights?