Brokers protect the interests of all of the investors, but investors only want to protect their own interests, which can leave some investors out in the cold. 

I don't recommend cold calling or emailing.

I'm having trouble with it as a thought exercise and would prefer to see cold, hard numbers.

Pros: Diverse job market, low unemployment, great resilience during recessions, nice appreciation, 1% rule can be hit if you look hard enough, great economy, good schools, Midwest nice.Cons: Extreme weather at times (hot/humid summers, tornadoes/hail, brutal cold in Jan/Feb), high insurance premiums, property taxes also really high.

I use Reonomy for cold out reach and I like it overall. 

Also have reached out to tons of agents I have connections with already and not having much luck, so I want to focus on generating off market leads.It's my goal to get really proficient at cold calling.

You will be hard pressed to do this if you are spread through 4 separate markets.

First time poster, long time BiggerPockets reader. I'm looking for some general advice here... 

I populate all my own mailing lists, which typically involve only motivated sellers (high equity, divorce, probate, fo...

No one wants to be moving around the holidays and in the cold. 2 weeks is very short window to notice traffic

Obviously, using the online listing page at ALE solutions is different than a cold email, and I am referring to the latter.That brings up an obvious question: how do you develop those leads, then?