In 1922, the Miami Herald became the heaviest newspaper in the world as a result of its humongous real estate advertisements.

Do you have any recommendations on newspaper verbiage?  

I was thinking that maybe advertising the propert in the newspaper would work since older folks like to read the newspaper.The property has 3 bed, 2 bath, 2,286sqft, 10,019sqft lot and it has nice upgrades.

There are tons of options to find deals outside the MLS: postcards, letters, door knocking, talking to people sitting on their porch, bandit signs, posting on craigslist, posting in the newspaper, attending meetup events, REIN, leaving "we buy houses" business cards at key locations, flyers, posting on the BP marketplace and many more.  

California Apartment Association, California Council for Affordable Housing, American Veterans, Women Veterans Alliance, etc) are all coming together to help defeat it.Most the major newspaper publications throughout the state are against it:Santa Rosa Press Democrat joins growing number of papers opposed to Prop 21Orange County Register: Proposition 21 will make the housing crisis worse.

I've already ran several newspaper ads that have cost me a serious amount of money and I didn't even get one lead from them.

If not I would say your best bet is to look wherever you can: News paper, county assesors office, title searches, ziprealty, zillow, bank owned search sites, real estate agents, amd you might want to try online banking sites!

I bumped it the day I read a newspaper article about a tenant's child recovering 3.8Mil because the hot water heater was set too high. 

Often, their research is a perusal of the for sale ads in their local newspaper.  

Watch craigslist, and even the newspaper for sale by owner adds.