So I don't but if I did I wouldn't come away thinking it was a terrible investment, I would say it needs more time in the oven before I should even ask that question.My feeling from reading your description is it's a similar situation you're in.

If they don't answer my questions, I know they have not read the ad and are just clicking and "tire kicking" or they lack the intellectual focus for me to have any business relationship with them.

Thus, they will contact every owner they can that has a rental being advertised, hoping the owner is tired and just wants to dump a headache of a property for 60-70% of market value.

First thing is NEVER feel concerned of hurting someone's feelings or ego, your reviewing to employ them, that makes you the boss doesn't it?

It really is a minefield out there.I know everyone likes the convenience of the web, and they are tired of hearing it, but this really is a business based on relationships, not online anonymity.

Additionally, I've been spending a lot of time evaluating condo / HOA management solutions and accidentally stumbled on ManageCasa, which offers a free trial and < 3 unit free tier that has allowed me the time to get in, kick the tires, and really appreciate their attention to detail and broad feature set that adapts to each unique industry sector.

So, a couple of years down the road, your seller gets tired of being on the loan and contacts the bank to get off of the loan. 

And virtually all of them had owned rentals and maybe kept a few but were just tired on the TTT but wanted monthly cash flow . so there probably is some of that at play as well Investors that dont want to deal with the PM aspect of owning RE..

The other 95% are just tire kickers. 

I feel like if you dont want to spend too much time figuring out the flow then it's a good alternative.