I am not an active realtor, but rather am using the license for my real estate ventures.  

I am using free services but if  I were to pay for one, can anyone tell me what is the best pay service for locating a phone number for potential sellers?

I am using my local credit union to refi and using the cash for small multi-units. 

Then, the Economic Crash and this Recession that found a bottom and now the run back up with property values to at or above where they were when everything went parabolic, so, I am using that to Sell now and wait for the next downturn to Buy as "he who has the Gold will be King."

They do not want to do repairs to the property, but my offers are coming in lower than they want and I am hearing them say they will just list on the MLS.I am using the "70% ARV minus repair" formula to develop my offers -- and I believe my comps are pretty close.  

This area is completely different from where I am living currently and I would say extreme caution is needed - probably more caution than I am using.  

I am used to big metros.

There were some properties that the deposits were in line with what I am used to which is about same deposit as rent but these were more expensive and didn't look like they were in the same types of neighborhoods. 

I am using Foremost for my another STR house as well, which I manage.Good point about having the renter to obtain his own STR arbitrage insurance. 

Of course this isn't really a parallel situation and I don't envision anything like that happening to you, but its an amusing anecdote if nothing else.