Look for people doing large rehab project (large 30 yard dumpsters are a dead giveaway).

In the meantime, the owner is too far underwater (or dead) to do anything with the property.Rarely do owners who are financially sound just let a property sit in disrepair.

TK investors generally only buy out of state because price points and rents are not inline to cash flow where they live.Hopefully that property in Memphis produces money for you soon instead of being no cash flow, high headache from afar, and dead equity from the down payment not generating a return each month.  

My name is William "Will" Elchert (pronounced L-kurt). 

We immediately went in there trying to rent it out, but it was a dead market during that time of year.

That's dead on!

And I keep trying to find the homeowners through the tax accessor but I keep running into dead ends.

The equity, which invested is worth 10%+ in todays market, is lying dead in a rental property. 

The Behr  khaki might have been a hair darker than the spec home walls, but the other two looked dead on.  

Abdul Azeez Think Wayne Brooks response was dead on.