They will throw signs, send mailers, look at foreclosures/estate sales, knock on doors, etc.

I may just have to go knock on his Mothers door to wish her good tidings and pick up his number there.  

He can't pay for it so we agreed to knock off 10k from the price and I'll pay for it.

Time to door knock for dollars.

Contact them all within a 14 day window and the hard inquiries are lumped together into one hit on your credit (which is only going to knock you down 5-10 points - it's made out to be a much bigger deal than it actually is.)I used to call 5 people at least.

I knock on the door and start with "what are your plans for after the auction, would you like to stay or were you planning on moving"?

You maybe able to just knock and do cash offer.

You can do your own marketing - direct mail, bandit signs, door knocking.

Additionally stale REO's which became bank owned a year or more ago and haven't been resold can also be interesting.A note on timing - many people think it is really important to be the first one to knock on the door, and therefore use delinquency data illegally, or spend a lot of effort on getting notices of default the day they are recorded.

It's caused me to go into credit card debt and the creditors are knocking at the door.