The money came from an old pension that had mostly been forgotten about and we cashed out (taking a sizable tax hit).

Nathan, the NARPM site was a great jump off point that I had forgotten about. 

Most of the time this land is handed down from a death in the family, was an investment opp that didn't work out, or sometimes it is literally forgotten about.

Occasionally there is some gold on there where a seller started off crazy with pricing and now they are realistic if you call a forgotten about seller.

This is not achievable in every market and therefore sticking to this rule would eliminate many markets altogether.Run the numbers, make sure it cash flows, then run the numbers again to make sure you haven't forgotten anything and have accounted for the hiccups that are sure to occur.

(As a side note, another mailer must've forgotten to de-dupe the addressee on his likely free and clear mailing list and sent a friend of mine 25 postcards on one mailing, lol).2.

Seth good point about remodels, I had forgotten about that thanks for bringing that back to my attention.

I made that decision when I realized that I was buying stuff that I already had that I had forgotten about.

I have mostly been finding and getting in touch with owners of distressed properties or forgotten about land, a lot of it going to the sheriff's sale.

A gift will be forgotten relatively quickly in my opinion.