Ambitious and strategic business leader with a team player mentality determined to make an impact on the real estate community.  

Best of luck finding that A Player!!  

Remember to consider the incentives and motivations for each player involved.

Call some Realtors and find out who the big players are in your area.

I wouldn't trust him to find me a single-family or to go out of his neighborhoods, because I know out of the thousands of numbers in his phone, he has connections to every major player in the area.From the sounds of it, you definitely need to do a little more independent research into your area and the market as a whole, as well as doing business.

It's taken me a little while but I'm starting to think real estate attorneys and title companies are the biggest $ winners in the current real estate market with all the distressed properties flying through the system.Since I do think the market is only going to improve from here along with competition for deals it has me wondering what secondary players in real estate are going to really make out like a bandit with less financial risk moving forward.There will be the obvious winners again like realtors, contractors , the a/c guy, etc.

Also, for those of us who haven't built relationships with the main REO players in our area yet, would it be a good idea to just start making lots of lowball offers on REOs that we find on an MLS website like realtor dot com, or is that too scattershot of an approach?

I recommend finding the active players in your market via the REIAs, here on BP, meet ups, etc.. and pick their brains about what does and doesn't work in your specific area.  

Here is a great blog post written by @Joshua Dorkin on assembling a team and the key players you should acquire.  

Seems to me that building is more for the institutional players that prefer Class A properties for the lower risk and don't mind the lower returns.