You can do so much better with a high volume of direct mail and digital advertising.

I'm a new agent in the LA area, and I plan to focus primarily on digital marketing to start considering most traditional marketing methods for new agents are limited where I am (doing open listings for other agents, door knocking etc).

It sounds like you would need to have a near perfect record of resolving the defaults to grind out a single digit return (even if UPB > BPO and they have that spread).. :/ 

I would do digital marketing on popular Social Media sites.  

I know of one that lived in Texas and recently purchased a condo there because his digital marketing firm started seeing some growth. 

There are good B rentals that can spin off double digit returns and she can be passive.

As an investor I can only hope that boots on the ground can outperform the digitization of the industry.

You may want to check out 10BillionCash.com as a starting point if you're interested in learning more about that process.I also do a lot my marketing for deals via Google advertising, though I know several individuals that successfully market via more traditional means such as mailers, digital media, and word of mouth.  

This forced us to get the original installer back to dig it up, delaying closing again.

If anyone wants to dig it up, they should be able to do it.