Investors normally use birddogs that are people with occupations that will bring them into contact with vacant properties (i.e. cablemen, utility company employees, newspaper delivery people, etc.).

In some markets there are little niche areas or neighborhoods that will cashflow.

Buy a bad house in a good neighborhood.

IM CURRENTLY LOOKING AT A COUPLE OF DEALS ONE IS SINGLE FAMILY HOME IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AND ANOTHER IS A 4 PLEX THAT HAS BEEN ON THE MARKET FOR 18 MONTHS.

Which amps my take a little bit more.BTW, I strictly deal with houses less than $80K, generally lots of them in my neighborhood.

Some broken joists were just that (turns out the whole neighborhood was built from very knotty native pine, and everyone has the same issue).

Cruising neighborhoods and inquiring about properties that may seem dilapidated.

or, i'll drive through neighborhoods looking for disaster opportunities, number of houses for sale, neighborhood condition, and lanscaping/exterior finish ideas. i can't invest in another house until the end of the year, but the day i get back to the states i'll still be familiar with my market, and i'll be ready for the next adventure.

My hometown is Clovis, the newspaper recently ran an article stating that in 1982 the pop. was 30,000, and it's now 31,000.

A word of caution here... by shopping it around I don't mean posting it on a billboard or taking out ads in the newspaper.