@Oliver Ngugi Try bandit signs, post cards and yellow letters to a list (such as absentee owner, divroce, inheritance, etc), networking (with wholesalers, agents, probate attorney's, etc) Craigslist can work but there is a lot of junk on their, FSBO sites, etc....You can find some pretty creative ways.

Received response from a yellow letter I sent out.

That means sending out 1000 letters a month for six months.  

all you need is about 500$ i would say. you can send letters and stamps and get signs with all that.as far as contracts go, it shouldnt take an hour for the attorny to read it, so you shouldnt get charged for the ful 250. the contracts here on bp are a start. that is what i plan on using. after my first deal i will get a professional one that will cover my butttooxxx a little better

If you are in total fear that someone else will scoop it up put in an Letter of Intent (LOI) for the asking price and make sure you have a 30 day inspection period. 

The market here in BR is pretty hot but there's not a lot of inventory out there so I'm scouring the MLS and am sending letters to out of state homeowners to spur some activity.

The other huge issue is you'll need a heck of a good LOE - letter of explanation to sell the UW (underwriter) on why this is ideal to be  your primary residence using factors the UW deems as variables that make sense for a primary occupant (larger family, location, schools, sob story, etc, etc).

They will offer a 40 year amortization/with a 3 year balloon (or rate adjustment). 

Send the broker/owner a Letter of Intent.7.

As for raising the score you can send a letter to the people who pulled your credit and if they don't respond you somehow get the credit bureau to take that pull off your report.Another strategy, depending on what you can stomach involves credit card debt.