I live in Brewers Hill(basically where Canton Crossing is) 36 Townhomes are being built across the street from me, a 300 unit multiplex across from Canton Crossing called The National just broke ground(1 bd rents will start in the $2200 dollar range), a Nordstrom Rack is being built at Canton Crossing, another 200 unit on Haven street is being built about a 1/4 of a mile away from the National, oh and lets not forget the 2000 unit complex under review right next to O'Donell Heights again all in the same area.

Also if your land is in a hole or up high to take the dirt down to sight level for the street can cost a good amount of money.

Either they stole some stuff and staged a break-in, it was a domestic violence situation, or there are drugs involved.

Otherwise, "riff raff" shows up and starts walking my property, creeping out my other tenants.I circumvent Zillow's need to display the address by using the unit number as the property number, e.g. 1R Main Street 1R. 

April is a GREAT time to start the rental season here and having 60 days to gut a place, put new into the unit and raise revenues.... well that's exactly my strategy - I just dont like tossing someone to the streets to do it however.Just think about the potential hard / soft costs of eviction... you can probably kiss any judgement goodby.

and the one across the street has 30 year archtecturals.

(Pre-foreclosure, distressed, others) There has to be a method that is more effective than going to every door on every street.

Are there better deals available that might be found if I were looking on the street, through an agent, or direct mailing owners?

Billy I did a hoarder last year that I took 300,000 obs to the dump.. cost me 75k just to remove all the crap.. now that included the houses that was wasted and of no value.. but still.that guy lived there about 10 years so I figure he went out daily and brought back about 100 lbs of junk  LOL  now that included a few cars an RV a boat. you know all those prized possessions and in our area you don't beat back the shrub's etc the whole place was not visible from the street half the stuff was intertwined with vegetation. 

New Ken is all street by street, some places are worth renovating, others aren't.It isn't hard to find properties for sale in New Ken, it depends on your criteria for what a deal is.