Bad targeting? 

Rebecca I work for a real estate investment firm called New Western Acquisitions, were I've helped investors locate and target areas to maximize their money doing flips.

I agree that finding cities with the proper demographics- population and employment growth is important- that’s how, along with other factors, I targeted the cities I mention above.What are a few tactical ways to gain connections to brokers, lenders etc if you are looking for a deal in a city that you do not live in?

I'm just starting out in the real estate world and am targeting buying a low cost rental property in the midwest.

We are primarily looking for C properties in B neighborhoods but at the right price, it sure becomes tempting to stray from our initial targeted neighborhoods.

Because it's faster, yields results is extremely targeted and cheaper.

I can target by zip code, street name, or a custom "bounding box" of your choice. 

@Michael Stokes No, I don't have luxury cabins, I aim for middle-of-the-road while still being nice (solidly B-class, to use LTR parlance), and my target demographic is couples, so mine are all small.  

The best way to find them is to send out mailers.Some good lists to target are Absentee Owners with Equity, Seniors with Long-time Ownership and Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores.You can work with a list broker to optimize your list for your area.

@Jerryll Noorden Facebook isn't powerful only because of the amount of people who migrate to it and spend countless hours using the platform but also its ability to target and narrow down into YOUR ideal audience.