Direct marketing,online ad sites and your local newspaper are great to market for deals.

You could use the normal advertising methods, loopnet, agent, MLS, newspapers, magazines, etc.Your listed 3rd option may be feasible to "trade", but may be difficult to find someone wanting to move in the opposite direction of you.

Now it's coming soon to your neighborhood.

It is in a neighborhood of single family homes that recent sale have shown range from 56k to 80k, those SFR have about 500 less square footage and are much older homes.

Neighborhood is not great but definitely not a combat zone, Housing rate is about 950 for a 3 bedroom with separate utilities.

You can also put a generic ad (like Andrew's bandit sign ad) in newspapers, free publications, etc.Hope this helps!

If the neighborhood is crappy, it's readily apparent.

There's a neighborhood in my area that just got the ok for a new (and quite large) park where there was a rundown block of old buildings, a parking lot, etc.

Something that interests me but I haven't read any conversation about are the pluses and minuses of buying houses that are great rentals versus houses that may be a little higher priced but will bring in a good profit in a few years.This seems like a very exciting time in real estate to me, prices are all over, forclosures across the board from the best to the worst neighborhoods, and alot of things going on in the banking and credit industries.I just closed on my first deal, a three bdrm 1 1/2 bath in a decent area.

The problem is that most investors want to be in neighborhoods in which they intend to live.