If you have cash you might go the owner finance route and it's very common with businesses.

Should I go the hard money route to pay for these?

It's not the cheapest route, but it's good.  

My wife spotted a home less than a mile from our house when we decided to take a new route out of town to go have dinner for her birthday.

If that definition of market value is met, you never buy under market value, the price you paid is the market value.Distressed sales may be from the motivation of the owner, the property condition, it may be under performing or there are issues of obsolescence, functional or external.Cure the matter that effects the property, mismanagement, condition, functionality or obsolescence.Going the route Chris mentioned can be done, it's not guaranteed as an over night method as it may take time to achieve a record that can be shown in the market and there will also be more emphasis on the management ability of the borrower.

I actually found a website that provides letters that you mentioned @Chaz Reid  so I very well might go that route as well.

You're very likely going to have to put 35 to 40% down once you go the portfolio or private money/hard money route.

The "cash is king" mantra will ultimately prove true, without adequate capital, it is extremely difficult and extremely stressful stringing deals together, and I suspect it ends up catching up to the majority of people that go that route.

I want to go the conventional route 30yr loan.

If you want to go the opposite route you can spend a good amount of money making your website a fantastic resource, you can then use ad services like Google AdWords to drive local traffic to your site.