If you are looking to invest into real estate, I have found this site to be incredibly helpful.

My $0.02, if you are open to the idea of finding a new primary and turning your current home into the investment, this is 100% going to be the more cost effective method in terms of financing.

What be the best/creative ways to effectively reach out to these home owners?

With all this in mind, I would have to second @Brendan Miller's recommendation of heavily considering selling as it doesn't sound like there's much cash flow to offer an attractive reason to hold.The only other piece of this puzzle is to determine what your goal is so that you can effectively leverage the gains.

Even if you can’t get a loan, the owner may be willing to take payments over time, effectively being the lender for you. 

There is a psychological effect to knowing someone else wants what you want, and that tends to bring out multiple offers, so maybe your realtor is trying to counteract any effect there.

If you are looking to invest into real estate, I have found this site to be incredibly helpful.

I brought about $10k to the game and to be able to effectively market for business I should have brought at least $25k. 

Think about the domino effect what you described will cause.

Knowing that your experience has been one worth telling others about means a lot to me and our incredible team that works so hard to make it happen.