Once you've done your research and chosen a market, take action.

If you want to network or ask specific questions about your local market, go to your local real estate forum and connect with investors from your area: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/86-local-real-estate-networking5.

In 2018 we began sourcing off market deals by doing direct mail marketing campaigns.

Median Price: $678,500, +6.02% Yoy.Closed Sales: 4,216, -11.89% Yoy.YTD Closed Sales: 21,325, +1.38% Yoy.12 Month Closed Sales: 38,118, -8.70 Yoy.Inventory: 6,035, +31.62% Yoy.YTD inventory: 33,454, -1.59% Yoy.New Listings: 4,349, +10.77% Yoy.YTD New Listings: 29,789, +8.16% Yoy.Months Supply: 1.8, +38.46% Yoy.Cumulative Days on Market: 29, +3.57% Yoy.Existing Home Inventory as a Percent of Households: 0.22%.

For a reasonable interest rate, knowing today’s markets.

property is currently in a reverse mortgage need $308k to satisfy. currently 3 units and wanting to remodel to create a 4th.Rural low economy market with high demand and very few rentals available in area.

That at least puts it in perspective for me as I determine how to break into the market.

That happens in my market all the time. 

They apply, but you are just subject to gift tax at that point, which does not actually result in a tax bill for you, but a reduction in your total giftable allowance which is ~13M dollars. 

The plan: I am identifying on/off market properties that are targets, will do all of the real estate work (listing, showing, advertising, vetting, etc) and will split the cost of the purchase of the home and the material costs for any needed repairs.The contractor will be subbing out portions of the job and be on site mostly full time until the project is completed.