As most of our deals go, it was a distressed house and we brought life back with the renovation.

You need to find a distressed property in a decent area owned by a distraught landlord and then renvate the place and rent to a new tenant class.

Generally speaking, those sellers own properties that are distressed, have problematic tenants, are vacant, were inherited, have code enforcement issues, are in preforeclosure, are in tax default, owners are going through a divorce, etc, etc, etc. 

Try to find a distressed property in an area that is already good/stabilized or where there is a lot of growth. 

We've had success with that property and decided to reach back out to our real estate agent to look at some other properties and to keep us in the loop on any distressed properties she tells other investors about.

I have never seen people rehabbing or putting in New construction next to a distressed home.

I have my first Wholesale deal (5 suburban lots) ready to go, and it's a distressed property with a very motivated seller- I'm a little anxious bc it's a big ROI...yes. 

You could consider something passive such as private lending with 1st position mortgages, investing in a PPM Fund, turnkey rentals, even buying distressed to rehab then flip or hold. 

@Justin Scott DealMachine is a great source that lists the associated addresses and phone numbers to the distressed home through the enhanced search link.

Often I do my own maintenance in order to keep those properties  safely into the black instead of the red.On another note you might look for distressed properties in the nicer areas and fix them up yourself in order to get the lower price that cash flows.