I am in the process of buying a duplex and getting my first two tenants soon so I've been thinking about land lord a lot.

Brad

@Amy Good well I'm licensed, so I have access to the mls and some sort of tax database that allows me to find all properties with absentee owners, and then i just filter through those to see which ones are the ones i'm looking for specifically (I'll try to filter out all the land lords and just stick with distressed properties) and then as far as delinquent taxes i just use the county website to find those, the downside is that you have to go street by street, at least here in Houston. but hey that beats driving for dollars which is really time consuming and inefficient! 

Just like Brad I have a Market Update with me to leave behind.

I am using bandit signs right now but the city will take them down fast.I can get 1 bench sign for $110 a month with a 1 year contract, this is on the busiest street in townI have done some mailings with zero success and thought about taking my direct mail money and doing bench signsI have done 3 mailings, the first one was 500 post cards with zero response to absentee land lords, the second was 500 to expired listings and all I got is calls from people who let me know there house sold or something else.The last mailing was to absentee landlord (yellow letter of 500) and I got 10 -15 calls but no deals I know them main thing with direct mail is to never give up and mail to the right people.

@Brad Srutowski You're pretty much spot on.

@Brad Zerhusen Many REOs are being sold on Auction.com with only quit claim deeds now as well.

Brad V. 

Welcome to BP @Brad Hanne You can ask nearby investors here where are the best neighborhoods to invest https://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

Even after this, NJ has always been more friendly to the renter than the land lord.