Maybe do a mailing/telemarketing campaign in your target area.

Anything that is a good deal is gone very quickly and most just don't make sense financially.Pre-foreclosures  may be a better source of deals but that is a highly competitive list to target as well.  

That means you would need to get it under contract for not more than $42k to hit the 70% - rehab target and build in your $2k wholesale fee.That's going to put the property right in the 1% range for a buy & hold, which is the only place I see any real market for this type of property.  

The difference that obtaining a lien makes, (even if you do not intend to foreclose it), is that having a lien on a property targeted for adverse possession provides both a legal justification for paying someone else's property taxes and an arguable claim for recouping the taxes paid -in the event that the adverse possession doesn't work out. 

Mainly because as you mentioned your target tenants are going to be bachelor/ettes with decent jobs, and from first hand experience I feel those type of people aren’t too terribly picky as long as the property is half decent. 

For example, if you have a page that you want to target the phrase "sell my Des Moines house fast", you could have a page where the heading on the page is "How Can I Sell My Des Moines House Fast?"

In listsource you can target properties with equity.

In the month of December I send each tenant a $50 Target gift card (rents are a $1000-$1200/mo).

I am a broker who has seen to often penny wise and pound foolish.  

I would begin my research by selecting some targeted areas and then seeing how much property values declined in those areas between 2006-2010.