The #1 website that has been servicing the Mid-Term Rental and monthly stay market for over a decade is MonthlyRentalsByOwner.comThey don't charge service fees (like the big sites VRBO & AirBnB), plus you get immediate direct communication with the guest.They only charge an annual subscroption up-front of $173/year per property, and that also gets you posted as well to their Snowbird website for monthly renters, www.AmericanSnowbird.com - all included in that one annual fee.

I've found that asking prices and listing status are often more accurate on those direct sites than on MLS.  

I am a small lender just lending to investors for flips and refi's.

if your goal is to build up a small but mighty portfolio of rental properties, then "time IN the market beats timING the market." don't wait for the best conditions to buy. just find deals that make sense with the current rates. it won't be as easy, but everyone's doing it. but don't bank on being able to refi later at a lower rate. that's a bad backup plan. 

Once we make the connection and start talking about projects, it always starts out with a small job..

OR I would consider JVing with the new buyer to get my principle and small interest on the back end of the project. 

You can just approach the seller (or their agent) as a private party and make an offer, either 3% lower or whatever you think will make the deal work for both parties.....Now if you want to acquire some RE knowledge, I suppose it couldn't hurt to have a license....and it will give you a small amount of credibility (not much, it is not hard to get a license)I think you can gain the knowledge just as easily by just starting to buy and sell properties...... 

Normally I only rep the owner, even if tenant comes directly to me. 

More general advice, sorry for not getting too specific, but careful with how you frame your direct mail outreach. 

But I have neighbors and all sides of small properties we're Hospital some tourism activities.