I am sure she is sending him letters (or using other methods to contact him) as well.I'm a small long-term buy-and-hold investor myself, but this property is about 4 hours away from my own market, and would be used personally by my wife and I if we were to acquire it.I'd really like some help from you large operators who work these deals all the time, as to how best make contact with the owner and see if he were interested in selling.  

@Richard Benjamin WilhiteRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

So in my mind STR is good tool to catch long term appreciation and REDUCE EXPENSE when folk is vacationing.For me it is as the following:if you like snowboarding you would buy in Tahoe or Denver or Aspen.if you like beach you buy in Hawaii, Destin, Panama Beach FL or San Diego.if you like hiking/forest you go to these Servier county,etc.The problem is if you don't have hobby and don't like to go for vacation LOLI cut 90% of my vacation budget by having STR, this is the internal profitability metrics LOLIf my own purpose is to make money I would find investment that yield 30% IRR and >1.5EM and I know it's not that in vacation market in 2023 lol.

Chapter Seven of the VA Lender’s Handbook clearly states:“If a property is to be owned by two or more eligible Veterans, it may consist of four family units and one business unit, plus one additional unit for each Veteran participating in the ownership”.

That's why I'm intrigued by the reliable returns on notes, albeit lower.

Area is not a high end area by any means, all units don’t have laundry as well as no centralized air.

"for rent by owner", investors)-search for non-homestead properties in your county and send postcards to those owners that own homes that meet the criteria you want to focus on-network with real estate attorneys -network with trustees in banks that offer trustee services-look up court records of landlords who have filed their own evictions and send them postcards -network with HOAs that have non-homestead properties in that association -when you see a "for rent by owner" sign in your area, send the owner a letter -join Facebook groups (for rent by owner, landlords) and being to contribute -improve your SEO on your website-find someone who can help you gather landlord info from Zillow, etc.

Seller finance deals work when one of the following situations is present1- property can’t be financed with institutional financing usually because property is vacant (commercial property) or in bad condition2- seller will only accept an above market price for the property and by offering seller financing opens the universe of potential buyers to include people who wouldn’t qualify for financing3- seller is able to obtain a “piece of the action” from a buyer rehabbing the property and hence ultimately obtain a higher price.4- the seller has an existing low interest rate mortgage and wants to “wrap” the existing mortgage into a seller financed higher rate mortgage and pocket the differential 5- property is an investment property, seller has a low basis in the property because of depreciation, and wants to spread out the taxes due.Are you thinking of trying to purchase with 100% seller financing, or are you able to /willing to offer a down payment of say 10-20% .  

Sometimes properties with clouded title are sold using owner finance.5) Talk to a property manager to ensure these are good rental areas and the rental income is not artificially inflated by an unethical seller.6) Do the math on the repairs, monthly income, monthly expenses all make sense.

You could visit the idea of student housing in university area of Charlotte with a SFH and rent by the room.