A key is knowing your market extremely well. 

It is extremely difficult to convince anyone to sell their home via a post card or even a letter.

Crime rates are high, and median income is extremely low.

. $350K in lottery tickets maybe.Real estate investing is a slow path to financial success and, maybe possible in your time line, but extremely unlikely.I would suggest that real estate investing is a good plan, although more of a mountain trail than a road, but you will need to seriously re-evaluate your time line.

One thing I have learned is that consistency is extremely important, especially in face of adversity and challenges.

This is why gauging their motivation on the phone is extremely important.

@Amber Turner - I've been looking for this and your options are EXTREMELY limited.

As we were affected by hurricanes and extreme king tides.

We have saved up quite a bit of cash, nearly enough to fund the types of properties we are looking at; however, we feel that the HELOC would allow us some cushion from the standpoint of not exhausting our cash and in case things went south, we could certainly pay back the HELOC.

In my opinion you have to be realistic and extremely patient to find something worth buying right now.PM me if I can be of more  help.Originally posted by @Riley Blake:@Daniel Kurkowski Thanks for your input!