You will have to forge a good relationship with the REO listing agents for this, and for many listings they will have a small window of time where the listing is not on MLS and the listing is exclusive to the listing agent and the agent's "team"; that time window is used to identify their own buyers without competition, so that they collect both sides of commission.

My renters pay the utilities and they choose where to get their electricity from.That is the only utility choice that I am aware of other than water wells and septic systems.Lessons from Texas...When our state first went to deregulation it was supposed to provide price competition that would lead to lower prices.

Remember, some who is willing to teach you is offering their time, energy and even some risk (you may become their competition one day).

Now you know my competitive nature......

The big bulk buyers have now left but competition is still extremely high.

The large place here that turned twice was killed by band cover charges on fri/sat, college kids won't pay 20-30 at the door here, they may in your area, but point being, you can price your way out of business quickly.Distributors set the prices, not you, they don't have competition.

Believe it or not, I try to network and become friends with my competition.

The market is pretty competitive here and it's not cheap unless you want to dig into the "less desirable" areas but there are deals to be had.   

Being a off market deal there is no competition so I'm not worried!

I'm not sure about the competition in your market but if it's high, then you need to basically find properties that other people are not finding.