The only thing separating me from the other houses on the same street is a little smoker's balcony.  

I would say about 40% of housing in neighborhood has off street parking attracts very good tenants.

Being relatively new landlords (nowadays I'd say "see you when the sun comes up") I dragged Bill out of bed...in January...in a cold winter rain (we're in Georgia) to go trooping over to the house to be able to do...absolutely nothing in regards to a plumbing leak except shut the hot water heater down and turn the water off at the street (tenants were "worried" their water bill would be sky high from a leak) and leave five gallons of water for the tenants (which they never used).  

@Shaun Moore I have seen a metal ramp that fits over wood stairs across the street from a house I recently put on the market.  

The site should have, among other things; information about the home, the neighborhood (schools, shopping, etc), interactive virtual tours (where you can actually navigate through the property similar to google street view, not just the traditional "virtual tours" which are essentially glorified slideshows with background music/narration), video of a drone aerial property survey, CMA data and pricing justification, links to any press on the property, and a way to easily/discreetly inquire about the property or schedule a private viewing.Something else that I find is almost always advantageous is using the avenues provided by the neighborhood you are in to help sell the home.  

I don't know the cross streets but that's definitely not a B area, not even close. 

I found a great property, literally right across the street from my brothers house. 

Then take a look street by street. 

I believe that a professional written letter with a request to purchase real estate, with added credentials (license, bonded, with the BBB, references and some background information about yourself will be more respected than a hand written note on yellow paper, the consumers today are very smart) I don't (I am often wrong) think they are going to get excited by a yellow letter.It is my opinion if you want to find deals, forget the mailings, get out on the street and start to meet people who want to sell their properties; for sale by owners, expired listings, internet leads, farm an area, talk to people, run ads, folks in tax sale or mortgage foreclosure. 

One thing about Troy and Schenectady, beware of taxes, and beware of the block you're looking into, both those cities have some beautiful downtown areas, yet one or two blocks away are gang shootings and crackhouses, so definitely look at street-level comps, doing the standard comp within 1/2 mile can give you hugely varying property values.