Here in Anne arundel county Md , you need to pull a permit to change the wax ring on a toilet ..

from what I have heard around my way , you basically give a couple hundred for the house , its the cost of permits and moving the house that are expensive .

It is also only three blocks from the local technical college and three miles from the local university, so HUGE demand in areas like this.I just looked up the matrix for the zoning as was mentioned in a previous post and I DID find that a sorority or a frat house is permitted under conditional use...

It's such a nice house on such a nice street that I hate to just dismiss it without trying to find out if it could be a prospect.

They had to get a special permit from the town, and I required a special insurance policy of $500K before I would consent.

This Nolo article says asking prospective tenants to fill out written applications can protect you from lawsuits filed by irate applicants that you rejected as tenants.

Second I assume you are looking for single family houses for long term rentals to hold and not rehabs or commercial properties.If that's the case you need to be very careful investing from afar in single family houses as the dynamics are different.Do not be sold on a property where they say it's CLOSE to this great area etc.Instead look at population growth, quality of schools, the economic planning department, permits pulled for building, whether the state is business friendly and whether it is a pro-tenant or pro-landlord state, median income levels, job growth, and crime levels ( violent versus non-violent offenses ) etc.Many more metrics to look at but this will get you started.

However, here recently through researching a few properties there seem to be several properties in areas that I focus on that may be good prospects but I'm not sure of the best way to contact the owners.

What is the lowest sold comp that is most comparable to your prospect property?

Also, remember to mail your list multiple times as the timing of your mail getting in the hand of a prospect when they become motivated is crucial.