What is the Most Effective Way to Target Seller Leads?
I'm a licensed real estate agent and recently teamed up to do leasing with an investor who is scaling his business with anything between 1-50 units in our local market and has no problem with capital. I have experience in management and no problem with the day to day grind work that's required to scale (cold calling, door knocking, etc), so I'm looking for advice in what the most effective strategies are to find distressed properties/multi-family leads. I'd like to step into an acquisition lead for his business and would appreciate any feedback on the best steps to get started. Some ideas I've had:

\- Cold calling non-owner occupied homes

\- Scanning municipal rental registration for owner contact information; do cities have accessible databases of this?

\- Running FB ads targeting pre foreclosure/distressed properties

For anyone who has been in a similar position, what strategy was the most effective to get started with?
[{"id": "ijm8knw", "text": "Sounds like you have the easy part as the co-operating broker, just call agents with listings, it's a guaranteed commission.", "replies": [{"id": "ijmbnao", "text": "Thanks for the feedback. Would definitely be a solid set up but very rarely do investment properties that hit the market in my area make sense.", "replies": [{"id": "ijmcs8d", "text": "Just spit balling but maybe call properties that aren't even listed that do make sense and see if they are open to offers. Start with single owners and work your way up to corporate.\n\nIdk, lots of options but I dont have any experience with your situation so I might not know what someone else does.", "replies": [{"id": "ijmj12c", "text": "Sounds good, no problem - I appreciate the feedback regardless! In a similar boat now and figured it could be a good opportunity to try expanding my network/skills while targeting new business.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijn9utl", "text": "It\u2019s not helpful, but the best strategy is to start this a decade ago. Everyone, brokers included that have an IQ above room temp, is doing this and has been doing this for a while. What you\u2019re asking for is what virtually every single investor asks me to bring them. \u201cI want a 10% CAP Kroger-anchored center with 30% vacancy\u201d. \u201cI want C class multifamily in B areas where there\u2019s upside due to mismanagement\u201d. Me too, broseph; I wouldn\u2019t be calling you if I found it. \n\nI think the only real answer here is make a database of properties that either have 1) lower rents than the rest of the submarket they are in or 2) properties with a lot of deferred maintenance and hope that they are hurting financially. As a caveat- there are probably hundreds if not thousands of former brokers doing this.", "replies": [{"id": "ijqk0d4", "text": "Thanks for the feedback! From what I\u2019m reading, the best time to start the database is now. \n\nI\u2019ve used Zillow, realtor, etc to find under market rent and call FRBOs. Do you have any further insight on effective ways to find deferred property/under market rent leads?", "replies": [{"id": "ijr9gwp", "text": "Finding under market rent is pretty easy. Get on apartments.com and look for which ones have a drastically lower rent than what\u2019s around. \n\nSpotting deferred maintenance can only be done by driving the market as far as I know.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijnab8s", "text": "If your prospecting multifamily, your going to want to build out a database of properties in your respective markets for a range of X units. Identify the managing member of the entity that holds title to the properties, cold call them. Skip trace their contact Info to get phone numbers. Not sure what access to databasing tools you have but what your looking for are properties and people that have a capital event coming up soon. That could be a balloon payment coming due in the next 18 months, larger cap ex, old age/retirement , divorce, etc..", "replies": [{"id": "ijqjamx", "text": "Greatly appreciate your response! My post may have came off all over the place, so thanks for the practical advice. \n\nI just reached out to our title company to see if they can put us onto regular searches that match some of the criteria you listed. Cheers!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijnye0d", "text": "We are what we repeatedly do. All those strategies work, but my professional bias is that FB ads might be the least effective here for both technical and motivational reasons. \n\nWhen I was a broker, I cold called like crazy. Expired listings, FSBO listings, non-owner occupied, you gave me a list and I called every MF on that list until I got a listing. \n\nSome of the best advice I can give for someone starting out like this is to:\n\n1. Find your niche: You can't be everywhere all the time, pick a niche and be everywhere for that niche.\n2. Commit to 1 strategy at a time: If you want to cold call, do that. If you want to door knock, do that. If you want to drive for dollars, do that. But pick 1 until you've mastered it and have a great system down, then expand from there.\n3. Realize that what you do now probably won't pay off for a year or more: I'm very impatient so this was hard for me. Work now for future you. Typically what you prospect now is planting the seed for what you'll reap a year down the road. \n4. Once you get business, never stop prospecting. All sales and acquisitions people survive, thrive, or die because of their pipeline. Never let the pipeline of new business go dry.", "replies": [{"id": "ijqimom", "text": "Hey Justin, thanks for the insight and feedback! Much appreciated. I\u2019ve really narrowed in on the cold calling for residential so it seems to make the most sense to apply the same strategy toward targeting investment properties. It seems that non-owner occupied might be a good place to start and pivot from there.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijr1yfr", "text": "Go to Home Depot/Lowes/Menards/Other and find the workers who are fixing the apartments/multifamily/ SFR rentals to  get the name &amp; number of the owner/landlords they work for.   \n\n\nRun public records for the apartments/multifamily/ SFR rentals in the areas where you want to focus on and see who owns them and where are the tax bills being sent.", "replies": [{"id": "ijw26mj", "text": "The amount of times I\u2019ve run into contractors and thought of doing that \u2014 will have to give it a try next time! Thanks for the feedback.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]