Creative ways of investing in Real estate?

[David Putz]

I do not spend much time on here since my focus is investing in distressed notes for over 6 years.  With regard to Distressed Notes, it seems to me that Bigger pocket forums focus more on brick and mortar investing.  The posts where notes is talked about, the members who respond often have limited experience in the note space even though their posts appear to show their knowledge in the space.  Yes my rant is over and back to the question.  

What I am interested to hear from other New Jersey (especially Ocean County and Monmouth County) Investors is what is your method of investing in real estate to purchase the property at the lowest entrance dollar amount?  And why does it work well for you?  I am not looking for funding strategies but networking with others to find alternative/advance methods of finding properties.

Obviously I find mine through Distressed Note investing.  I feel that going up the chain often allows me to purchase the paper cheaper than any other method and then I can control the paper.  Unfortunately I often avoid investing in NJ due to the long foreclosure process(if property is not vacant).   I do want to invest in NJ for buy/hold and buy/flip so i thought it be a good topic to post on biggerpockets.