Love these forums - so many knowledgeable people here! We're a young team with some good early success in single family flips and multi-family ->condo conversions in Boston area. Now it's time to start sourcing deals.

We've heard a lot about strategies but lets talk tactics.

What are the best ways to find distressed sellers? Specifically how do I find lists of absentee landlords:

1. Code Violations?

2. Tenant evictions?

3. Back taxes?

Absentee landlords you can find digging through town records. Specifically you could pick a list of properties that you are targeting and see which get their tax bills mailed to out of town/out of state. You do this by going to the city's website and then usually continue to the assessors office for property info. Generally they make it pretty easy to find. Type in the properties you are interested in and see where the owner's get their mail. You might choose properties which look neglected.

If there is an easier system to do this, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks, @Dennis Meehan . We have no trouble finding absentees. Listsource.com tells us that. What's interesting for us is to find other problems (back taxes, code violations, evictions, etc).

Typically every market is different, I know here in Virginia I'm able to go down to the courthouse and pick up that type of information. A little trick I use as well is to communicate with your local property management companies and ask if any of their clients have properties their looking to get rid of.

Sometimes it's hit or miss but it can be very effective.

best and simplest ways is to search county/city property appraiser or tax records. 

@andre :

"A little trick I use as well is to communicate with your local property management companies and ask if any of their clients have properties their looking to get rid of" is a good tip. Thanks for sharing !