Home Town / Small Town / Hot Market Direct Mail

Hey Guys,  names Kevin.  I am a new investor looking to get my first deal.  I live, was born and raised, in a small town called Scappoose outside of Portland OR.  Scappoose is a beautiful small town that is about 15K people, with a majority of people being commuters into Portland.  Scappoose a few years ago was undiscovered, but in the last few years has blown up!  Houses are going for $20-30K over list price, and listings (at least the decent ones) aren't available for more then a few weeks.  There are developments of 100+ units being built and new businesses moving in.

I would really like to acquire a live in multi-family property, but as you can guess, there are none available on the market, and the few that pop up and bought buy cash buyers with a much stronger hand then a newby.  I was able to get my hands on a list of every multi-family property in the area.  I would like to reach out to these property owners and see if I can generate a deal, but Im not 100% sure how I should go about it.

My first thought was direct mail (the list I have has mailing addresses for the owners as well the property).  I thought that I might have a good chance catching their interest with a handwritten letter and the fact that I am a local, born and raised in this town, that I am young and starting out, that we could work out a deal without them having to go through the hassle of listing the property.  Now, I'm not sure if this approach is a good one, or if it would be better to approach them with a more professional, typed letter.

I'm also very interested / open to any input or advice you have!