[fintstone]

I get hundreds each week (because I have houses in several states). Some of the "get rich on real estate" seminars picked up the old trick of searching tax records for houses that the owner's address does not match the property address...and target those with a lowball offer. Now, many, many neophyte real estate investors do this. The hope is that you either inherited the house and want to dump it cheap or that it is a rental that you are sick of and will dump it cheap. Generally they will give you a very lowball cash offer (or try to get you to carry it). Since they don't use a realtor or even insurance in some cases, and they have lowball contractors lined up...their overhead is relatively low and they can score pretty well if you take low enough price (below market). If you take their offer, they will clean it up a little and flip it.