Off Market Search Tips?

September 12, 2025

by a searcher from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor in Reno, NV, USA

I have been looking for a suitable acquisition in my smaller region for over a year now. The listed opportunities all seem to either be badly overpriced, not transactable at all, or the few good purchases just get swarmed with 30 buyers before I can get my foot in the door. Sent two LOI's, put one under contract, that fell through quite quickly, and I am now going to pivot to off market deals, hard. Anybody have any good tips on my cold outreach process? I plan to make a list of reputable local brands, cold email with a short intro and express interest in a confidential discussion, maybe LinkedIn? One problem I run into is there are so many less good companies in my smaller Reno/Tahoe geographical region. Appreciate the support!

Reply by a searcher
from The University of Michigan in Detroit, MI, USA

Hi Ross what worked for me source deals in a smaller region I did two things that worked well. 1) I built relationships with brokers, accountants and bankers that serve many of these businesses and 2) I used PPP data to narrow down my list of businesses in my target from to about 130 and in addition to my phone and email cold outreach I hand write letters which includes what I liked about their business and my story. You would be surprised at how many responses we got to the letter or the owner noted the letter when I followed up with a call. Obviously this is hard to scale and would definitely only work with a targeted list. Let me know and I can share more on my messaging and approach. Matt

Reply by a professional
in Portsmouth, UK

I have done a LOT of off market outreach - Calling the business owners is without a doubt the best way, especially if the pool of businesses is smaller. Drop me a DM if you want to discuss ^redacted‌

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