My "No Soliciting" sign actually worked very well with everyone except religious organizations. I still haven't figured out how to deter them aside from saying "I'll listen to your sales pitch about God only after you listen to my sales pitch about Satan."

Funny story, only once did that fail to get them to go away. In that case, it was a couple of Mormons and they took me up on the offer (leaving me wishing I actually had some sort of satanic sales pitch). They were very nice and pleasant company, and we ended up spending a couple of hours talking about the music of Frank Zappa.

But I didn't become a Mormon.

That was smart of them to take you up on your offer! It reminds me of something I read that said if you are trying to sell something to someone and they're budging, ask them what it would take to change their mind. It's kind of a trick question, because often, whatever they request can be provided (or at least an equivalent), and once the salesperson provides it to them, it's very hard for them to say no. Most people want to appear consistent in their behaviors.

> That was smart of them to take you up on your offer!

It really was. I think the reason they did and the others didn't was that they understood that I wasn't being serious, but the others thought I was. They laughed when I made the offer and said "sounds great!".

But, to your point, once they agreed I wasn't really in a position to say "no, never mind" without losing a bit of face.

I was once offered a job across the country. I was flattered and a friend's recommendation was involved so I wanted to be polite. Instead of saying "no," I said thank you so much but looking at cost of living etc it would really take (to-me absurd offer, benefits, moving support, etc). They replied back: you drive a hard bargain but we can do that. Welcome aboard!

...shit. But yeah, I moved.

Well, how did it work out?

Really well, at least in the long run. I stopped being a "big fish" in a small-town pond and ended up discovering more cool opportunities than I thought existed.

Mormon salesmissionaries are trained to do whatever you want. They'll mow your lawn for you.

Pro tip about Mormon missionaries (I've never been a Mormon but have been visited by them): the easiest way to get them to go away permanently is to get on their blacklist; they have them believe it or not. It is basically a "do not visit this house" list. And the easiest way to do that is to try to convert them to a different religion from Mormonism. If you're really good at it, they'll consider you a threat to their missionary work and blacklist you.

Now, you might be thinking "Nah, that sounds too much like work" but consider the benefit: you won't be blacklisted only by Mormon missionary trainer 1 and trainee 2, but no Mormon will ever visit your home ever again, because you are in their LDS ward.

While I really dislike anyone knocking on my door to sell me something, regardless of what that thing is, I do have to admit...

Mormons are usually the least objectionable of all the door-knockers. They tend to be genuinely friendly (or at least are able to fake it really well), respectful, don't do the "hard sell", and when I tell them I'm not interested, they honor my statement and leave without trying to change my mind or guilt-trip me.

I just put up a camera at the front door and check it before answering, if they're holding a clipboard or the like I leave them standing there.

I think the answer is that much like an ad for a car or a mattress, the cold call isn't meant to take someone from zero to full interest, it's to find that one person in a hundred who's already thinking about it and just needs an opportunity presented to them.

How many random people would you need to ask before you found someone who was pondering joining a gym this very morning and would love some more info about it?

You're probably right, but I don't get this attitude at all. I could have a burning desire to do X and no time, if you called me out of the blue offering X, I'd still say no thank you, sorry. It's entirely in my DNA that cold calls are never good. Wonder why other people haven't developed this.

Same here. It's simple math for me, really - even if your pitch is compelling and well-targeted to me somehow, it is highly unlikely that your offer and commission overhead are going to be better than something I can seek out myself.

The biggest door to door I get is from roofing/window where they canvas the neighborhood when doing a neighbor's house. I don't see the types of door to door where a car would drop off a couple of people to cover an area any more though. The No Soliciting is just not even a concern for them. It's not like it is enforceable in any way than a possibly rude door slamming in their face, and who cares about that?

"Hey, we're doing some work in your neighborhood and since our trucks and team are already there we can get you a great deal..."

I've never understood why anyone would think this would matter. Like they're camping in our neighborhood for the week and this saves everyone money somehow?

Or the other tactic where they say "you might have noticed my truck around as I've done some work for <neighbor> and will be at <other neighbor>'s house later..."

They name people whose door they knocked on, got their name, and likely rejected. But they use those names on other prospects which makes it sound like word of mouth, the best form of advertising! "Oh, if my neighbor is using this guy for <Service> he must be good"... Really a brilliant tactic that I bet fools some people.

The only guy I really admired (but didn't use because I thought his prices were far too high) was a guy going door to door offering to clean the outside windows. He wanted $10/window and I was like no way. I'm sure he got a few customers.

I can see how "we're in your neighborhood so we thought you might want to use our services while we're here" could work. When I first moved into my house a few years ago, I wasn't familiar with tactics used by door to door salespeople, so I legitimately thought they were in the neighborhood and to save them on a second trip, they were seeing if they could drum up some additional business.

It was only after just about every door-to-door salesman used that excuse that I clued in that he's probably just a sales guy going to random neighborhoods and not actually one of the workers on the ground doing the job. Anyway, my point is most people don't think about these things, and especially not new homeowners, and probably just take their word.

Regarding the $10/window guy: I've been meaning to get out the ladder and clean all my windows myself but have been lazy, so if somebody actually showed up at my door, quoted a price, and said they'd do it right then and there, I might take them up on the offer. It's really just a numbers game for them.

For me it would have been over $400 since I have over 40 individual windows. I’d do it for $150, maybe $200. But not $400. I’m guessing he was able to pull a few though.

As for the “in the area” thing, it sounds logical at first and I’ve heard of neighbors negotiating a discount by getting the same job done by the same vendor but for jobs that take a good while if not multiple days, it just doesn’t matter.

> I've never understood why anyone would think this would matter. Like they're camping in our neighborhood for the week and this saves everyone money somehow?

This seems obvious to me. My neighbours were getting their gutters cleaned and needed to come in to our garden, I asked the guys if they'd do ours as well. We didn't negotiate too hard on price, but I'm sure if pushed they would have taken something less than they'd charge to drive out and set up their equipment from scratch.

Maybe but probably not since they likely have jobs lined up for the next few months and aren’t about to work for less than they know they can get. It’s not like these guys are taking a horse and carriage 50 miles to a town to setup camp and try and sell out of whatever they’re peddling. They drive like 15 minutes. And they aren’t desperate for work.

Like a contractor like this wouldn't be willing to call up the customer they have scheduled next to say they were delayed for a reason other than what it actually was. However, on the flip side the expectation that they would drop everything just to service this one random request does seem a bit entitled.

What they would do is quote a much higher price since they’re aware the prospect isn’t price comparing and probably thinks they’re getting a deal because “they’re already here”. Why on Earth would they risk a higher priced job cancelling so they can do a lower priced job instead? lol! No. They will always do the better paying job first. If your contractor delays you it’s because another person is paying better.

I think you're assuming people are much more rational then they are in practice. Sure, if it were a company calculating all of those things, you'd be right. But I think it's not at all unlikely that a contractor would feel better doing an extra job close by, even for slightly lower pay, and even if they are delaying a slightly higher paying job farther away. Just like consumers have all sorts of biases that mean they don't always act in the most rational way, producers do to - especially individuals and small businesses.

Sometimes they actually do have equipment nearby, like a whole driveway repaving setup!

A lot of people are gullible and/or socially have trouble saying "no" to people. I think cold calling and door-to-door sales preys on that. I have elderly family members who hate getting telemarketing cold calls, but they are from some time/culture where it's uncomfortable/difficult to directly tell someone "No, I'm not interested. Fuck off." That's often who's falling for these.

If I actually needed what the salesman was selling, I would have bought it already myself. This is true for everything I've ever purchased. The fact that they have to push it on me proves that it's negative-EV and I have no problem just hanging up or closing the door. I guess not everyone finds this easy.

> If I actually needed what the salesman was selling, I would have bought it already myself.

This assumes it's a frictionless commodity. I want a pizza, I buy a pizza. I'm not interested in cold calls selling me pizza because if I wanted one, I would've already gone to the pizza shop down the road.

However, not everything is like this. Jobs, for example, are the opposite extreme. If someone cold-calls me asking me a job interview, well, this actually happened (not via a phone call) and led to me moving halfway around the world and having to learn a second language. Did I get scammed? Ich denke nicht.

In the realm of actual products, there are might be things you think about buying for a long time, and then eventually you see a good deal and buy it. Cold calls may help you find a good deal (I doubt it now - but back in the era when they weren't just spam) and then you may buy it.

There's also just advertising, especially for B2B where everything is more opaque. I have no idea where to get advanced Ethernet switch ASICs ("merchant silicon" as they call it) and you can't even Google it because the information isn't public. If I was a networking company and some switch ASIC company called me to tell me they make switch ASICs and here's our product selection guide, that would actually be welcome information. (I'm not one, but let's imagine I was.)

This is actually good. "Thanks for your time, the BRAWNDO CORPORATION won't call you again."

If you manage to end it in 3-8 seconds they can do 360 such calls in an hour. If the guy costs $12 per hour that works out to little over 3 cent.

And then, 20 months later a % of the "fuck off, leave me alone" guys need the product and remember how polite the call was. These usually do a good bit of research. They clearly call for information. If the price is good and they live 3 blocks away there are good odds they let you mow their lawn.

Too true, Many people, including myself, tend to say "ha, I have never bought any thing based on an ad or salesman" But often that is not the point, the point is to get it in your head that the product exists. and when you do need one, when faced with several indistinguishable items, you go for the one that feels familiar, the one that was infiltrated into your head months ago.

There is nothing super wrong with this, I mean, sales is necessary evil of doing business. necessary, because the whole point is to sell the thing, and evil, because you are coercing someone to do something they otherwise would not have done. But I think there is a healthy ratio here, and I try to make a point(often failing for the reason in the previous paragraph) to avoid products that lean too heavily on the unhealthy side of that ratio. those companies that believe sales is more important than the product.

If there are very few potential customers you just ask if it is at all possible to meet them. Same if you have only a few phone numbers from people who meet some set of requirements.

If there are millions of prospects and you cant filter by anything the point is to figure out that they don't need or want your product. Do it fast and politely.

Or not even that, the actual goal is to put in the calls without the negative psychological effect of mass rejection.

Arguably, you can start calling before writing the business plan when you only have a half finished idea. If you find just one prospect who says your product would be a wonderful thing have them be more specific. Like that it is much easier to stay motivated. Rejection is much harder if you are deeply invested, wrote the plan, wrote the code, found investors, hired employees.

While cold calling is heavily associated with shit products that doesn't mean your product is shit the moment you pick up the phone. Or maybe it is and you need to be told what is wrong with it repeatedly. You need to be talking with people who've made widgets for decades, they know their stuff.

Who knows, maybe you don't even need an idea. If you just call 1000 people in the funeral sector they can tell you what software they need. Then try weddings, laundromats, plumbers etc

Ask the dumb questions, what would be the right time to call someone in the $sectorName sector? What is their software budget? What are the repetitive administrative tasks? Is the sector patient and polite or do they tell you to fuck off and hang up?

This assumes that you know everything there is to know about the world.

Customers often do not know that products or even product categories exist and need to be informed about them.

This idea that there is a solution to every problem if you only knew about it is a hallmark of these things. A lot of products are solutions looking for a problem, and they work very hard to make you think you'll have a problem if you don't buy the product.

As an example, a pest control company canvassed one of my friends' cul-de-sacs and essentially threatened to send all the pests into his house by poisoning them and repelling them from all the neighbors. If you have a pest problem exclusion is usually cheaper and better than poison or repellent. My wife paid for trapping and control on her house for years and then I went around over the course of a couple of weeks and closed the gaps in her siding that were added by telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T and Comcast over the years. Mysteriously the pest problem went away after that.

So it's not always the case that the product being advertised is a net positive. Often it's net neutral or net negative. But the advertiser sure wants you to do it anyway.

Not all products and services are good, yes. But you don't spring forth from the womb knowing about all the good ones either.

I know ad and marketing folks tell themselves this to sleep at night, but it’s such a small factor in actual marketing and advertising that happens that it’s negligible.

That's what word of mouth is for. Ads and cold calls are not reliable sources of information, they are universally lies with some rare smidgen of truth sometimes hidden inside.

Ah yes, when I get together with my homies, I love to talk about B2B SaaS products.

Elderly who are a prime market for a reason cash from retirement or life insurance and possible dementia.

I don't know how many times I have told my own mother not to pick up the phone. At best she knows at worst she says she's knows it's a scam but "just wants to see who it is". At least she knows not to press 1 although "why what would it do?" often comes up. She has no credit card or Internet so VISA and Amazon scams are obviously fake. Of the calls to her land line phone nearly 100% are scam calls.

Even my aunt who knows better called to ask my mother why [large company] needed her to get gift cards and not tell the police. The pressure of authority is strong for older people they can't fathom someone would dare impersonate police.

Don't fall for your elderly relatives behaviour if they seems smart and not in any way gullible they still may be. It's shocking how easily some people are fooled even ones you think would never fall for such scams.

The fact that cold calling was expensive was a signal that the caller was legitimate.

In the era where calling someone on the phone is cheap and highly optimized, getting a phone call is not a signal for quality.

But back in the 1980s that wouldn’t have been the case. If a human being picked up the phone and called you, you would be more inclined to listen to them, simply because you knew it was expensive for them to call and it happened infrequently. Phone spam didn’t become a thing until much later.

It sounds like you mostly didn’t have the problems they were pitching for. Imagine you urgently needed a pesticide guy! Maybe you’d too annoyed to buy but someone else might not. That’s my head canon on why google makes so much from search ads, they’re advertising to people who are trying to solve that specific problem right now.

My ex used to write car commercials, and I asked her why they all had that goofy tone and all sounded the same in a weird way. I told her that I couldn't remember a single dealership from all the commercials I'd heard, since that tone lets me filter them out. She told me that was just because I wasn't in the market for a car, and if I was, that same tone would make the car commercials stand out. Sure enough, when I was in the market for a car years later, I realized she was right!

Yep. HN (and similar community) conversations on this topic are always so snobby, but in reality all it points to is this community mostly wanting to buy different things. Everyone here is just as susceptible.

That's a great point. So much of advertising is just providing awareness, too. I may not be in the market for a particular product, but if I've heard their ads a million times, even if they're annoying, once I go to buy, I will probably give them more weight than some unknown brand, especially if it's a low stakes purchase.

If the tactic results in a return on investment, somebody will do it -- even if it makes them unwelcome at family reunions.

When the cost is extremely low -- spamming -- any return at all will justify it.

When the cost is low and the return is relatively high -- cold calling -- it will happen.

Only regulation and good enforcement of the regulation can stop these activities in a capitalist regime.

Yes, they work. Cold calling and similar methods are all about the the numbers so even if you are immune to them, enough people aren't. Pesticides isn't everyone's cup of tea, perhaps you'd be more swayed by Doctors without Borders soliciting donations for aid to Gaza or something? You want to tell Jenny the volunteer you're so cheap so can't make a $5 donation? And before you know it you have signed up for a $10 monthly donation. Jenny will send you a thank you card in the mail. :) Couple the emotional manipulation with some insistence and aggressiveness and you'll have lots of sales.

BTW, I don't think you are immune. The only truly immune people are those that don't understand the language and/or have no money.

> The only truly immune people are those that don't understand the language and/or have no money.

I have to disagree on that point. I have a no soliciting sign. It is an IQ test - I don't do business with people who can't or won't read the sign. I used to work in sales and had to deal with rejection enough that I have absolutely no problem asking people if they can read the sign and closing the door in their face if they start to argue that what they are doing isn't "soliciting" for some technical reason.

And yet if I showed up with exactly what you need in my hand at a reasonable price you wouldn't even think about the sign. The sign doesn't mean anything.

It’s wild to me people can say things like this so confidently. I’ve said no to everything my entire life. I don’t care what you’re offering, I’m already seething with rage that I have to talk to you. If I want something I’ll look for it same rules as avoiding phishing.

Really? If you're hungry and your coworker shows up with a pizza you just tell them to fuck off?

:wave:

Hey, the rest of the thread is over here. It looks like you moved the goalposts so far away you might be lost.

Not really, it's exactly my point. If you're a game collector and I show up with a game at a good price, that's a sale. If I pull into your driveway with the classic car you're looking for the sale is on the table. The sign means nothing, what matters is what you've got and how much it'll cost.

Those are very niche. How would you have known that's what I'm looking for? Sounds like groundwork for a larger crime. I'll say I'm busy but take your name and number and later do OSINT research on you to level the playing field. Why would I engage someone who knows where my family sleeps when I don't know where theirs sleeps?

Successful cold callers research their customers beforehand to know what they want, and don't call people who probably aren't interested.

If you're a game collector and I show up with a rare game, you're probably interested. Even if you don't buy it, at least I'm not wasting your time. If I show up with an Ethernet switch ASIC, you're probably not interested and I am wasting your time. That's why Marvell would cold-call Juniper and Cisco, not Antonio Romero Monteiro.

Showing up on my doorstep uninvited is at best an invasion of privacy, and at worst a crime in progress that I interrupted.

So you don't want a free pizza because the neighbour's 3 year old son ordered 30 of them on doordash and their freezer isn't big enough?

Definitely not, but I like my neighbors and like maintaining good relations with people in the nighrborhood, so I would forgive them.

You know, I thought about this overnight. I'm pretty sure I feel this way partially because talking to people real time isn't free for me, it has a cost. I have to mask neurodivergence all day to get along in the corporate world, I do not want to put the mask on again unexpectedly when there's a knock at the door. It's my off time, it's like getting paged or something.

The second part is the privacy aspect, I don't want to do business in a power asymmetry -- they can reach me where I sleep but I cannot do the same to them. I don't want anyone I engage in a business relationship with to get any ideas of any type about who/what they see at my home, from judging negatively to jealously to planning to come back and take it. It's unnecessary risk surface for a business transaction.

All this person has done is illustrate a sociopathic inability to understand other peoples’ experiences. Nothing they have said is remotely interesting and is an obvious no from my perspective. The only situation I’d even pick up a phone or answer the door is the neighbor. That would be a no thanks. The fact that they keep pushing and clearly think their juvenile worldview applies to everyone reinforces my original statement. It’s wild to me people can say these things with a straight face.

Turns out I've never in my life had a successful cold caller reach out to me, I guess. I can't think of a single reason in 2024 that a random telephone call would get me to part ways with my money. In fact, I've had very few instances where a salesperson adds value to a transaction period.

I would assume you’re screwing me and turn you down. If you’ve got enough margin to do sales that way, you’re screwing me, even if I can’t see it. It’s a no.

Everybody makes a margin, that's how the free market works.

But let's say you're a communist and I show up with a compound and a few followers, I suspect we have a deal to discuss regardless of the sign ;)

> enough margin

You could be offering hundred dollar bills for my garbage - I wouldn't even listen.

Everybody wants something and everybody has a price they'll pay for it.

Not from random strangers soliciting it. The chance that they are going to scam you is much too high to trust anything they offer.

Even in such a situation – and that's actually happened before – I'd still say no and buy the product from a competitor, even if that means paying twice as much.

Also, the last time a doctors without borders person showed up, I tried pressuring her into joining a local protest a few days later until she got uncomfortable and decided to leave.

All types of forceful advertising – be that online ads or door-to-door salesmen – are absolute bullshit and shouldn't exist in a civilized society.

My doorbell is labeled "no soliciting" for a reason.

Yes, it would mean something, and, yes, I would think about the sign. In fact, I did this about a month ago to someone who was selling a service I was actively in the market for. As I said, and I can only say this to you again, I can't understand it for you: the sign is an IQ test. I will not do business with someone who cannot or will not read the sign.

I disagree with the last statement. I have seen a handful of people close to me get scammed and have developed a “no thank you” attitude to everything.

Want to donate to save this or that? No thank you

Want this super great deal on this awesome thing? No thank you

Want free money? No thank you

If I want something I’ll Google it and do some research and then just get that thing. I’m glad to overpay to do things my way. Nothing would change my mind. Ever.

Ever?

Aging might.

My dad was like you.

Found out recently he has a girlfriend stuck in Nigeria that he was on his way to the bank to help.

My opinion in recent years is that, completely by accident, we made the internet more secure then the phone system.

On the internet we have - for it's faults - the DNS and X.509 certificate systems. When I go to my bank's website, I know it's my bank.

We desperately need telecommunications to implement the same thing - i.e. businesses must present a valid cryptographic certificate which ties back to their registration number when using the phone system.

At the very least, so someone claiming to be a business would have a clear "invalid certificate" message displayed on the receiver.

Could individuals implement this on top of the current phone system?

E.g., each call starts with an attempted modem conversation to validate certificates, keys, etc.

And then the call is forwarded to the recipient's actual phone depending on rules related to that first step.

Not disagreeing that it must work, however, I think immunity is possible with a simple heuristic: Say no to all inbounds.

Or more specifically, if you get a call and it's not from someone you know then you simply hang up. Relevant information comes from you seeking it out, not the other way around.

I'm immune because I don't answer my phone if you're not in my limited contacts list, and if you're an unknown number, you automatically go straight to voicemail.

Drastic measures like this had to be taken because I had a DBA for awhile and foolishly listed my actual number with the business. Basically my number is forever 'on the list', so, I made my own list.

Of course, if you're on my list and you call asking for ten bucks, well, I'll probably give it to you.

>BTW, I don't think you are immune. The only truly immune people are those that don't understand the language and/or have no money.

Incorrect - I'm immune because I presume 100% of solicitations are scams and behave as such. I don't listen to solicitations from anyone. I will just hang up, end the conversation, walk away, or close the door.

Even if I did listen to a solicitation and I was interested in the product or giving to the cause I would never actually buy anything, remember, I am presuming Jenny is a scammer. Jenny isn't getting any money from me no matter what she's selling.

> Doctors without Borders soliciting donations

We had such a visit recently; we were so appalled at the very idea that DwB would stoop so low as to send door-to-door solicitors around the town, that we immediately assumed this person was scoping the block for a potential break-in. Because he asked about our neighbor and we accidentally let it slip that he's away, we put up a hidden surveillance camera[0] overlooking the stairway and both our doors' for a couple days, just in case someone decides to come back at night. We also immediately queried Doctors Without Borders about this, warning them about a potential crime done using their brand.

Imagine our surprise where Doctors Without Borders responded to confirm that the person who visited us was, in fact, legitimately soliciting donations for them, and that they actually do door-to-door. Something in me died that day.

--

[0] - We repurposed a nanny cam for this, where by "nanny cam" I mean Ubiquiti G4 Instant, because the only way you can get a baby camera these days that doesn't send videos of your kids to random third-party servers is by buying industrial surveillance hardware.

I'm kind of surprised by your response.

If everyone who was soliciting was like Doctors without Borders, there wouldn't be a problem. That's a worthy cause.

The problem is the scammers, not DWB. The fact that you think it's legitimate causes trying to get support that are the problem and not the scammers makes my head spin.

For privacy sake, and having encountered too many scammers, I have a hard rule about never giving money or personal info to any request, for any reason. If it's something I want to buy or participate in, I will follow up through other channels after some online research. If it's a business I already buy from, still a scam, I will use their website on my own. If it is emotionally charged or urgent, it is definitely a scam.

The most manipulated I've been in recent years is when I actually feel bad for the salesperson because their job sucks so much.

I have personally never bought / donated anything from / to a cold-caller or a door-to-door salesman. At most it might pique my interest into doing my own research into the field/product and seek out the market leader on my own.

Sometimes the right QUALIFIED cold call/email at the right time with the right pitch can be very effective.

My favorite door to door sales pitch is "buy a subscription to one of these magazines or I'll have to go back to doing drugs." I've had at least 3 of those salesmen.

You know, I'm with you. Yet - I once had an ISP rep (Sonic) show up at my door letting me know that they're setting up 10Gbps fiber in the neighborhood and if I'm interested in getting 10x speed (was already on 1Gbps fiber from AT&T) at less than half the cost. I signed up on the spot, and I'm no stranger to saying no. So I suppose it's all about playing the numbers game looking for the right customer for that pitch.

I did door to door selling in the US (as a Brit) as a summer job after graduating. The items weren't super expensive (maybe max $80 in the early '90s).

I wasn't very good at it, but some people did quite well out of it. Admittedly, only earning student-amounts. I don't think you could have fed a family on it.

Many occupations involve receiving cold outreach and filtering for useful offers.

Think YouTubers receiving sponsorship offers, journalists getting leads, recruiters getting candidates, VCs finding start-ups, and car dealers getting inventory.

These people are often quite receptive to cold calls & emails if you can demonstrate credibility.

> I'm interested in more lit on the subject, but I never understood how anyone sells anything via cold-calling.

Read a good sales book that talks about it.

There are a few factors: Effective salespeople will narrow down the list to cold call - so it's not completely random. Examples:

When trying to get a house for cheap, it's not hard to find a list of people in a locale who own more than 50% equity. Now it's a matter of cold calling and finding one who is in hard times and cannot sell (e.g. house is in poor enough condition that no bank will give out a mortgage). The home owners are at risk of defaulting, so you take the property off their hands for relatively cheap, fix it up, and sell it. This way the homeowners get money (as opposed to a foreclosure where they'd get nothing).

Roofs: A lot of new homes have a 20 year roof. Look up neighborhoods built in the last 20-30 years. Go door to door and try to sell them a new roof. Many will buy, because they know they have to replace it sooner or later.[1] You can also tell them which of their neighbors recently got a new roof.

Solar panels: Same idea: Find people with old roofs, and give them a "deal" for a new roof + solar panel combo. Getting that solar panel incentivizes them to change the roof.

Really, the key is to have a systematic way to reduce your search space. Then you'll get more successes.

[1] Pro tip: Never get your roof changed this way. I've actively gotten quotes for my roof, and the highest quote I got was cheaper than the lowest quote from the door to door salesmen.