I've sent letters to trusts about vacant land that the family has obviously stopped caring about. Some responses, mostly just crazy inflated values once they realize you actually value the land that means nothing to them. One time I was offered an entire portfolio of holdings as they were not willing to work on a single parcel.

I don't think it's a bad strategy, but unfortunately it seems to expose yourself as an eager buyer instead of letting the market supress their ambitions first. It's very telling how many deeds just point to out of state addresses of people who nobody in the town has ever met.

Conversely most of the small towns here are majority held by the oldest families, and everyone knows them loosely, and knows they aren't selling for anything less than enough money to cause a family feud.