Finding Motivated Sellers
There are hundreds of houses up for sale right now. An investor can choose among any of these houses for their next investment deal. Of course, working with just any seller can be just as difficult as pulling teeth. If you are working with a seller that doesn’t have a compelling reason to sell his home chances are you aren’t getting the best deal possible. Sellers that aren’t motivated often aren’t willing to negotiate a price that will allow you to make a substantial amount of profit. When you are looking for investment properties, undoubtedly, you want to sift through all the different sellers to find only those motivated sellers that have a need to sell their home.
Most sellers aren’t going to come right out and tell you that they have some compelling reason for selling their home immediately. This is because the seller realizes that if you have this information, you will offer the lower price that he is willing to take. Rest assured the first offer price usually isn’t the lowest price a motivated seller will take.
One of the first ways you can recognize a motivated seller is by the seller’s location in relation to the location of the home that is for sale. If the seller is in a different location than the property chances are the seller has some reason that he needs to sell the home quickly. Perhaps the seller has just relocated due to a job transfer. Maybe the seller has recently inherited the property and would rather sell it than deal with it. These are just a couple of reasons that a seller is not co-located with the home that is for sale. Any time sellers aren’t located in the same place as the home it is a clue the owner is a motivated seller.
Properties that appear to have been neglected for an extended period of time indicate that the owner could very well be a motivated seller. A property that isn’t maintained provides several clues that indicate a motivated seller. When the property has been neglected it is usually because the owner is either tired of the property or isn’t located close enough to the property to give it the care it needs. Both of these are clues that the seller is motivated to sell the home. Even if the property isn’t up for sale, you might be able to turn the owner into a motivated seller by offering to take it off his hands.
Property tax rolls provide you with information about the located of a property owner. In most places, county records containing tax information are open to the public. Use these tax records to find out if the owner has an address that is located far away from the property that is for sale. Should the owner have an address that is far away from the property, this is a very good indication that you have found a motivated seller.
It is much better to work with a motivated seller than it is to work with a seller that is not motivated to sell a property. In these cases, you can negotiate a lower price than other situations.