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I discussed with a realtor friend some time ago. We got to a point and he mentioned what he regarded as one of the most surprising things in real estate investing — He said ” there are times you meet sellers who can sell properties for as low as $800 to $1000. A thousand bucks for a property? You may be as surprised as well. Well, I was also and that day I got to understand the tells of a motivated seller.

Motivated sellers are property owners who are willing to sell at any price — even ridiculous prices — from below a thousand dollars to nothing. Some realtors who meet such motivated sellers get pricked by their conscience — feeling they are taking advantage of the seller’s bad situation. However, this line of reasoning is wrong. The majority of motivated sellers are usually happy to sell and not the other way around.

The challenge in spotting such ones is that there isn’t a big poster that has their name listed or a special directory to check the names of these sellers.  A realtor may need to knock from door to door to find such motivated sellers. Sometimes realtors are fortunate to get across to such ones through email messages and get a favorable response.

Contrary to taking advantage of them, most of these motivated sellers are in hopeless situations before the buyer comes to relieve them. Below are some of the reasons some sellers are motivated to sell properties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for almost nothing.

 The Seller Can’t Pay the Mortgage or Taxes

 

When a property owner has gone broke or can not afford to pay the mortgage of a property or taxes involved, they may search frantically for a buyer to bail them out.  Instead of running into mortgage debts or piling up taxes, the owner would prefer to have someone purchase it and save them the trouble of making huge mortgage payments. In some cases the owner hasn’t started missing their mortgage payments, yet, they still ridiculously low to have someone buy the property and continue the payments.

So in a way, these types of motivated sellers are trying to avoid running into debts or losing their property to foreclosures.

Seller Who Inherited Property

 

Sellers who inherited the property from parents or grandparents are another set of people who are motivated sellers. These cases are surprisingly common and available in some regions of the world. A motivated seller with an inherited property may find it hard to properly look after such property. Such ones may find it difficult to put the house on property listings and keep tabs on people reaching out to buy. That is why if you contact such property owners, they are eager and more than willing to sell off the home at any chance they get.

For some who live nearby, they may still make effort to contact realtors. But for some who reside far from the property, they almost want to sell to anyone and at any price to remove the responsibility from themselves.

The Property is Distressed

 

 

A distressed property is a glaring clue of why a motivated seller wants to sell a property cheap. Some properties are simply eyes sore and literally caving in. For such types of real estate, some realtors may even pass on the offer to purchase it if the repair cost is too high or the job involved in bringing it to standard is too much. Now you see why people can literally beg you to purchase it for about $1000. They even get turned down by some investors despite the low price tag. And if the turn down becomes too frequent, the seller becomes motivated to almost give it out at no price to remove the burden.

So if you happen to spot such distressed property, then you can be sure the owner will be a motivated seller.

What to Expect of a Motivated Seller

Strikeout feeling of pity. The point is,  if the seller isn’t comfortable with the price, they won’t sell.  Always consider each opportunity to purchase low and sell high as a business — strictly business. Some are even usually grateful for the purchase because you are saving them from debts that could ruin or adversely affect their finances.

However, about the example at the beginning — do not always expect to spot a property that sells as low as $1000. Some will definitely be higher than that but still cheap in comparison to the standard market value of such property.

Overall, do not hold back from dealing with motivated sellers. Take the opportunity when you meet this type of home seller and make a profit. Remember that often than not, you are doing them a favor by purchasing their property.

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