How to find motivated sellers.
How to find motivated sellers for wholesaling: pull the public record lists that point to a reason to sell, stack them, trace the owners, and follow up longer than anyone else does.
What makes a seller motivated
A motivated seller has a problem the house is causing. The house costs them money, time or stress, and selling it makes the problem go away. That is why they may take a fair cash offer instead of listing with an agent and waiting.
Common reasons include:
- Back taxes or a loan they cannot keep up with.
- An inherited house nobody in the family wants.
- A rental with bad tenants or big repairs.
- A move, a divorce or a job change.
- A house that needs more work than they can afford.
Lists that point to a reason to sell
You cannot see motivation directly. You can see the records it leaves behind. Most of these come from the county, and most are free to search:
- Absentee owners. The tax bill goes somewhere other than the property. See the absentee owners guide.
- Tax delinquent. Owners behind on property taxes.
- Probate. The owner has passed away and the estate is being settled.
- Pre-foreclosure. A notice of default or lis pendens is on record.
- Code violations. The city has cited the property.
- Vacant houses. Often found by driving for dollars.
- Expired listings. The owner tried to sell and it did not work.
Stack your lists
One reason to sell is good. Two or three is better. List stacking means putting your lists side by side and pulling out the owners who show up on more than one.
An out-of-state owner who is behind on taxes and has a code violation is a much warmer lead than any one of those alone. Call the stacked owners first.
Build your leads or buy them
You can buy motivated seller leads, or build them from public records. Bought leads save time, but the same lead is often sold to other wholesalers too. Leads you build yourself take more work, but nobody else has your exact list.
Many wholesalers do both: build big lists from public records, and buy leads in areas they are just starting to work.
Reach the owner
A list of names and addresses is not a lead until you can talk to the owner. Skip tracing turns each owner into phone numbers. Wholesalers run this on lists of hundreds of thousands of owners, so the cost per lookup matters. Tracepoint gives a new account 5,000 lookups free, one time, no card.
If the owner is a company, start with the LLC guide. Before you call, scrub the numbers against your do-not-call list with the DNC scrubbing guide. Not legal advice: calling and texting rules vary by state, so check with a lawyer.
Follow up
Many sellers are not ready on the first call. The house is still a problem next month, and the wholesaler who is still calling gets the deal. Keep notes on every call, set a follow-up date, and stick to it.
When a seller is ready, run the numbers with the wholesale deal calculator, and line up a buyer with the cash buyers guide.