Motivated sellers are out there in every city, every town, and every state.  Finding them isn’t as difficult as it might seem – if you know which techniques work for attracting the attention of a seller who wants to work with you on a lease option or subject to.

There are different circumstances and situations in the lives of people that motivate them to need to sell their home.  These reasons can include a job transfer, bankruptcy, foreclosure, divorce or upgrading to a bigger home.  The final factor likely to affect sellers’ level of motivation is the state of the real estate economy itself. You have to know what’s happening in the real estate market in your area or in the area where you are interested in finding your investments, and the best place to begin is at the official website for the National Association of Realtors.

The kind of motivation you are looking for is not someone just wanting to sell their house but someone who either is motivated to get rid of their good debt or their bad debt. Here are 3 out of 16 techniques listed in my book Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject-to Deals that have worked for my students and me over the years:

1. Tear-off flyers in local drug stores, convenience stores, party stores – wherever you can get them posted.   These tear off flyers can say the same things as the signs and ads.  The tear off parts should have your phone number, website if you have one, and a short statement – We Buy Houses.
2. Out of state owners – There are services in many cities that allow you to find all out of state owners, or owners where tax bills are sent to addresses not at the property (non-owner occupied).    Out of state owners are far away from their property and many times want to get rid of the far away headache and move on with their life.  Also, they may not really know what the current market is anymore and many may not even care.  They may simply want to get rid of that unwanted home in a far away place.
3. Real estate investor clubs always have other investors with homes that they haven’t sold or want to sell.   Network and let others know what you do.  I have bought several very good deals from other investors, either because they had their hands full at the time with their own deals, or they were out of their area.  Some investors only wholesale their properties.   Wholesalers buy low and then resale low.  You should be a member of a local real estate investor club and be regularly attending meetings.  It is one of the best places to network.   Check out  The National REIA website for a group of local real estate groups in your area.

You can learn all 16 techniques to finding motivated sellers in my book Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject-to-Deals.

Think lease options aren't going mainstream?  Think they aren't something you should be offering your home buyers and home sellers as alternatives when conventional sales and conventional mortgages don't work?

You might want to think again.  Recognizing the need for Realtors to get creative during these tough times and offering their home buyers and home sellers solutions that work, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) will be hosting a free webinar interviewing Lease Option expert Wendy Patton.  Wendy Patton has taught lease options or rent to own to thousands of Realtors, home sellers, home buyers and real estate investors.

They are a workable solution in these difficult real estate times.  They can help home sellers when their home isn't selling by conventional methods (don't you hate investing all of that time and effort in a sale and then lose out?).  They can help home buyers who can't currently qualify for a mortgage (don't you hate turning away those buyer leads?).  And they can help Realtors earn more commissions because you can get your full commission on a lease option or rent to own deal.  That's much better than turning away a buyer lead or losing a seller.

This lease option webinar with NAR is Thursday, August 27th at 3 PM EST.  Space is limited so sign up now!  Remember this webinar is free.