What are Motivated seller leads?

[Anthony Johnson]

My knowledge of real estate investment is still very basic, if someone could explain "Motivated Seller Leads". My thought process of buying and selling is very linear right now. If someone is "Motivated" to sell, but are unable to, why would you by, unless it requires rehab and is well below area value... If explanation is too lenghty, referral to any books or web references would be greatly appreciated.

[Peter Mckernan]

Hello @Anthony Johnson

A motivated seller would be someone that is in a bad situation realizes it, and wants to do something about it. Examples could be pre-foreclosure, tax lien, loss of job, death in the house/family, divorce, high medical bills, drugs, rental property gone bad, or anyone that was diagnosed with a severe medical condition. Many times people in these situations do not want to sell, so when a buyer gets a person ready to sell it is a motivated seller.

In these situations the person in any of those situation mentioned above may have more debt on the house than what the value of the home is, or the value of the home after rehab and purchase still will not give the investor as much return on their money that would make sense since there is not enough equity.