It generally implies someone who has had a house on the market for a while and is now getting desperate. It should mean they are more open to negotiation, but, if they have unrealistic expectations in the first place, it might be the case that they won't go as low as you think they should.

Don't worry about the asking price. Only focus on what you think you will pay for the home.

I am an investor who pretty much only buys homes from motivated sellers.

Here is my definition. A motivated seller is moving, going thru divorce, in foreclosure, bankruptcy, bought another house, inherited a problem home, or other such circumstances.

Have a friend call the listing realtor and specifically ask why the seller is motivated. You may be able to use this information to craft a win-win offer on the home.

They may be willing to finance, but more often than not when a realtor says motivated seller it really means "please bring any and all offers"

Again have a friend make a verbal offer (here in Florida realtors are required to present all offers) at 20% below what you think it is worth with a fast closing date. (not 20% below list price)

If they negotiate this offer they are motivated. If not maybe not.

If the owner is living in the house, go talk to them directly and ask this exact question. "Why would you want to sell a great house like this"

This will create rapport and let them open up.

Good luck on your house hunting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida cash home investor

"A motivated seller is moving, going thru divorce, in foreclosure, bankruptcy, bought another house, inherited a problem home, or other such circumstances."

I agree. I take it to mean the seller has somewhere to go (so to speak) and needs to dump the house in order to get there (divorce, relocation, built a new house that is ready, major financial problem, etc.).

"Have a friend call the listing realtor and specifically ask why the seller is motivated."

Realtors are not allowed to disclose this information. And one who does shouldn't be trusted.

Motivated seller just means to me that they won't blow off an offer, will give it consideration and may be willing to work with concerns like a buyer needing a contingency to sell their own home.

Verbal offers are not done here. I wouldn't give one, but if you are interested in the home, then write them what you feel is a reasonable offer and see what happens.

Gloria

Thanks for letting me know from these posts not to use the word motivated when i sell my house next month because i definitely don't fall into any of those categories.

Regardless of seller being motivated or not when it comes to offer -> If you do not feel embarrased presenting your offer; it's too high.

"Realtors are not allowed to disclose this information. And one who does shouldn't be trusted."

Why not? There's no rule against telling why soeone is selling or why someone is "motivated" to sell. It's a perfectly reasonable question to ask why someone is selling. If there is no good answer, it's suspicious. As a buyer I'd rather hear a seller is getting divorced than, "Oh, I can't tell you." Then I start thinking toxic waste, violent crime scene, hidden defects.....

OTOH...I don't understand having a friend ask your questions for you or submit phony offers. What's to be gained by acting sleazy except wasting everyone's time?

I had a IBUYHOUSES investor (reinvestor) "cold call" me one day saying he was an investor interested in my house. I told him to discuss price with my realtor as I am contracted. He was insistent that I give him a price that I might accept. (Of course I knew he would then offer even less) I said I will negotiate and accept reasonable offers but call my agent. (meaning I am not stupid or desperate)

Click!!

These people sometimes use a buyer's agents as a front. For the uninitiated agent, they just are a waste of time.
You can fool a rookie once......

Everyone has seen the "IBUYHOUSES" advertisements..they are nailed to telephone poles. Need I say more?

"Realtors are not allowed to disclose this information. And one who does shouldn't be trusted."

If the Realtor is a *Seller's Agent*, that Realtor has a Fuduciary responsibility to the seller. As part of that fuduciary responsibility the agent must not disclose information about the seller's personal financial situation, unless the seller says "go ahead tell everyone I'm desperate." At least that's the law in NY.

When a Realtor advertises "Motivated Seller" he/she wants offers to present to the seller. Maybe the realtor's contract is running out. Maybe the property is wildly overpriced and the agent wants offers made to "teach" the seller about the current market. Maybe the agent is too dense to figure out how to advertise the property. Who knows. It means the seller wants action and wants to hear an offer. It may or may not mean the seller is desperate. It more likely means the agent is desperate and the seller is ready to fire their a$$.

FWIW, If my agent advertised my property with "Motivated Seller" in the listing he/she would no longer be my agent.

Motivated Seller can just be a marketing term to indicate that someone is open to a negotoiated price. I woould not take it to mean anything.

I interpret "motivated seller" the same way I interpret "gourmet kitchen". It means absolutely nothing to me. Just more fancy wording by realtors to fill up the ad.

I am a motivated seller. That means we won't be difficult to work with, will not take a ridiculous low ball offer, we are anxious to move on due to my health and will be generous by including extras in our counter offer (ours is a farm).

But we aren't desperate, and aren't over priced (we sure were but that's another story) and won't do anything to sell the house.

Just make your offer --- all they can say is NO ---- I low ball all deals. If they take it ---they take it. And if they don't --- I move to the next one. The only time you dont want to low ball real bad, is if you really want the place. I low balled some older woman and she got fed up or pissed off I guess with all the low offers and pulled it. But that's life --- I don't get emotional over real estate --- unless I'm selling and looking for top $$$$ I once offered $15k on a $50k property ---- and guess what? I just sold it for $100k so make your offer. Just weight the circumstances. How bad do they need to sell? look for tell tale signs --- is the property an assett to them or a liability.

good luck

"OTOH...I don't understand having a friend ask your questions for you or submit phony offers. What's to be gained by acting sleazy except wasting everyone's time"

If the seller gets pissed at the low ball offer he/she may refuse to deal with whoever made it. If you really want the house it may no longer be available to you

However having a friend make the offer (assuming it is non binding which is state specific or if binding, I guess you would agree to buy the contract from the friend, again state specific if this is an option) may confirm to the seller that his property is worth less than he thought or it may show there is interest in the property and he may hold firmer when you make your offer because he thinks he may have a bidding war, so who knows the real result

Most homes on MLS websites are overpriced. FSBO even more so. Else they wouldnt have even made it to MLS (sold within a couple days and lag time for public MLS is a few days).

Depends on the use you have for home. Personal use, put in a reasonable offer and see where it goes. Give them 24 hours to respond. Investment, lowball and be ready to move on to next one if no response. I always remember this saying, "If your not embarassed by your offer, you offered too much".

"Most homes on MLS websites are overpriced. FSBO even more so. Else they wouldnt have even made it to MLS (sold within a couple days and lag time for public MLS is a few days)."
Now that is a generalization. Every MLS house should be sold in a few days?

Whew, you guys are tough. I'll think twice about using "Motivated Seller" in any of my ads. When I do it, it means just that. The sellers have either found where they want to go, or have priced the house to sell and don't want to play games, they are motivated. I've never used that term because someone is desperate.

Solie, there is a "rule" its actually a law against disclosing that a seller is selling because of some form of distress. Agents in general only know why "their sellers" are selling, not why all sellers are selling. When someone asks me why a seller is selling and its a house that is someone elses listing,(MLS) I simply say, they are selling because they are moving. Usually they get the point.

Jeff, I've noticed you post several times about MLS. Im not sure where you are but here in my area of NY. ALL LISTINGS have to go into the MLS system within 24 hours unless you have instruction from the seller not to make it available to all real estate agents. Its very rare that a house is not in MLS. It is used as an avenue of exposure, not an avenue of desperation.

"Most homes on MLS websites are overpriced. FSBO even more so."

That is HILARIOUS!! And I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed!! You get these goofy people in a BUYER'S market who seem to think they can sell their house themselves at the same price as the neighbor's (who hired a realtor). They're crazy. And I can't believe how many of them I've been calling on!!

I got one guy who WOULDN'T EVEN TELL ME THE PRICE OF HIS HOUSE!!! He wanted me to "come over and we'll talk." So I asked him to send me some photos of the inside to see if it's worth my time. "Come over and see for yourself. No photos, we have moving boxes everywhere." Yeah, good luck with that!! Maybe an investor who does this for a living has time to take a chance on a good deal. But I'm a SAHM of a busy toddler in a heavy buyer's market. I've got a list of THIRTY other houses in my price range I want to tour, just based on features and the MLS photos. Has this guy lost his mind?! In these markets, you've gotta have some advantage over the competition to get them in the door, either desirable features, nice remodels, or an awesome price! He's got zero.

Not sure where you are Linda but in my area of NY lots of things are exclusives and not on MLS unless it fails to sell for a certain amount of time usually about a month or so. I have not tried to sell yet so not sure why, maybe the sellers pay less commission but brokers here are very keen on their own exclusives

I am a motivated seller but I wouldn't want that advertised in a MLS listing. "Reasonable seller" or something just seems better to me.

DH and I bought a home and are selling two. However, I instructed my agent to NOT share with people that we'd already bought a house, IMHO it's none of their business and I lose bargaining power. Low-ballers seem to come out of the woodwork once they hear "divorce", "already bought a house", etc. She could tell people I got married, that I was very easy to work with and that was it.

Saphire, I think there are areas (small towns, vacation spots, horse property, speciality markets) that don't use MLS. However, for the typical home in my area, (Dutchess County NY, 60miles north of NYC) all homes go in the MLS system unless the owner doesnt want it there. Jeff made a comment that most homes in MLS are overpriced otherwise they wouldnt be in MLS. I was simply stating this is not true in all markets. Some markets use MLS as an automatic, not as something to use in desperation.

I am in a typical near suburb of NYC, lot of things on exclusive. Plus I have noticed a trend last summer, when many houses were available the agents tended to only show me their own stuff whether on exclusive or MLS until that was exhausted and only then did we branch out to other MLS listings

Saphire, most buyers don't know if listings are exclusive or not. Signs that say "exclusive" is a game that some companies play to get buyers to call them thinking they are truly exclusive. Its a play on words because all listings are called either "exclusive right to sell" or "exclusive agency", both go in MLS. I could advertise a listing as "exclusive" and its an exclusive right to sell meaning the listing office gets paid no matter who sells the house.It has nothing to do with being the only exclusive company to have the listing. In a sellers market, agents might try to keep some listings exclusive to their office because of simple supply and demand. But you said when "many houses were available" they tended to show only their stuff. What would be the point of keeping anything exclusive if there was a lot to choose from? It seems to me you would want as much exposure for your listings as possible if you were a seller.

I agree. However, that is not how it is done in my town. We are moving out so have not looked locally except as a comparison this time. When we bought I know they are exclusive because I worked with 4 different brokers and often one broker had nothing to show me, except maybe 1 house (which I usually refused to come out for since we lived in the City and it was a schlep). So she would have been anxious to show us anything just to get us out for the one that was good. Meanwhile another broker had 2 or 3 houses to show us and if I mentioned them to the first broker (as in do you have anything that has a MBR like 102 Smith street, really liked that but hated the yard or whatever). She really knew nothing about them (and then a month later would offer to show them when they went on MLS). Now that everything is on computer, I will see a house listed on the website as exclusive and it is not on MLS

Maybe its already been sold. I keep things on my website for a long time because I get calls from buyers. It doesnt mean the house is still on MLS.

No way at the price they are asking for this particular house. Another house I know the owners and they have not sold. Also anything that is even in contract has an in contract note on it, so I would imagine anything that is sold would at least have an in contract note on it