Now listen carefully.
Nothing here, or anywhere else on Google, will matter if you do not understand this one single concept about organic leads and motivated sellers. This one concept will completely derail everything you thought you knew about motivated sellers and how to get them.
For more than a decade, the industry has told you that a motivated seller is anyone who wants to, needs to, or has to sell their house. That single premise has been the source of doom for many, many investors. That simple framing has led everybody astray from the start.
What Is a Motivated Seller? Take This 3-Question Quiz
So let’s see if you really know what a motivated seller is. True or false:
- A motivated seller is someone who wants to sell their house.True or false?
- A motivated seller is someone who needs to sell their house.True or false?
- A motivated seller is someone who falls on their knees, begging you to please please PUHLEEEZE, “Buy my house right now fast for cash now, otherwise I am in trouble, I need the money, I will lose everything, I will explode into three million pieces and bad things will happen to me!”True or false?
You done? Completed the quiz? Fan-Testicles! Here are the answers. Ready?
The answer to each and every single one of the questions is…
FALSE.
TOLD YOU. You have no clue what a motivated seller is. Calm down! It’s OK. Read!! A motivated seller is not someone who wants to, needs to, or has to sell their house.
A motivated seller is anyone willing to accept an offer below market value, regardless of the reasons why.
Someone who wants to sell their house? Go to the MLS. Everyone there wants to sell their house, right? Not motivated!
Someone who needs to sell their house? Go to the MLS. There are PLENTY of people who need to sell their house. Not motivated!
Someone who falls on their knees, begging you to buy their house? Take someone in foreclosure for a second. Don’t they have to sell their house? Yup! Aren’t bad things going to happen if they don’t sell their house? Yup. Are they willing to sell their house? Nope! Not motivated.
You silly little sausage you. Do you realize that these people would rather pour concrete down the drain than sell to you? They would rather destroy the cabinets and poop on the floors, walls and ceilings (I saw it happen once, truly, both fascinating and disturbing. “Fasciturbing”?! “Disturbinating”?!) than sell to you. None of these audiences are motivated sellers.
Get it?
They need to be willing to accept an offer below market value. Anything other than that is a waste of time. Everyone is so hung up on the reasons why someone may or may not need to sell, they completely overlook whether or not they are motivated to sell in the first place.
Those people are a waste of my time, and I am a waste of theirs. These are not the droids we are looking for! These people are the wrong audience.
How DO You Target Motivated Sellers?!
If you understand that, you will start to see why organic lead generation is a huge challenge. The reason why it’s a challenge is: how do you target somebody who is willing to accept an offer below market value? What are the characteristics of somebody who wants to sell below market value? What is the type? What are the symptoms of somebody willing to sell below market value?
Now THAT is the question we all want the answer to. Good question, and I am so very happy to announce that I actually do have the one and ONLY answer that is in fact correct and 100% accurate. You ready? Are you really? Okay, here goes. How does one target motivated sellers?
You-Fuhriggin-Can’t!
Well, that was easy! Done. The End. Fin. Pack your bags, let’s go home, the show is over, was nice meeting you. Bye-bye now, take care then.
Chill and hold on for a second. Now, to make you understand my next brilliant concept, I would like you to run to your kitchen and grab me your ghafillheimer. I know it is a weird request, but humor me for a moment. Go grab your ghafillheimer, and put it in front of you on your desk.
You can’t?
Why? Because you have no idea what a friggin’ “ghafillheimer” is? In other words, even if a ghafillheimer was on your desk, right in front of you, staring you in your face, you wouldn’t know it?
Just like you can’t fetch me your ghafillheimer, because you have no clue what one looks like, how can you possibly target motivated sellers when you have no idea who they are, what they are, what they look like, what they act like, sound like, where they hang out, what their state of mind is, what their pain point is, or what their concerns are?!
But do you know who you will find, though? You will find people who may want to, need to, or have to sell their house. Those you will find. Absolutely. But will they sell you their house below market value? NNNNope!
While you are going after people who want to, need to, or have to sell their house (with your mailers, cold calls and SMS), I am going after people who are willing to sell their house below market value.
Do you realize the glaring difference now? These are entirely different audiences!
Why Foreclosure, Probate and Tax Liens Don’t Make Someone a Motivated Seller
So what does a motivated seller look like? There are no symptoms. There is no type. It is a reaction to a circumstance.
And that is the big mistake people are making. Everybody thinks that a certain circumstance, like being in foreclosure, inheriting the property, not being able to fix the repairs or pay the tax liens, indicates motivation. That is not the case.
Motivation is an emotional response to a circumstance, not the circumstance itself.
The circumstance itself doesn’t imply motivation at all. Not one bit. It’s what people do, how they act, and what their decision is from that circumstance that may or may not drive them to sell below market value. That is the difference between a distressed homeowner and a motivated seller.
Some people facing foreclosure, needing to sell, would rather see their house burn to the ground, destroyed: taking out the cabinets, taking out the fridge, destroying their house themselves out of pure spite and anger at losing their house.
“But Jerryll, wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to just sell it at a discount than lose it completely and get nothing?”
YES! Exactly. When it comes to emotions, there is no logic. Emotion and logic are opposing forces. Yet every single investor, flipper and wholesaler thinks that because they are not in distress, and so act through common sense and logic, their distressed homeowner counterpart must also see the world through the eyes of logic and common sense.
NO! Bad investor. Bad. They don’t. They are pissed off, angry, scared, frustrated, spiteful and defeated. They have given up. So their behavior, their decisions and their actions are unpredictable.
Yes, they are in foreclosure, dealing with a job loss, relocating, can’t pay rent. Yes, they should be motivated by all intents and purposes, but they aren’t, and no amount of reasoning or logic or common sense can make them become motivated!
The big mistake is driving all your marketing on YOUR common sense and logic, when your target audience is made up of emotional creatures. Who knows what they will do?
So common sense and logic have no place here. Emotion does. Emotions are very predictable, but how people react with emotion as the driver is completely unpredictable.
Why No List, No Software and No AI Can Find a Motivated Seller
Sit-down-son. Allow me to give you saum potent skooling! Things are about to get interesting. The reason why nothing can target motivated sellers is very simple. Entertain me for but one moment, if you will:
“Hello, my beloved reader. How are you today? No really, how are you?”
I will assume that you are fine, all is well, peachy, and I bet you are not willing to sell me your house right now for 30 cents on the dollar, are you? How about 50 cents? 80 cents? 90 cents? No? Damnit, well I tried. I guess you truly are not motivated to sell your house below market value… today.
Tomorrow, however, knock on wood, something happens and you become motivated. My question to you is this:
“Who knows that you just became motivated?”
No, seriously, answer my question. “Who knows that you JUST became motivated?”
No one knows. Only you do (maybe your wife or hubby too?).
You do not magically get a tag next to your name in the government registry that says:
You do not magically appear on the “Motivated Sellers List” in some fancy data-mining software.
Nothing can target motivated sellers, because no one and nothing knows when someone becomes, or is about to become, motivated.
No list, no software, no app, no gadget, no AI, no nothing can target motivated sellers.
So in other words, targeting motivated sellers is impossible.
Does that mean your lists are useless? No. The list isn’t the problem. How you use it is. I explain why in why your motivated seller lists aren’t generating leads, and how to stack your lists by the stressors that actually matter.
Stalking The Watering Hole
The good news, however, is that you do not need to target a motivated seller to get motivated sellers. You do not need to know who is or who isn’t motivated. All you need to do is know where they will be when they become motivated, and simply wait for them to knock on your door.
Where would you be if you were a hungry lion in the savannas of Africa looking for prey? You would stalk the watering hole. No matter who you are or what you are, your ass will be at that watering hole at some point today. All the lion has to do is wait, and they will come.
Same way: where will a motivated seller be when they become motivated? Where will a homeowner be when they become motivated?
When was the last time you went to the library to find information on a problem you were dealing with? Yeah, me neither. Everyone goes to Google (and more and more of them, to ChatGPT). Everyone, including motivated sellers.
The ONLY way to reliably get in touch with motivated sellers is for you to make it extremely easy for them to find you.
So how do you target motivated sellers? You don’t. You can’t. Instead, we have them target US! How? We rank our website #1 on all search engines, so that we don’t even have to try doing the impossible, like trying to target motivated sellers. We have them target us!
Doing lead generation the right way, Google is selectively displaying your message (your website) in front of the very people who literally requested Google to go and find them your website. So you are always 100% specifically targeting the right audience: people willing to sell their house below market value.
So think about what everyone and their marketing messages are claiming:
“I help investors and wholesalers find motivated sellers.”
Yeah, OK. Good luck with that. Only SEO-illiterate clowns would even attempt that. No, no, my good fella. Everything I teach is the other way around: motivated sellers find you.
If you rank #1 on Google, you will get them knocking on your door.
And this is not just for Google. When a homeowner becomes motivated, more and more of them ask ChatGPT or read Google’s AI Overview instead of scrolling through the links. The same rule decides who gets recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews: the website its users find the most valuable.
If you want to know how you can be dealing with motivated sellers, look into the Apex Vivus real estate operating system by REILink. Everything is handled to make sure you will be dealing with a motivated seller.
They Found You. Now They Have to Pick You.
Getting a motivated seller to find you is only half of it. They have options. You have competition. Picking you is the hardest part of this equation.
That is exactly what the 3 Pillars of Conversion are for: competence, personality and credibility. And remember, they only work on the audience you just learned about: a true motivated seller.
Ohh, and if you would rather watch me flip houses, and hopefully make some money doing it…
How we flipped this house.
Watch Jerryll flip houses… and hopefully not go broke doing it.
Windsor, CT · 12 parts · Bought $71K, sold $255K
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Questions About Motivated Sellers
What is AISO, and is it different from SEO?
AISO is AI search optimization: getting your website picked, quoted and recommended by AI search like ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI Overviews, Copilot and Perplexity. It is also called GEO or AEO. You do not need to do anything fundamentally different from SEO. Every search engine, AI or not, has to return the results its users find valuable, so the same foundation wins in both. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
What is a motivated seller?
A motivated seller is anyone willing to accept an offer below market value, regardless of the reasons why. It is not someone who wants to, needs to or has to sell their house. Plenty of people on the MLS want or need to sell, and they are not motivated sellers.
Is a homeowner in foreclosure a motivated seller?
Not necessarily. Someone in foreclosure has to sell, but that does not mean they are willing to sell below market value. Some would rather destroy the house out of spite than sell it at a discount. Motivation is an emotional response to a circumstance, not the circumstance itself.
Can you target motivated sellers?
No. There are no symptoms and there is no type. Nobody knows when someone becomes motivated, so no list, no software, no app and no AI can target motivated sellers. What you can do is be where they search when they become motivated.
What is the difference between a distressed homeowner and a motivated seller?
Distress describes the situation: foreclosure, probate, tax liens, repairs they can’t afford. Motivation describes the offer they are willing to accept. A distressed homeowner is not a motivated seller until they are willing to accept an offer below market value.
Are motivated seller lists worth using?
Yes, as long as you know what they are. A foreclosure, probate or tax-lien list tells you about a circumstance, not about motivation. The list isn’t the problem. How you use it is.
How do you find motivated sellers?
You don’t find them; they find you. When a homeowner becomes motivated, they go to Google, and more and more to AI assistants like ChatGPT. Rank your website #1 where they search, and they knock on your door.
Why do motivated sellers not respond to logic?
Because they are acting on emotion. They are angry, scared, frustrated and defeated. Emotions are very predictable, but how people react with emotion as the driver is completely unpredictable.
