My new idea for finding motivated sellers

[Nat C.]

I just had this idea for finding motivated sellers in the very difficult, competitive market I am in. The city has a lis penden list as part of their public records, with a new 50 or so listings added daily.

My plan is to comb through the lists and find addresses of interest, compile a shortlist and then do a drive around to those properties. Understandably it's not always easy to find the actual owner and that might require some extra work.

Example 1, I just found a property in a location I like. Property appraiser website shows me it sold in 2010 for $85,000. My current valuation of the property is around $180,000. Let's hypothesize the owner made the bare minimum mortgage repayments and then accumulated fees and interest and that mortgage is in the vicinity of $80,000. I might offer $130,000 which pays off the mortgage and gives the owner cash to walk away with, without ever having a foreclosure on their record. 

This is just an idea I had today, so if there are major problems with it, I'd appreciate people telling me.

At present, I currently do 3-5 hours of Driving for Dollars per day (driving and research included) and I'm not yet sure if the time invested is worth the return!