Driving For Dollars Only Works IF...

[Shannon K.]

..... IF I find a property owner that owes less than what the house is worth, correct? (Not looking for short sales at the moment). For example: The house is worth ~$150K fully renovated when I flip it. He owes $135K. Needs $30K rehab. No good for me! (These are not wholesale deals, I'm purchasing for flips).

But... if I were to find a motivated seller who owes $70K mortgage on a $150K flippable house, that's a good option because I could offer to pay off the $70K mortgage for him and absolve him of that debt, right? 

So not only would I need to find a motivated seller, but also obviously where the numbers make sense and they owe close to what I need to pay to be able to flip it, I believe...

Inventory is very low here in Buffalo and I've been looking since mid-January for a flip house. There's plenty of D-class houses available, but we flip in A & B-level suburbs where inventory is currently lagging. I'm trying "driving for dollars" and I've found 10 clearly vacant homes in pleasant suburban neighborhoods, found the owners, and am ready to professionally mail or call them regarding purchasing their property. My end goal is to purchase for a flip, so I just wanted to be sure what monetary scenarios made sense when people call me back... Thank you for any help!

[Andrew Syrios]

As you mentioned, if you're interested in short sales or perhaps creative financing, than you can deviate on that. But you're generally right and that driving for dollars requires the owner to at least have a decent amount of equity as very few are willing to bring money to the table.