How to buy my first investment property

[Maxwell Emerson]

I have a house that I really want to buy for my first investment property. It's right next door to the house I grew up in. I know the area super well, it's a great neighborhood with great school districts and friendly people. All the houses on the block look great, except for this house and one other house at the end of the block.

The lady who lives there has owned the house for almost 40 years now, and there seems to be a lot of deferred maintenance on this property. It would be the perfect house to fix and flip or BRRRR, whichever works best with the numbers down the road. The house is on a corner lot, it has a lot of old "memorabilia" in the driveway, and the whole property could use a facelift and it would definitely be a bonus for the whole neighborhood.

My question is, how do I motivate this person to sell? I've asked if she wanted to sell the house at any point in the future, and her response was a flat out no. According to county records, this house last sold for $60k in 1981 and just from knowing this area, this house would have a minimum ARV of $275k if I did nothing more than get rid of the memorabilia, clean up the landscaping, and did paint and floors throughout. It has much more potential than that if I put more into it.

Of course, none of this matters if she doesn't want to sell. My current thoughts are to simply engage with this owner every 3-6 months to see if she changes her mind, possibly through mail so I can spell out a few benefits for her selling. Does anybody have any advice on strategies to motivate individuals to sell without being obnoxious or frustrating the individual? I don't want to be disrespectful or rude at any point throughout the process.

Thanks in advance for your time and input!