The Strangest Rejection I've Ever Received

[Matt Schelberg]

I recently had an interesting rejection from a respondent to my direct mail campaign...by far the strangest one I've received.  Hope to get some creative ideas on how I can respond to the owner so I can buy her house.

The property owner wants nothing to do with the property and prefers to see it lost in foreclosure rather than become involved in any way (including by selling it).  The owner is an elderly widow who is refusing to accept any offer for her house because her deceased husband advised her: "if something happens to me, don't get involved with the rental properties."  The property was mortgaged and under water...so he probably didn't want his wife to get chased by creditors.  But after his death the bank wrote off the loan as bad debt and filed a release.  So the widow now owns it free-and-clear...and she is allowing the tenants to live there for free because she refuses to get involved by accepting rent payments. The tenants are ruining the house, not paying bills, and the house is about to be lost for a small tax lien.

I explained all this to the widow...that she owns the house free-and-clear and that a sale would help preserve the wealth her late husband worked so hard to create.  She won't budge!  She insists that her husband warned her not to get involved, so she is just going to let it go in foreclosure.

How can I change her mind??? We're not talking about a lot of money...it's a low-income rental in Baltimore City worth maybe 15-25k.  But still enough money that it would help her family.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!