Motivated seller advice

[Matthew Harrison]

Hello all, sorry in advance for the long post.

I am new to the idea of wholesaling, and the value of a motivated seller. My past experience was very straightforward, a conventional buy and hold that is doing well. However I think I just stumbled upon a motivated seller in my target market. I overheard a coworker talking about how he can't wait to get out of his house, so I struck up conversation. Turns out the house is paid off, and he is only making payments on some overdue property taxes, about 5k. He mentioned he is looking for 20k when he sells. What I have learned about creative financing has all been about dealing with or rescuing someone from mortgage payments they can't make anymore. In this case I can only think of a couple small incentives to use as bargaining chips for him to give me a better price on his property than the 20k. 1)we would not need agents so he would keep the 3 or 6% commision. And 2) if I payed off his backed taxes for him it would (I assume) save him a small % in interest owed. Is there anything obvious that I am overlooking that might help me "steal" this property at a great price? I'm sure it needs work and has yet to be looked over or affirmed as a wise investment, but from strictly a bargaining standpoint, is there any advice for dealing with this motivated seller?

[Ned Carey]

Tell him you will take care of all back taxes bills etc and take the house as is. No need to clean or do any repairs. - The idea here is to make it easy to deal with you. 

If he mentions an agent; then point out all the hassles of getting and keeping the house in top shape while strangers tramp though the house.