Are seller referrals a good source of deal flow?

[Gary Dezoysa]

In some businesses you can drum up quite a bit of business by marketing your customer list for referrals. How do you guys feel about doing this with your home sellers? 

I think that someone who has trouble keeping up their home/payments might not be inclined to share that, but then again, maybe they would. And people of similar financial backgrounds and habits do tend to hang out together.

If anyone has thought along similar lines or attempted this I'd love to hear your thoughts.