Buyers market = lots of motivated sellers.

I do not have much experience in this field at all, but I have read quite a bit on the investment side and have a lot of motivation to become an active individual in this field and do what it takes to succeed as an investor.

To start off, My advice is to read as many of the forums of this site you can, go to your local library and read some books on Real Estate Investing, Read "You, Inc," and any self motivation books you can find.

I have a single family home I rent that has about 28K remaining on the loan.I collect about 500 a month, after prop. management fees.I'm thinking about cashing out a mutual fund and paying off the house.Then, my 28K would be making approx. 500 a month, or about 6K a year, as opposed to the 0 dollars it is making invested in the market.Also, Dave Ramsey writes that the only way he owns rentals is if he owns them outright with no loansDoes any of this make sense or am I missing some very important facts??

Even if the mortgaged property is not in a state that will leave the mortgage owner liable for the remaining balance, not too many agents are going to step aside to let anyone else negotiate with the bank.I would not.

I only bring this up b/c a wholesaler acquaintance of mine wondered why he couldn't get the "motivated sellers" to part w/ their property for his asking price, no matter how much he bargained w/ them ...I'm interested in getting feedback from others on this..Aren't you guys tired of the dumbed down approach to wholeslaing taken by gurus?

if you find a property that you think might belong to a motivated seller, how do you find out who owns it and how do you get in touch with them to see if it's for sale and start negotiating?

Usually, good deals come about from motivated sellers and not sellers who are not motivated and asking high retail price points.Yes, you want to get as much info as you can from the seller, the submit your LOI ASAP but keep in mind that what the seller gives you are tells you and what is actaully so are two different things.Granted this deal is no apartment building and therefore you will avoid some of the costs associated with that type of investment and therefore, your OE ratio will not be as high as 50%, but if you pay taxes and insuranc ean I would assume utilities, there is no way you can expect a 25% clip which is what the seller is pitching you.Teh info you really need to know is why is the seller selling?

However, a few are coming out and going off of appraised value much sooner (2-3 months) as long as the person on title remains the same.  

The hotter the market, the more leads it takes to find the motivates seller.