Regardless, I want to get your take on the importance of influence in real estate. 

Seems the only solution is door knocking, contacting owners directly and inquiring or (pre)foreclosures to find the motivated sellers.

Gavin Welch I live in Lakeland and am very motivated to get involved in the area.

So I'm all set to start searching for motivated sellers by phone, by placing an ad on Craigslist for flexible sellers, by driving my selected market and finding unmaintained properties.

I know some of these from speaking with you, but sharing what you have to bring, and what you need will have an influence on the best approach..It's always nice if you can get a distressed property to have higher potential returns, but balance that desire with your experience, ability to absorb risk, etc.

If not a lot of Capex sometimes you just run across a motivated seller in life with a good product to sell at a great price.When you find those things lining up you have to move fast.I would make sure a large tax assessment rise isn't fixing to happen or a large increases on charge per gallon of water usage etc.Capex and utility is always the cash flow killers.

I had a motivated seller contact me because he has a house he wants to get rid of.

The problem is, the responses we've received have been from owners who are either not motivated at all or not motivated enough to come down to our price.  

Make a real cash offer none of this $500 down and monthly payments you might get him motivated to sell.

It sounds like you are relatively risk averse (with some influence from your wife..), so I'm thinking probably something more on the conservative side.