Everyone uses these phrases "needs work, tlc, as-is, must sell, motivated seller", etc..

Its hard to get motivation from peers.

Only issue for investors is the owner-occupancy requirement, which is likely a motivation for wrapping or sub2

This will be the easiest for you but he might not be motivated to do this.You can put in a low offer to him that the understanding you will take care of his 'problem' but you can't offer as high of a price.

I purchased a property Nov 2015 and moved through the rehab construction and the refinance loan application was started in January...here we are at the end of May as 5 months have ticked by and Sherman Bridge is charging me $1500 monthly interest so they clearly have zero motivation to complete the processing of my refinance loan!!!

I'm in the Triad area seeking my first deal so this is motivating!

The money spent, the drive, the motivation the effort, the hussle, the risk, the nerves, the not-giving-up, the time put into it not knowing for a fact something will come out of it... heck, the angry calls, the racists bastards telling me to go back to "italy", the asking why they can not speak to Dixie (my super hot partner) calling me fake, asking me where I am from because anyone in the USA with a foreign accent is either a terrorist or a scammer.. this is the fact of doing marketing being me...If anyone doesn't think this deserves at least 50/50 I will happily tell them to shove their uneven split up their butt and let them find their own 66% discount deals themselves.

That is a heck of a motivator to get your team together and make sure you're off and running. 

You find a motivated seller, you make an offer of 40%-60% below retail value, they accept and you both sign a contract which you can get from an local RE agent or online, you find a cash buyer, assign the contract to them, and after the buyer closes with the seller, you get paid.You do need to call around and find an investor friendly title company to handle the closing.

Could the seller be less motivated?