The sellers are an older couple who are buy and hold investors.

How motivated are the sellers?

I am glad to hear that you got motivated and started investing. 

I've decided to start with pre-foreclosures, Lease Options, and Seller Financing. 

I'm happy to share the specifics of either deal if you're interested, but this post is about one of the many dilemmas that you face as a seller. 

Still plenty of opportunities out there, I think it is just starting to move toward a more reasonable balance between buyers and sellers.

Just be sure to keep yourself motivated even after you run numbers on your 20th house and it still doesn't work.

I have excellent drive and motivation, and I feel my background in banking gives me an advantage to understanding the different types of loans and the finer portions of the lending aspect, since most people seem to finance homes. 

After sending my $101 deposit the auction site told me the seller refused to sell this.

This would prevent another brokerage from marketing the property and also protect them from sellers that have found a buyer on their own and are trying to cut out the broker fee (this does happen).