if you don't give the seller a fair offer,he will list the home. that is going to be your competition.take for example, he has had the home for a few years, 144k vs 215k value?!!.

You can find an example on myfsbo.com.

HuntMan,Can you give a couple of real-world examples of exactly what to ask someone to determine whether or not they're motivated?

Smith down the street that has money from her late husband and doesn't know what to do with it and wants to loan it to me for rehabbing (random example)... what kind of paperwork/contract would I use regarding that money?

For example, in the real world, you will find that it is difficult to find people with bad credit but $7,500 in cash.

For example, say you pick up a bank REO for cash on the court house steps for $50K, but the FMV on the property is actually $125K.

Here is an example of some of those great deals people are picking up.

If anyone has an example they would be willing to share of a letter they used successfully in a past deal on an abandoned property or a suggestion for a good REI book that offers examples of letters, I'd be thankful for them.

Example:"Can we finance some of the closing costs?"..."

This would be great.Ok, now because I am really new and am still trying to figure out all this stuff out I am going to throw some numbers up that may not be the way everything works, so please correct me if I am way off base.Example 1: I get the house for 70k and say I can get the loan for the total amount I would have payments at 585 a month for 20 years at 8%Example 2: I by at retail for 100k I get a 20k loan at 8% and I can get the seller to carry the second mortgage of 80k at 4% for 30 years.