How to Identify Real Sellers? Share Your Screening Frameworks?

Fellow acquirers,

I need your help overcoming a major hurdle in my search: filtering out non-serious sellers.

After months of work—building relationships, crunching numbers, and making fair offers—all my serious prospects fell through for classic reasons: seller's remorse, a last-minute competitor, and being used to generate leverage.

I understand this is a numbers game, but the resource drain is real. I'm convinced my screening process needs sharpening.

For those who have successfully closed deals, I'd be grateful for your insights on a few key points:

What are the undeniable red flags and green flags of a "motivated seller" in your first few conversations?
What questions do you ask to gauge sincerity and urgency beyond "Why are you selling?"
How do you structure early interactions to secure exclusivity or at least a genuine commitment to proceed?

Thank you in advance for your wisdom.

Philippe

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