Getting to My 1st Deal: Update 3, Attempt 2, Week 3
Update 3; 2.9.14
Hey everyone, this is my 3rd update and my report for weeks 1 and 2 (Jan. 22-Feb. 8) of my 2nd yellow letter campaign regarding attempts to wholesale pre foreclosure single family residences in San Diego, California.
Recap. I've been utilizing yellow letters and an MLS-generated list comprised strictly of pre foreclosed single family homes (active's, non sale, expired's, cancelled's) in San Diego, California as my main source of leads in this 2nd yellow letter campaign. Also, I've been writing my yellow letters by hand with red Sharpies in simple letter format of 'Dear ___, Hi! My name is Gabriel Trieu and I would like to $BUY$ your house at ___. Please call me at #xxx-xxx-xxxx. Sincerely, Gabe". In addition, I kept my envelope flaps tucked in rather than glue-sealed in order to increase my open rate. And finally, my send rate is 15 letters daily, Monday through Friday, 5 days a week, totaling to 75 hand-written yellow letters sent each week.
My Results & Findings. In the past 2 weeks, I have sent a little more than 150 yellow letters and have gone through 14 zip codes, starting with the most populated areas in San Diego closest to me. The areas I've covered have been Santee, El Cajon, La Mesa, National City, Spring Valley, Mira Mesa, Lemon Grove, City Heights and Encanto. And out of 150 letters to these places, I received 13 phone calls total; 3 from people actually interested in selling, 4 from people directing me to Zillow to look at their house (assumed active listings), 2 who were just curious, and 4 angry callers who immediately began to yell and cuss for sending them mail. From these first 2 weeks in sending 150 letters, my overall response rate is 8.67% and my possible deal rate is 2%.
Elaborating on calls, of the 3 who're actually interested in selling, I found that 2 of them were largely underwater and the last, the homeowners had their house listed whilst asking for full or near market value for a home that's severely against CA building codes and is in great need of repairs. Touching on the third, me and my mentor's honest and concise description of the property: very GHETTO! The homeowners would not accept offers more than 10% below market value regardless of how terribly the fixes and repairs were needed. On the upside of things, though I couldn't lock in any successful deals from these 3, at least I got my 1st house appointment experience out of the way along with the 2 and 3.
Of the 4 calls from homeowners directing me to Zillow to view the specs on their properties, they were all extremely quick on the phone, wouldn't answer any of my questions regarding their homes, and instantly came off as rude, especially when they hung up hardly allowing me a word in. From the 2 calls of curious homeowners, they just wanted to ask what I was doing and then hung up right away too. Nothing else.
And finally, from the 4 angry callers, I had no idea people could get so upset over a yellow letter in the mail! Lots of profanity from these people; it was almost hard to believe! I understand foreclosure is highly stressful but it doesn't mean to go overreact and cuss people out on the phone, especially first thing in the morning (reminded me a little of Michael Q's angry caller)! But I guess this is just another thing to get used to.
In the next 2 weeks, I'll be continuing to use my MLS generated lists for pre foreclosed single family homes and the areas I'm checking out this week will be Clairemont, Linda Vista, Mid City, College West, North Park, Pacific Beach, Rancho Penasquitos, and University City. Even from all of these lists combined, I barely have enough names for 3 days of mailing, given my current mail rate of 15 a day. I'll be requesting the last bit of zip codes remaining in San Diego from my real estate agent friend because I'm quickly running out of areas. I highly doubt I could consistently mail at my current rate for the next 2 weeks.
But my plan after these next 2 weeks includes further research for motivated seller leads outside of pre foreclosures and possibly making my 2nd contact to my pre foreclosure lists via post cards or followup letters if they are still available, also seeing as their foreclosure dates are coming closer. I'm really hoping to pick up my first deal soon by the end of week 4 in this 2nd yellow letter mailing campaign or by the end of this month. It would be a little disappointing to not get anything from using a method that seems to help other people land at least 1 deal a month from 160 letters while I'm sending out 300. Nonetheless, I'll still be trying to consistently generate those leads even after this month transpires!
This is all I have for now! Thank you so much for reading my post and hopefully I can land my very first deal soon along with the other new real estate investors out there! All comments, helpful tips, and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Good luck to you all in your business endeavors and wish me luck! And like always, I'll keep you guys posted!
Best Regards Always
-Gabe