Diary of a Direct Mail campaign
“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.”― Carlos Castaneda
My business partner and I are currently aggressively marketing and this week, we've been getting several promising leads!
We are both from a different state from the area where we're marketing. We don't have cars. We don't have many contacts in the area. We also don't have excuses.
We chose the area due to the price point and the fact that we each had prior investor friends doing deals nearby. We will wholesale and also pick up our own deals.
We had 2 choices: Do our own marketing through trial & error, or pay extra to go with a marketing company. We chose the latter, because time is money. The sooner we can do EFFECTIVE marketing, the more deals we can get in the pipeline earlier. We contacted several companies and had them send us examples of their letters. I also left a guy hanging who I contacted in Alibaba.com and was going to buy his colored envelopes in bulk. Oh, well. I don't have time to write letters and stuff envelopes. I spent a lot of time doing that when I worked for Cutco Cutlery.
Another reason we chose our marketing company is for their great customer service and accessibility.
We consulted with successful investors in the area to find out what lawyers and contracts they use. This saved a lot of time for finding a lawyer who understands the real estate investor mindset. We want to do things by the book and do them RIGHT. We wanted to have our purchase contract ready to go when calls came in.
We chose an area, and specific types of houses (1700+ leads, which we will split over 4 weeks). Letters dropped last week and I prepared my partner for what to expect. But we weren't expecting all the angry calls we got! One guy threatened us and said he was in a biker gang (ok tough guy). One spoke to my partner and threatened to assault me (in slightly different words). Several people told us what we can do to ourselves. We wondered if maybe we sent the wrong letter by mistake! But nope, as normal calls came in, we could see that some people are just angry that they got a letter, not angry at us. The irony is, they didn't give us their addresses, so they're going to get plenty more paper love from us. Mind you, these are simple homeowners and out of state owners, not foreclosures or probates.
Week 2: This week, calls were heavy the first day (before and after work being heaviest call times) and I assume they will trail off each day just like last week. We got a couple promising leads. Not distressed sellers, but motivated enough that they are willing to negotiate.
Here's some things I want newbies to know:
1. "No" does not mean "never".
ie One lady is not ready to sell yet, but "things could change very quickly". I got the sense there was a sick family member or similar situation. We will keep in contact with her until circumstances change. In fact, always try to leave the door open and ask who else they may know who's selling their house.
2. Every dead lead has potential for a positive outcome.
ie. One guy wants to sell, but he wants market price, isn't in a rush to sell, and his sister is a RE agent. How could this possibly be a good lead? Because after some probing, I found out his sister is also a property manager. And they are investors aka potential buyers.
ie. One guy wants to sell, but he just rehabbed his properties and wants market rate. How can this be a good deal? Because 1. he is a potential future buyer. And 2. he is active in his church and can pass along our business cards. We offer an incentive to bring us leads.
3. Just do it (as Nike says). You really just have to do it, the calls and deals will come.
On a separate note, I've been slightly amused by the fact that people assume I'm his wife or secretary. Some people only want to talk to him. From his end, he thinks people open up more to me.
I'll keep you posted, feel free to ask me questions!