I’m walking my dog the other night and I turn the corner onto a new street. Right in front of me is someone standing, who scared the heck out of me. I almost grabbed the knife in my pocket and went “Rambo” on this person………then I realized it was a scarecrow. So thankfully I didn’t have to kill anyone, and the scarecrow lives to see another day. By the way, I always carry a knife on me (I’m an Eagle Scout-Be Prepared). I’ve been in several “shady” vacant houses and if I ever encounter anyone, I’m going to be ready for them. Now that I sound like someone who belongs on the cover of Soldier of Fortune, it’s time to learn something.
First off, over the weekend I was at one of my REIA meetings and a group of us were doing some masterminding about the current market. And if you don’t already know it, here’s what you need to do to be successful in this market: Purchase properties subject-to and plan to hold onto them for the next 3-5 years. If you don’t know the subject-to strategy, learn it ASAP or else you’re going to lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be yours in a few years. I’m always amazed at the investors in my network who email me subject-to leads all of the time, because they don’t know how to do the strategy themselves (of course I make a lot of money from this, but they leave so much money on the table).
In fact, I met a new person at the meeting who’s going to start sending me his subject-to leads (This should also be a valuable lesson to you. Everyone knows that I specialize in subject-to’s and “I’m the subject-to guy”. How do they know? Well, because I network often and I let everyone know that my niche is subject-to’s…….being shy, timid and reserved isn’t going to make you wealthy).
Last week, I promised to tell you how to properly market using postcards. Here’s my easy, step-by-step guide.
- You need to decide on your target market. Some of my favorites are absentee owners, free and clear and expired listings.
- Go to melissadata.com and order your list. The list will be emailed to you in an excel spreadsheet.
- Go to Click2mail.com to create your postcard. You will want to choose the two-sided large postcard. Large postcards get better response rates and a two-sided card allows you to “sell” your services more (there’s an easy to use template on the site to create your card).
- Choose the yellow card (You have two choices between white and yellow….yellow pulls better).
- Create your marketing message. First, have a strong headline. Here are two of the headlines I’m using: “Adjustable Rate Mortgage? Zero Equity? We’re Here To Help!” and “Have You Been Told That It’s Impossible For You To Sell Your House Right Now?” Next put in the benefits of working with you (you don’t charge any fees or commissions, you’re not a Realtor, you can close on the date of their choice, etc).
- Give the homeowner a reason to respond. Offer a free report. Every single marketing piece you create should offer something for “free” to get people to call you. I always offer a special report; here are the titles of two of my most popular reports: “The 5 Little Known Ways to Eliminate Tenant Hassles Forever!” and “How to Sell Your House in 11 Days, Regardless of Your Current Financial Situation”.
- After you’ve created the postcard, you need to upload your excel spreadsheet to click2mail, pay for your postage and you’re all done.
It doesn’t get much easier than that……you have no excuse not to be doing your marketing! Alright, stay positive, make money, visualize your awesome future and I’ll see ya next week.
Photo Credit: Stinkie Pinkie
Article Author:
Jason HansonJason has written 75 articles for us.
Visit Jason's Website: http://www.PrimoCoach.com
Jason R. Hanson is the founder of National Real Estate Investor Month and the author of “How to Build a Real Estate Empire”. Jason specializes in purchasing properties “subject-to” and has purchased millions of dollars worth of property using none of his own cash or credit.
Joshua Dorkin
Charles Feldman
Ted Karsch.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Marketing with postcards with strong headliners and reasons to respond is a great strategy a lot of my fellow Realtors and Investors use. How often would you recommend sending cards or other material to prospective sellers?
Here’s how often I would send cards (this has been tested and is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars if you follow it):
1. Absentee Owners- Send a piece of direct mail every 2.5 months for a total of 8 times
2. Free and clear- Send every 60 days for a total of 8 times
3. Expired listings- Send every 14 days for a total of 4 times.
Thanks for sharing the tips for everyone, Jason!
This is great info. Short and sweet. Now I just need to get in gear and step my marketing up again.
This is a good article about using postcards for real estate marketing and it does work or no one would do it. I just want to make a comment that it improves your odds the more you send those post cards out. On average it takes at least 7 touches to someone before they make a decision to take action.
The number of times someone sees your stuff is even more important when you’re marketing real estate or if you’re just trying to get leads. Try it and I it’ll make a difference.