One week about a year ago, it was nearing the end of the year and I thought that would be a good time to reflect. Not only do I track all the information I detailed above, but I have a separate tab in Excel that separates by each lead type (probate, over 65, absentee owner, etc.), and I was reviewing the absentee owner list that particular day. It\u00a0dawned on me that the absentee owners who were:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Most motivated<\/span><\/li>\n
- Most likely to sell at a discount<\/li>\n
- Most likely to lead to a closed deal<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Related:<\/strong> Getting Direct Mail Returned? Here\u2019s How to Use It to Track Down Leads!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
Were absentee owners that lived within a certain distance of the subject property. For those of you who may be new reading this, an absentee owner is simply someone who owns the property, but for whatever reason they are not living at that address. They could be living next door to the subject property or many states away.<\/p>\n
Emerging Patterns<\/h2>\n
What I discovered is that the best absentee owner leads tend to live within the same state, but there was quite a bit of driving distance separating them from the subject property \u2013 usually about an hour and 30 minutes’ worth of driving. These leads were even better than absentee owners who\u00a0lived out-of-state. I guess they’re close enough in their minds to the subject property (being in the same state), but far away enough that driving by car is a\u00a0nuisance, in addition to other motivating factors that may be at play for them to keep up with the property.
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<\/a><\/p>\nI am not sure exactly why these leads tend to be better than absentee owners who\u00a0live out-of-state \u2013 but one theory I have is the out-of-state absentee owners tend to visit the subject property a bit more frequently, even though they are out-of-state. Why is that? Well, for one, they likely have family in the area and visit maybe once to a few times a year by plane. A plane is fairly convenient, especially when you are already there visiting family.<\/p>\n
In comparison, when the absentee owner lives in the state, they are likely to already live around some family, but the subject property is off their radar because the drive time is so inconvenient, and it tends to go neglected, as they rarely visit the house. I noticed this when driving for dollars, too \u2013 many of the houses that needed the most TLC were homes that had absentee owners within state, but these owners had a bit of a drive to make it to the subject property. This theory seems to hold some weight, as when I went back through the notes, I would see information that confirmed this.<\/p>\n