I've been searching for my first house hack property here in Binghamton NY for over a year now through the traditional realtor/MLS and have had little luck. In my frustration, I've begun to explore the direct mail marketing method instead. After spending hours on the county GIS website I've narrowed it down to about 45 tri/quadplex properties in my desired area. Just have a few questions before I begin:

1) Because I only have a few dozen prospects (as opposed to hundreds) could I expect a better response rate with handwritten letters, or should I just stick to a mailing service to save time? I've also heard postcards have the best response rate. Any truth to that?

2) Do I really need a realtor for properties not on the MLS? If I have a good attorney and title company, what value would a realtor provide?

Let me know your thoughts!

Try a variety of tactics and keep track of your response rate for each tactic. Maybe first try yellow letters handwritten (pastel color letter to make it look like it’s from a relative, with a unique stamp= higher chance of an open), 3 to 4 weeks later try a post card, 4 weeks later try another post card and so on. I’d recommend J Scott’s book on flipping properties, it’s about a different investment technique, but it has a good chapter on Direct Mail.

I'm in the Albany area and I gave direct mail a go. I sent a couple thousand postcards out followed by a yellow letter. I had the postcards done through an online company. The response rate to the postcards was really horrible. I think I got one call out of the 2000. 

Yellow letters had a much better response. I think it was about a 5% response rate. I didn't end up getting a deal. Most people were set on a very high price or didn't want to sell.

It could just be my lack of practice negotiating as well as my lack of follow through. A lot of people say you need to hit people several times before they will respond, and I only hit people twice. 

For the yellow letters I bought my own printer that could print envelopes and ended up breaking even compared to paying someone to do the mailing on the first 500 letters. It only took a couple hours to get them all out too.  

Originally posted by @Jakob Mykytyn :

I'm in the Albany area and I gave direct mail a go. I sent a couple thousand postcards out followed by a yellow letter. I had the postcards done through an online company. The response rate to the postcards was really horrible. I think I got one call out of the 2000. 

Yellow letters had a much better response. I think it was about a 5% response rate. I didn't end up getting a deal. Most people were set on a very high price or didn't want to sell.

It could just be my lack of practice negotiating as well as my lack of follow through. A lot of people say you need to hit people several times before they will respond, and I only hit people twice. 

For the yellow letters I bought my own printer that could print envelopes and ended up breaking even compared to paying someone to do the mailing on the first 500 letters. It only took a couple hours to get them all out too.  

 Thanks Jake!

The only other thought I had to find prospects would be to call apartment listings and see if they'd be interesting in selling instead. Anyone have any luck with this?

Andrew I'm one of the few investors that Advocates quality over quantity. You have fewer prospects but that gives you an opportunity to really research them and try a more personalized form of marketing. Pay attention to any bounce-backs as those properties are likely vacant and could be distressed financially. As far as needing a realtor, no you don't need one. A good attorney and title company is really all you need. At least here in New Jersey. And you may not even need to find the title company yourself as most attorneys here are connected to them. Good luck.

You need someone to write up the offer/contract for you.   A Realtor is familiar with the forms and so are most real estate attorneys.