Hot markets and direct mail

[John Hixon]

I'm not sure about the market where you live but Dallas is red hot and everyone and their dog is sending yellow letters.  I have heard of owners getting 4 or 5 letters a week from investors, all saying the same thing, "I want to $BUY$ your house, all cash, fast close, please call".  I assume these are the standard prospects, absentee, good equity, X number of years owned, ect...

My questions are:

1.  If you are doing direct mail and having success how do you differentiate yourself from all of the other investors out there?

2. What group of prospects do you mail to since the standard prospect is being flooded with letters?

Looking forward to the answers.

Thanks.

[Andrew Herrig]

@John Hixon I try to make my mailers a little more personal than the "I BUY HOUSES FOR CA$H" crowd. But don't overthink it. It's really a numbers game. I prefer postcards as they are cheaper and my response rates seem to be about the same. As far as what prospects to mail, the harder a list is to find the better. However, I will mail almost anyone as long as they have equity.

@Erik Drentlaw If you have the budget, I would mail out more than 1250 per month. I am in the Dallas market and mailing about 4000 per month, and getting about a deal per month. Test different areas, most of my deals have come in certain areas (sorry don't want to say which ones). I will say that I am not targeting mid-high end flip neighborhoods, have not had as much success there in direct mail. Not to say you can't, that is just my experience.

Other tips:

1. ANSWER YOUR PHONE - you would be surprised how many investors don't

2. FOLLOW UP FOLLOW UP FOLLOW UP - a good portion of my deals come from people who didn't want to sell at the time and I kept checking in with them periodically