How to Organize Lead List
Ok I need a little help here. I am sure the answer is really simple but at this point I "can’t see the forest through the trees" lol. BTW I am doing this to start off wholesaling until I generate enough capital to purchase my first flip. My goal is to flip a few houses and use the profits to buy a rental. 3-4 flips then a rental, 3-4 flips then a rental, etc.
I have downloaded absentee owner lists by zip code from list source and have created an excel file. I have my list organized in excel with headers at the top that include: owner’s name, mailing address, property address, house specifics (bedrooms, bathrooms, and living sqft), and date letter sent, date contacted. Currently I have it broken down in the following way.
Master List Tab:
- This is the ongoing list of all the generated leads and I will continue to add to this list as I buy more zip codes.
- I currently have this list organized by owner name and have all the investors (names with more than one property owned) highlighted.
- I figure these are investors that I could wholesale to in the future when I land a deal.
- I will reorganize and highlight the investors as I buy more zip codes.
Zip Code Tab(s):
- I copied the Master List and broke it down by zip code per tab.
- I am focusing on one zip code at a time and sending out 20-30 yellow letters per week (sometimes more sometimes less depending on my time).
- Each week I start wherever I left off on the zip code tab and pick 20-30 names and mail merge them into MS Word.
- If I come across a highlighted investor lead I will look back at the Master List to see if I have already previously sent them a letter for one of their other properties and skip that lead if I have.
- If I have not sent the investor a letter yet, then I will send them a separate “investor yellow letter” and update the Master List with the date by one of their properties for future reference.
- Each zip code typically has 200-400 leads and I have purchased five zip codes so it will take me a while to hit them all (roughly 2000 leads total).
Investor Tab:
- I haven’t done a lot with this yet but my thoughts are to copy all of the investor highlighted properties from the Master Tab into this tab.
- I could then export all of these properties and “pin” them in MapPoint.
- When I secure a “deal” to wholesale I can look for other investors who have properties close by to market to.
Remove Tab:
- Anyone who calls me back and requests to be removed from my mailing list.
I am only one person, working a full-time job, in graduate school, and I have a family so my time is limited. I can see this taking up a lot of time quickly which I don’t mind as long as I start generating income from my efforts. A buddy of mine is an investor who has multiple properties aka absentee owner. He said he rarely gets anyone marketing to him for his properties. This tells me no one is really targeting the area that I am targeting which is a positive.
If anyone has any ideas, including how to be more efficient without having to spend money, they would be accepted and very appreciated. Sorry this is kind of long and thanks to anyone that responds in advance.