How much do you know before sending letters?

Question

Good evening ya'll,

I've been doing targeted direct marketing in the hopes of finding a flipper in my town, but have had no success.  None of the listing sites seem to be at all useful for my area so I scoured the county assessor data for months to build my own absentee owners list.  Now I've got a big ol' list of properties I can sort by any number of criteria and have been sending letters to the ones I think will be most likely to produce leads.

On properties I think may be potential deals, I drive by and take a look to see if it looks vacant and to get a rough idea of condition, and then snap a quick photo.  I'm putting loads of effort into this and getting no results, so my question is this:

Do you all send out a huge amount of letters without ever having done any research on the properties and wait for owners to contact you Before looking at them?  I've thought it would be beneficial to know something about the occupancy and condition of a property Before mailing a letter, but that greatly limits the number of letters I am able to send.

Some perspective and advice would be appreciated much.  Thanks

Kelly B. · Answer

Also, remember to mail your list multiple times as the timing of your mail getting in the hand of a prospect when they become motivated is crucial.  It could be your 3rd mailing that they finally react on simply because they got another (over due) bill that very same day.

Good luck,

Kelly

Account Closed · Answer

I've done plenty of driving for dollars, especially when I first started.  If there were a phone app that would send my marketing letter when I enter the address I would still do it. But in general it's too research intensive to come back home with a list where 75% of the addresses will be REOs.  It may still be of value in other markets.

Wayne Brooks · Answer

Doing any research on a property, other than the owner's mailing address, prior to an owner contacting is a complete waste of time.  This from someone who has a tendency to do too much research sometimes.  I oils think Listsource would come up with the same names you do.

Mike S. · Answer

Kristine Marie Poe  so driving for $ does not sound like a strategy that has any merit from your viewpoint?

Account Closed · Answer

That was a joke.  I said "IF" there was an app that would allow me to enter an address and have it send it send off a letter to the owner of record....well then I would use it.  I don't use any phone apps.  I can barely get google maps to work on my phone.  Ask my husband.

Mike S. · Answer

@Brian G. different people have different strategies some people let calls go to voicemail and then do the research before calling back, others have an answering service that fills out a lead sheet for them.  If you chose to answer calls live you can gather info and call them back.

Brian G. · Answer

Yea, I would have thought listsource would be good too, but nope.  When I try to narrow down the list by anything other than sfr, I get 0 results.

My targeting has been focused on dumpy places with out of state owners that appear to be vacant because that seems like it would produce more motivated seller leads, but it appears that the consensus is that knowing anything about a property ahead of time is a waste, so when the calls do come in from owners of properties you know nothing at all about, how does the conversation go?

Thanks,

Brian

Elio L. · Answer

@K. Marie Poe What phone app did you use?

Account Closed · Answer

You want to target your list so you can reach possibly motivated sellers.  But not so much but that your time and money would have been better spent mailing to every address in your farm. It sounds like you are doing too much research for no return.  Pick a list with some possible motivation.  Absentee owners, tax defaults, code violations, pre foreclosure and mail to everyone on it. The research comes after you get the calls.

You cannot determine motivation by driving by a house.  A property that looks vacant/abandoned may never be sold in your lifetime.  And the occupied pretty house next door may have sellers with every problem under the sun and who can't find a buyer.

@Wayne Brooks  I had no idea that you suffer the over-research tendency.  It's something I struggle with every day.  :)

How much do you know before sending letters?

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