Property owner search red flags?

Question

Ive been searching the county records and tax collectors for abandoned properties, trying to locate an owner and/or address to write to.  Is there any info that you may come across when finding the owner that you'll automatically say "this property isn't worth the effort"?  Or is it worth the chance of sending a yellow letter/postcard/mail regardless and hope for the best?

Michael Quarles · Answer

I would buy an equity based list to filter your candidates against.   If they're on both list sent them something

Alison M. · Answer

Patrick, I think it will be tough sledding to go through tax record data without some other kind of filtering. You can do what Michael suggests and buy a list and/or get an agent colleague to give you an absentee owner list from your multiple listing service. I would say that houses that have tax values at or below the mean value for your city and that are absentee owned may be good candidates.

Alison "Data is My Life" Miller

Victoria Winters · Answer

Hi Patrick,

In response:  "Is there any info that you may come across when finding the owner that you'll automatically say "this property isn't worth the effort"?  Or is it worth the chance of sending a yellow letter/postcard/mail regardless and hope for the best?"  There are probably a myriad of reasons why an investor would choose to turn down a property.  If I understand your questions, it sounds as if you are interested in prospecting for sellers and would like to know if sending direct mail is a good idea.

First, yellow letter direct mail campaigns work wonderfully well.  You'll have to make a few decisions before undertaking any direct mail campaign.

1.  Choose a property type and area that you want to target.  Examples:  single family, duplex, in your surrounding area, 10 to 20 miles from you, or other.

2. Decide how you want to acquire your prospect list.  Examples:  purchase a list, your own list, combination of both, etc.

3.  Determine the marketing vehicle, yellow letters or post cards.

4.  Write a simple plan for you to follow.  You'll want to include your goal, the marketing tool (yellow letter or post card), list to use, number of mailings per week, tracking system and length of the campaign.

5.  Take action.

Keep in mind that the plan you decide to follow is of your own making.  Keep it simple and in terms that make sense to you.  It could be as easy as deciding to drive a certain neighborhood, write down the addresses of all properties of interest, look up the owner names, write the letter and mail it.  Keep track of the number of letters/cards sent out per week and the number of responses.  Also, keep track of the number of mailings it took to get one response.  Be consistent and stick to you plan for a definitely defined period of time.  Give yourself enough time to get results.  Far too many marketers give up too early.

Also, decide how you want to conduct research for the owner names and any other information you may want regarding the property.  All property recorded is a matter of public record.  There are many ways to obtain this information.  Some require more leg work than others, but that is your choice to find a method that works for you.

If you have access to the MLS, you have all the information at your fingertips.  If not, consider getting your real estate license or purchasing RealQuest Professional by CoreLogic.  If you want more information about any if the suggestions, let me know.

I would like to hear how things work out for you, so please keep me posted.

Best of luck.

Sincerely,

Victoria

Property owner search red flags?

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