Any Advice on Data provider for Direct Mail? Good Lists?

Marketing Your Property
10yFollow

Any Advice on Data provider for Direct Mail? Good Lists?

Logan Hand
Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2016 · 46 posts · 40 votes

Hey guys I hope everyone here on BP is doing great and ready to crush this 4th quarter! 

We do alot of marketing here at my company, and although we do Direct Mail, I would say it could use some work. 

I am open to any suggestions or advice, but please back your advice up with data like response rates etc. 

Here is what I am currently doing with Direct Mail. 

We do between 5-7,000 pieces per month. We have tried Jumbo Post cards, Minis, and the handwritten letters. Ultimately we stick with Minis because they are cheaper and the first class mail helps alot. 

We mail to the following Lists from the following Sources: 

- NOD Tax defaults ------- From Rebogateway

- NOO (Non Owner Occupied) --- Rebogateway

- PRe-Foreclosures --------- Realty Trac. 

We have tried these methods also and weren't exactly a fan

- Absentee owners with Equity....... Listability data

- Inherited Property Lists.......... US Leads List. 

We are in the process of scaling and we have plenty of money to throw at these marketing initiatives. Anything that can help me fine tune the machine will help. 
Thanks so much guys!

1Reply
49 views

Most Popular Reply

Justin SilverioPro Member
Developer · Andover, MA · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 489 votes
10y

@Logan Hand that's great you guys are so ingrained in DM.  I get 90% of my deals from this lead source so I'm a big fan as well.  The majority of my deals are coming from my driving for dollars list.  I currently have 5k+ in that list.  The next list is my Super Lead List which is a combination of multiple lists and intense scrubbing.  My 3rd list is tax liens.  

Notice that all of the above lists are not just pulled from an easy data source.  Because of that, many investors don't spend their time working these lists and when I send mail, I have less competition.  Pulling lists from Listsource like absentees, equity, seniors, etc. are fine but they work best when executed in conjunction with the other lists that I mentioned.  

Once you have a solid lead list, I'd recommend selecting mailers that stand out from your competition.  Mini postcards are fine for a single touch, but I would recommend that you use letters as well.  General response rates for postcards are 0.5% and letters are 3%+.  Now, this is where you can really maximize your results - creative mailers, that actually stand out from your competition's mailers have provided me with a 26.7% increased response rate from using a standard yellow mailer type.

Finally, the deals are in the consistency and follow up.  I NEVER stop mailing my lists unless they tell me to or they sell their house.  I'm getting deals off my 12th, 13th, 14th touch.

Good luck!

Podcast Guest on Show How to Easily Find Off-Market Properties (No Experience Required!)
2Reply
See this reply in the discussion

17 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Claire Trammell
    Bakersfield, CA · Member since 2016 · 543 posts · 281 votes
    10y

    Hello @Logan Hand!

    How often and how many times are you mailing to the leads you have?

    0Reply
  • Logan Hand
    OP
    Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2016 · 46 posts · 40 votes
    10y

    So I do one mail campaign per month..... So I do 5,000 pieces. But I do 2,500 dropped in one week. Wait a week in between, then hit the remaining 2500 the following week. 

    I would say maybe I cycle through the list 2-3 times, but I always try to go for fresh lists each month. 

    thanks so much for the response @Claire Trammell

    0Reply
  • Claire Trammell
    Bakersfield, CA · Member since 2016 · 543 posts · 281 votes
    10y

    @Logan Hand

    When you say that you try for a fresh list every month, do you mean suppressing your old lists? Or do you actually purchase a new list and discard the old ones?

    I like that you are splitting up your mailings, that must help with the incoming calls. However, you could actually utilize your lists for much longer than one or two mailings. On average it takes someone 3-5 mailings to actually take action and respond. Direct mail tends to work best when you send a campaign of 5-7 different pieces, 4 weeks apart from each other.

    0Reply
  • Logan Hand
    OP
    Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2016 · 46 posts · 40 votes
    10y

    this is great information! 

    Much of our data/lists actually comes from services that charge monthly fees for downloads, so I am currently not purchasing lists. 

    Do you have a list provider that you would recommend? and what target lists do you see most people going after and having success with. 

    0Reply
  • Claire Trammell
    Bakersfield, CA · Member since 2016 · 543 posts · 281 votes
    10y

    I like listsource.com. Easy to use and has the criteria options I like to recommend. You are able to purchase a list and actually export it into an Excel or CSV formatted list. Another advantage they have since these lists are typically directly compatible with a mail merge system on your computer or through a mail company.

    As for the types of list I recommend: Absentee mixed with owner Occupieds. The criteria looks like this:

    • 1-3 Bedrooms
    • 30%-100% Equity
    • 4 yrs. Ownership
    • SFR
    • Median Price Range
    • Absentee
    • Owner Occupied
    • No Corp
    • No Trust

    I'm not sure if you are familiar with Michael Quarles, but this is the criteria he recommends.

    0Reply
  • Jonathan C.
    Real Estate Investor · Nashville TN · Member since 2009 · 287 posts · 171 votes
    10y

    I would also try out 'find motivated sellers now' list. I've gotten 1 deal from it so far this year and isn't too much money

    0Reply
  • Jonathan C.
    Real Estate Investor · Nashville TN · Member since 2009 · 287 posts · 171 votes
    10y

    Guys sorry 1 more thing- if you use listsource very much, call their customer support line, ask to talk to manager, and ask to be upgraded to a bulk list buyer (or whatever they call it). They made me one a year or two ago and the cost per record is now like 1/4 of what it was

    1Reply
  • Justin SilverioPro Member
    Developer · Andover, MA · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 489 votes
    10y

    @Logan Hand that's great you guys are so ingrained in DM.  I get 90% of my deals from this lead source so I'm a big fan as well.  The majority of my deals are coming from my driving for dollars list.  I currently have 5k+ in that list.  The next list is my Super Lead List which is a combination of multiple lists and intense scrubbing.  My 3rd list is tax liens.  

    Notice that all of the above lists are not just pulled from an easy data source.  Because of that, many investors don't spend their time working these lists and when I send mail, I have less competition.  Pulling lists from Listsource like absentees, equity, seniors, etc. are fine but they work best when executed in conjunction with the other lists that I mentioned.  

    Once you have a solid lead list, I'd recommend selecting mailers that stand out from your competition.  Mini postcards are fine for a single touch, but I would recommend that you use letters as well.  General response rates for postcards are 0.5% and letters are 3%+.  Now, this is where you can really maximize your results - creative mailers, that actually stand out from your competition's mailers have provided me with a 26.7% increased response rate from using a standard yellow mailer type.

    Finally, the deals are in the consistency and follow up.  I NEVER stop mailing my lists unless they tell me to or they sell their house.  I'm getting deals off my 12th, 13th, 14th touch.

    Good luck!

    Podcast Guest on Show How to Easily Find Off-Market Properties (No Experience Required!)
    2Reply
  • Logan Hand
    OP
    Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2016 · 46 posts · 40 votes
    10y

    Man you guys are super helpful!! 

    @Justin Silverio Where do you get your Tax defaults list from? 

    thanks 

    0Reply
  • Justin SilverioPro Member
    Developer · Andover, MA · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 489 votes
    10y

    Town treasury department.

    Podcast Guest on Show How to Easily Find Off-Market Properties (No Experience Required!)
    1Reply
  • M.I. Seka
    Seminole, FL · Member since 2016 · 9 posts · 1 vote
    10y

    The county itself.

    0Reply
  • Tim KunzPro Member
    Contractor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2015 · 131 posts · 55 votes
    10y

    @Justin Silverio thanks for great information, it looks like you have a very efficient marketing business up and running.  I'm currently working on scaling up my direct mail efforts and had a few questions.

    1) Is there an efficient way to scrub your list for houses that get listed or sold? Right now my list only exists in excel form, and I haven't found an effective way to rid it of dead leads (i.e. recently sold)

    2) Where do you find the best pricing on envelopes? I have found cheap #10 size envelopes but cannot find a good source for a more personalized A6 (or similar size) envelopes.

    Thanks in advance for any input

    0Reply
  • Justin SilverioPro Member
    Developer · Andover, MA · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 489 votes
    10y

    @Tim Kunz

    1) I download the sold data from my MLS and copy it into my lead list spreadsheet. Then I use conditional formatting to highlight duplicates. I sort by color and remove all of the highlighted items.

    2) There are a number of online vendors - vistaprint, uprinting, gotprint, etc.  They all have pretty good pricing.

    Good luck!

    Podcast Guest on Show How to Easily Find Off-Market Properties (No Experience Required!)
    1Reply
  • Tim KunzPro Member
    Contractor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2015 · 131 posts · 55 votes
    10y

    @Justin Silverio thanks for the reply, the conditional formatting worked great, that was a no brainer should have thought about myself. A follow up to the second question, I was thinking blank envelopes but it sounds like you are branding your envelopes with some form of print and then using a different source to actually label them with individual lead information prior to mailing.  Is that correct?

    0Reply
  • Justin SilverioPro Member
    Developer · Andover, MA · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 489 votes
    10y

    Yes, all my mailings are on custom envelopes so they stand out and generate better response rates.

    Podcast Guest on Show How to Easily Find Off-Market Properties (No Experience Required!)
    0Reply
  • M.I. Seka
    Seminole, FL · Member since 2016 · 9 posts · 1 vote
    9y

    Getting lists from the county is best and it's free.  Most have option to download their entire database which is usually about 800K names into Excel.

    From there it's relatively easy to sort and get rid of 99.9% of the names. Sort by name of owners. Get rid of property owned by banks, county, other counties, municipalities, trusts, LLC's, etc. Sort out small land lots or any other land use codes. Get rid of duplicate owners. There are tones of ways.

    These get updated once a week and in the end you should have about 10K worth of names to mail to and send out about 200 a week.

    0Reply
  • John Burtle
    Real Estate Broker · IL · Member since 2016 · 284 posts · 178 votes
    9y

    - PRe-Foreclosures --------- Realty Trac

    Can you tell me a little more about this one ?

    PRe Foreclosures..I imagine that's where the owner can sell the property before they lose it or are you going through the bank to purchase it in pre foreclosure?

    0Reply
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.
Log InJoin for Free