Sorry for the long post..

I sent out my first round of yellow letters on Saturday (rather Jerry Puckett sent them out for me...great guy by the way and I recommend him to anyone looking for the YL services) and wanted to give a recap.

My listsource parameters gave me 515 properties. I mailed to half on this first batch..

1) Today was day one and I got 18 replies. I believe that is about an 8.5% response rate on the first day. I am pretty happy with this, but most of the leads so far are other investors who are absentee, have already rented the property, and aren't looking to sell that specific property beyond market value. There weren't any obviously motivated sellers (that I was able to discern that is) from my first go round.

2) I found an individual who was unwilling to rent the property I mailed about, but he holds 100+ doors of multifamily in my city and wants to meet for coffee and see what I might be willing to take off his hands...with his moving into higher end SFR he doesn't want the headache of the MF that he currently holds a large quantity of. I will see how it plays out.

3) I found two realtors that were unwilling to part with the property I mailed them on, but I did negotiate some MLS leads in exchange for kicking some leads their way. Looking to foster the relationships over the coming weeks and months to improve my pipeline.

4) So far no concrete deals on a home, but the networking the mailing provided is extremely encouraging.

So to the others reading this who are just starting out, you just have to bite the bullet, mail the letters, and wait by the phone. Mine did not quit ringing and, although none were really motivated to sell the particular property I referred to in my letter, many lead to a possible future deal and increased network. I had only one of my 15 callers talk down to me..a fellow investor... but I couldn't understand her from the beginning so her insults missed the mark.

Not sure if this helps anyone but I am willing to answer questions, give more info, and if anything just let you know the letters get the phone ringing...and in my case it wasn't nearly as intimidating as I had thought it would be...maybe your own fears are greater than reality as well.