After months of quietly gathering information from BP and other sources... 2 weeks ago, I decided to break away from the throngs of other wannabe real estate wholesalers and take action.

I purchased my absentee owner seller leads from Listsource. I setup my voicemail greeting for sellers on Freedom Voice. I carefully crafted my first postcard. Then, the moment of truth... I pulled the trigger and sent out 580 postcards. All this, without so much as a whisper... at least on the internet.

Only now, having taken action, do I feel the right to begin the process of chronicling my journey.

What I will give to you:

- My results and procedures. No B.S.

What I request of you:

- Your honest feedback (I am willing to listen and will do anything to be successful).

Now that things have been established, let's begin.

My current setup:

- 877 # and 3.15 min voicemail greeting for prospective sellers. All calls go to voicemail. All calls get a call back, regardless of whether they leave a voicemail or not.

- 1000 name list of absentee owners. SFR. 10 years + sale date. 1940 or newer build date. No corp. No trusts.

- Small yellow postcard highlighting how working with me will benefit them. My full name is in the body of the postcard text and on the return address. There is no mention of the name of my company on the card, in an effort to make it more personal.

- Spreadsheet to collect data during the call with sellers.

My current results:

Out of 580 postcards sent I got 15 calls. 2 called to say there were not interested. 1 was a realtor that threatened to sue me if I did not make a cash offer within 24 hours. I was not able to reach 4 of them when trying to return their call. 1 was curious about how I got his information. 1 was expecting my voicemail to make an offer on his specific property. 3 were expecting retail. Out of those 3, I referred one that has a 1.3M property to a realtor. If that goes through... I will get 9k on the deal for referring. The listing agreement was sent out yesterday and the seller is reviewing... fingers crossed. 1 I made an offer on, but we couldn't agree on price. The last 2 were from a real estate company and a design firm.

I am actually really pleased with these initial results. If the traditional real estate deal goes through... it will be enough to make for my marketing this whole year.

My next step:

Tomorrow I am sending out another 500 postcards. This batch will have the same 877 # as my first mailing. A week after that, I will send 500 more (to the other half of my list) and this will have a local google voice # with a very basic voicemail " Hi you reached James. If you leave your name and #, I will get back to you as soon as possible".

Based on these results (and I don't mean the quantity of calls, but rather the quality ie. motivation level) I will either use the 877 or local number for future touches.

I strongly believe that multiple touches to the same list is the key to success. I will be touching my list every 8 weeks. Looking to increase my budget so I can market to another list of 1000 every 8 weeks too.

So that's it for now. I look forward to hearing from the community!