Flipper/Rehabber · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2014 · 166 posts · 88 votes
I sent my first mailing lists out on July 10th with 700 mailings to absentee owners in Brooklyn NYC with residences other than their primary with 90% LTV. Come to my surprise the vast majority are investors doing the buy and hold strategy. I targeted Canarsie and East Flatbush. The other few who weren't only wanted to sell me 1-2 bdrm condos with ridiculous HOA fees . I spent around $800 on this campaign and i'm pissed lol. Well this will be a learning experience.
btw I converted those absentee investors into a potential buyers list so it wasn't all bad.
All very good responses. I would like to add put ALL of them in a campaign and hit them 4-7 more times with different types of mailing i.e yellow postcard, white letter, yellow letter...
They more than likely have received letters/postcards before, but if they see a stack of YOUR mailings compared to a few random mailers from people that gave up after one hit then the odds of them calling you are STACKED in your favor :)
I would hazard a guess that most absentee owners are investors. Some will be folks who have moved and been unable to sell or folks who have inherited a house. That said, some of these are likely to be tired landlords who may want to sell.
@Ricardo S. An absentee owner list can serve two purposes. To find cash buyers and to find motivated sellers. It depends on the last sale date. Did you set a time period for the last sale date when you pulled your list? If you're looking for cash buyers, you'd use a short time frame in last sale date, like they bought it in the last 6mths - those are investors. If you're looking for motivated sellers from the absentee list, you'll want to be out several years.. to the point they are now tired of land-lording and motivated to sell. Further, from this list for motivated sellers, you would eliminate LLC's and Companies from your list.. You'd want individual absentee owners.
The time period for last sale date was about 5 years. Is that too soon?
I also received Miscellaneous calls from people who just wanted to give me a complement on how nice my handwriting was. (I use a yellow letter printing company).
@Ricardo S. When you say last 5 yrs, do you mean with-in the last 5 years (ie. <5yrs)? If so, then you've got recent sales in your data which would have a lot of cash buyers. If you were >5yrs, then you should of had some motivated seller calls.. Having said that, you also want equity in the property, which means they've had it for a number of years. So you might want to go >10yr or >15yr in your data pull.
Better to get absentee list with at least 10 years or older and have high equity to have any chance of finding motivated sellers. Also you can probably find free absentee lists from title companies, but would have to establish a relationship with the title company. It may take a ton of calls to find them willing to work with you. Just try it. There will be others that will give a different criteria on finding motivated sellers. Just keep your eyes and ears open and listen to them all.
I agree. At least 10 years back is what I do and get a 5% response rate closing 1 or 2 deals out of each mailing. Of course your results will vary because I'm in the county outside Baltimore and your in NYC. You may certainly get better results than me due to how many potential sellers you will encounter. Good luck!
All very good responses. I would like to add put ALL of them in a campaign and hit them 4-7 more times with different types of mailing i.e yellow postcard, white letter, yellow letter...
They more than likely have received letters/postcards before, but if they see a stack of YOUR mailings compared to a few random mailers from people that gave up after one hit then the odds of them calling you are STACKED in your favor :)
I would absolutely advise against hitting the pre-foreclosure homes... at least not at this point in your career. Unless you wanna experience raging lunatics screaming at you because they have recieved letters and phone calls for being late on several debts they owe! Trust me when I say this.
They could of just lost a family member, lost a job etc. etc... Most will be emotional and snap on you for even asking to buy their house. Besides there's no equity! There might be a motivation but there's no equity! You need both to play ball. Stick with the absentee owners. Theres a reason you sent them a mailing in the first place!