How to obtain Occupant Names

Question

I've created a template and system for yellow letters. I have a list of addresses that I've gathered.  I need the names of the occupants, and am curious what would be the most accurate and cost effective way of finding them.  What methods do you use and how frequent can I send these yellow letters out without it impacting the rate of return?

Todd Plambeck · Answer

You want the owners or the occupants?  As Devin stated, owners should be available from the county tax records.  Occupants is a little trickier but you should be able to get that from the city water department.

Devin Beverage · Answer

Hi, Anthony!

The most time-efficient way of locating all the names of your occupants might be looking on the local tax assessor's property search site. Just search "<your county> tax assessor" in Google, and you should find what you're looking for. From here you should have the opportunity to search by address, and you'll be able to find out the owner's name. This method isn't infallible because the records could possibly be out of date, but they are updated every year so you should have a fairly narrow margin for error. The names of owners are public record.

Another option is going to the neighborhood and knocking on nearby neighbors' doors to ask what they know about the home, including the names of the owners. This is a more time-intensive method, but can give you more insight than you'll find online outside of the owner's name.

The optimal frequency with which to send out your letters and your ROR will be something unique to your market. Once you start sending them out, though, you want to be consistent. Start by sending them out once per month, and do your best to keep careful records of how many calls you get. After 2-3 months decrease your frequency to once every 2 or 3 months. Record your data, give it another couple months and then bring it to twice a month, and see how things go. It will take some testing to get things to where you have an optimal marketing solution, and the market will always be changing as well. You can ask some wholesalers local to you how often they send out direct mail for an idea of what your best ROI will be.

Don't be afraid to split test, too. If you send out letters to 1000 different addresses, send to 500 every two weeks, and send to the other 500 every month. And/Or, use a differently worded or differently designed letter to one half versus the other half. This is a great way to improve marketing! Just don't test too many variables at once.

Good luck, Anthony!