Marketing Plan - Where I'm starting

I have not blogged in a while and I decided to get back to it to hold myself accountable for what I want to do.

First quick background. I have been a full time investor for a few years now focusing on rehab flips and small rental properties.

For the most part I was able to find enough deals via the MLS, mostly REOs so I really didn't do any direct marketing the first few years. Over the last year that avenue has really gotten tight on inventory and what is there ahs gotten more competitive in my markets.

So I have decided that I need to get off my duff and find some motivated sellers!

So I want to do some extensive direct mail as the key stone of my plan (I know shocking right?:) ). I have created an extensive list of absentee owners from public records. I have been compiling the data and pruning it for awhile. What I realized the other day is that if I wait to get it "perfect" I will NEVER actually send anything.

I decided that wasn't acceptable and will start sending out small batches of mail (A few hundred at a time) as I get a chunk done. Then do another chunk and hopefully when the list is done it will be time to go back and send the next piece to the first batch.

Here is the first 240 cards I sent today:

Now that I have taken the plunge I think I will stay on task and send out a few hundred at least once a week, hopefully twice.

Okay so that is awesome!

But it isn't smart to have all your eggs in one basket. See my opening where I said I basically just use MLS to this point...

So while I think this is the place where I should get the most bang for my buck, I am dong other stuff as well.

I am still going after MLS deals. They are there, I know what I am doing and it has been good to me in the past. I also have been posting "We Buy Houses" type ads on Craigslist as well as responding to some of the real estate for sale ads. For other marketing I have also been distributing lots of branded items to get my message out. I have been dropping as many business cards as I can any place that seems legit. Also had stickers made up and put them on bulletin boards and stuff like that. The biggest thing I have done is make my car look tacky. :)

I have added a fairly professional looking window decal and some cheap looking car magnets.

I actually have better branded magnets, but gave a test run with these. I had some body damage and basically wanted to make sure they were going to stay on right. I will upgrade sometime soon.

So that is it for now. Getting in the game and ready to get some more deals! Any thoughts on what I have done and advice on how to do it better and other ideas I should incorporate will be greatly appreciated!