My first mail campaign

Today, I finally mailed 150 letters to absentee owners that were deliquent on their property taxes. My county publishes a newsletter listing the owners that have not paid. Unfortunately, the list is very long. It took me months to filter through the list. My criteria was absentee owners, houses, duplexes, and over $40,000 tax value. I know a lot of people on here don't use tax value, but that is what realtors use when listing property here. Our county stays pretty up to date on property values.

I used mail merge with excel to type up the letters. This saved me a great deal of time. I signed each letter. Everyone uses yellow letters. If other investors are sending the same colored paper, they all blend in together. I wanted to stand out so I selected bright orange. Each time I mail the letter, I'll use a different color. I enclosed a business card in each letter.

I hand wrote the envelopes to increase the chances of people opening up the letters. However, that was hard work. Next time, I'll run the envelopes through the printer. I don't think having typed envelopes would decrease my letter openings because I don't have a common name so the owner will probably remember my name. My goal was to get them to intially open the letter. Then everytime I send a letter, whether they open it or not, they will know it is the same person that wants to buy their house.

I plan on sending them another letter next month. I have about 5 letters/gimmicks that I will use each time. My goal is to convince them to do some form of financing for at least a year. Then, I will refi into my own name. Each month I will post my response rate and hopefully success stories.