All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Garland

@Account Closed Anytime Scott! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything.

@Account Closed I apologize for not specifying what I meant regarding the due diligence. Essentially, I'm just making sure there is some type of equity in the home by looking at when it was purchased. So I'll go check out the deed and see when the last sale date was. If it was between 2006-2009, I can almost guarantee it's either upside down or it has little equity. While most of these homes bought during the recession have been foreclosed on, there are ways to prolong this process in my state so somebody can be delinquent for years before they get foreclosed on. Also, if I see the last sale or deed date is before the '60s, it's usually an indicator that the owner is may be deceased. They would have needed to buy the property at 20 years old and they would be around 70 today. The likelihood of them buying the property that young is not likely so this person is likely deceased. It takes me a few minutes to do these steps to ensure I'm not wasting my team's time writing letters to unworkable leads. I don't analyze the property for repairs or ARV at this stage; I only do this after the lead calls in.

I would start with at least 500 unique owners if your budget is really tight. I would recommend starting at the neighborhood-level and using this as your farm. If you're able to market to at least 1,000, then I would focus on specific zips and tighten your criteria (e.g., 90+ percentage equity and absentee out-of-state owners). I've had success marketing to lists of less than 500, but my criteria was very focused and my mail piece was extremely personal.

I know a lot of people on BP preach mailing to your list 5-6 times, but if you aren't seeing the results you want after the first mailing, I would shift your focus to a different area or list. When money was tight for me, I couldn't afford to keep on hitting a list that didn't work out my first month. You should at least get a 2% response rate. Also, don't be afraid of marketing to lower-class areas. There are investors that just buy in these areas, and I've found that I can move property fairly quicker in these areas because the homes are below 50k. Not only can your savvy investors qualify for buying these properties, but you also are in the price range of where someone who wants to start rehabbing and renting homes can purchase your deals. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I'm here to help!

@Ray Lai I am huge on analytics and split testing my campaigns so I know what's working in my market and what's not. This particular campaign was actually a test to see if we could generate a deal in another market before we did a larger campaign there using a different list. The criteria I used on my list is super-tight and not very scalable. These were sellers who were absentee-owners and over the age of 65. So there weren't that many, unfortunately. I wish there were more because this list would be golden if there were a couple of thousand in my market! I knew out of any list, this would be the best one to see if we were focusing on the correct zips. I think I'll do this list first when I'm attempting to enter other markets in the future.

Regarding the mail pieces, I'm only using one marketing technique per campaign. So on this absentee senior campaign, I only sent out yellow letters to them acting like I'm just a regular guy looking to buy a home for my family. All of the mail pieces in this campaign were yellow letters that referenced the previous letter. I use cluster marketing in my other campaigns where I indicate I'm an investor the whole time. The only difference in the marketing is the mail piece. The message is generally the same. Please let me know if you'd like me to clarify more on this.

Also, I used a couple of different vendors when I was sending out mail heavily. Currently, I do about one mailing to all of my lists per quarter. I primarily locate phone numbers for my sellers and then have my team cold call them. This reduces the amount of returned letters, which I received a lot of.

@Jonathan C. I've experimented with both, and I use either option one or two depending on my target demographic. For instance, with my absentee seniors' list, I always go with a yellow letter that has a consistent message. While I'm not indicating my brand on the letter, the style and format of the letters are the same, and they build off of each other. My first mail piece will say something like "My name is Cornelius and I drove by your beautiful house at 123 Main St. My family and I are looking for our first starter house that we can call a home. Please call me if you ever thought about selling." The next mail piece will reiterate what I said in the first mailer and say something along the lines of me not hearing from them yet and that I'm still interested in purchasing the home. This strategy has worked well for me and generated a 15% response rate (see attached image) from two mailings. I did this in another market with 608 leads and generated an 18% response rate from three mailings. What I noticed is that the seniors weren't shocked when they found out we were investors. They enjoyed speaking with us and I don't think we received a negative call or voicemail from this list.

I highly recommend using option 2 (cluster marketing) for your other lists. I don't think branding is that important for many lists unless it's an inherited or probate list because these leads require rapport-building. The reason I say this is because you're going to be piggy backing off of other investors' marketing efforts and all of the names and companies blend in after a while to the seller. We closed a deal back in March and the seller swore they received letters from us, when in actuality that was our first time we sent her a letter. We allowed the other investors to touch her several times and our letter sent at the right time so it seemed like it was the 5th or 6th touch, but this was our first time marketing to her. I like cluster marketing because the postcards are cheaper and reaches a different group of individuals who may respond to those verses a professional or yellow letter.

I think split testing the various methods in your market is critical. I know in my market that cluster marketing works very well. I actually noticed a significant decrease in response rate by sending the same type of marketing piece month-after-month. The only list I mailed that didn't decrease a lot in response was the seniors' list. My other lists maintained their response rate, although it wasn't as high as my seniors' list. One downside I noticed with option one is that people may become numb to your message and know it's you mailing them as soon as they see your envelope. At the very least, I would change up the envelope style and color every mailing even though your internal message or mail piece format doesn't change.

@Isiee Koch I had an issue with my ads being yanked when I posted a few mobile homes for sale. I would create another account using a different email and change the verbiage of your ad. See what happens then. I don't think it's time to go in panic-mode...yet!

@Account Closed I'm glad to help. You shouldn't have any issue with using your address on this batch. However, I would advise you to increase your volume. I thought I was making a lot of progress by getting the drive for dollar leads and then mailing them because I was doing A LOT of work. But all of the work I did was misplaced energy because I wasn't focused on volume. I would really considering setting aside some funds for a list and marketing. Your time is much better suited fielding calls from your bulk marketing efforts rather than driving around and locating distressed properties.

I say this because I've been in your situation before. Once you locate the home, you need to do your due diligence to ensure the property has equity, the owner is alive, etc. Then you need to locate the owner's current address, then write and send the letter off. This is a lot of work for one property owner that may not even call you back. So imagine, you'll need to do this for at least 500 homeowners in order to generate a meaningful response. You're doing the right thing by getting started, but I don't want you wasting your valuable time when you can be speaking to motivated sellers now rather than 6 months from now.

@Stuart Thomas Unfortunately, there is no free source for getting numbers. Just think, if anybody could look up your contact information on a website without being pre-vetted, would you feel comfortable with that? I certainly wouldn't be! To get access to reliable phone numbers, you're going to need to prove to the data vendors that you're a reputable company and responsible with sensitive data.

Alternatively, you can use a service that can get you the numbers you need. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

@Account Closed I always put a return address on my mailers and send my batches via first class. I need to know how many leads on my list have incorrect addresses, and the only way to know this is to get the bad ones returned to me. I used my home address for a while when I got started, but this isn't advisable. If you can, open up a PO Box with street addressing so it'll look like a normal address.

If you don't have a PO Box, just use your home address. You're only going to be sending this to a handful of leads since this is a driving for dollars list. No need to wait to send the letters out and delay taking action. I would just work on getting a non-residential mailing address in the near future so you won't have any crazy people showing up to your doorstep!

@Account Closed I highly doubt that an attorney will give you this information unless you received the probate leads from the attorney. You really want to find out who the next-of-kin is and give them a phone call or send them a letter. If you can't find out who the administrator is, then try and contact their spouse if they had one. You need to use a skip tracer or service online to locate their address if you're not having luck with public records.

PR in this instance likely means Personal Representative. Essentially, this is the same thing as an administrator of the estate. 

@Jonathan C. I mainly market to SFRs; however, I did inadvertently generate several apartment complex leads when I marketed to the tax delinquent list in my area last year. I wouldn't say that this is the best list to generate these deals, but it definitely is a start and you won't have be bidding on properties that are listed on Loopnet. Just a thought, and I hope someone with more experience can chime in to help you out.