All Forum Posts by: Chrissy Parsons

I wouldn't use the term "vacant home" on any mail piece - and especially not "your vacant home". Standard protocol on direct mail etiquette is to never say anything about how you got their name or chose to mail to them.

 For example Never say "your children would enjoy..." - rather "Families with children enjoy...."

Be aware that people get creeped out if you sound like you know too much about them. Maybe their parent is in rehab and everyone hopes they will make it home. They don't want their house called "vacant".

You should instead talk about how selling a home can free up time and resources on maintaining a home. You want to buy homes in their area regardless of condition - they won't have to fix it up and find a broker.

This sounds like a great way to start. Depending on your marketing budget, you might consider doing a direct mail campaign. You can select your are, the house criteria and mix some different types of owners. Perhaps looking at both Absentee and Seniors with 20+ year ownership.

Where did you get your leads list? Are you working with a list broker?

You might consider working with a list broker to pull a list. They can help target by area, home value and other criteria to get a list of owners with property that you would want to buy. Direct mail campaigns can be quite effective in finding sellers

@Andrew Bosworth, I agree with @Laura Alamery that you can build a list with criteria that is common for motivated sellers.

There are about 1600 absentee owners with property in Dauphin County, PA:

.  single and multifamily homes

.  home value $50-250,000

. LTV 0-59% (at least 41% equity)

 .  Individual owned (not company) 

This could be a starting point for discussions with a list broker.

@Stuart Swift  Not sure if you have thought of a mail campaign to find off market leads. There are over 7,000 owners with multi-family (2-4 unit) homes in Cincinnati. About 3,000 are non-owner occupied and owned by an individual.