All Forum Posts by: Ethan Summers

Most real estate investors and realtors fear the hang up or are not able to locate correct phone numbers for the sellers they are looking for. This leads to them paying crazy amounts of money in direct mail just to get a deal. When i first started investing in real estate this was a huge problem dumping money into direct mail and not seeing a great return on my investment. That’s when my business partner and I began skip tracing phone numbers manually for potential sellers that were on our direct mail list and calling them directly. I then set followup sequences inside of my CRM which notifies me when it's time to give a cold lead a ring again.I've seen my response rate go from a 1-2% with direct mail alone, to around a 4-7% increase when i added cold calling.The beautiful thing is this entire process is now outsourced and it makes my business more profitable and gives me more time during the day. Are you ringing potential sellers directly? Though it can be time consuming it works wonders. Feel free to comment and tell any crazy cold call stories I tend to get a good laugh out of them. Also any questions you may have i’d love to help where I can. 

@Oscar Freiman I have to agree with @Sherman Ragland !! Have you considered farming the phone numbers on your list with skip trace tools and dialing potential sellers directly? Within my company we touch every lead a minimum of 7 times sometimes we contact up to 12 times. I have started using this technique and it has helped my direct mail gain recognition and also i have found motivated sellers through my skip tracing and cold calling efforts. What has work for me in the past is just picking a few target zip codes pulling how many cash sales are in that area then deciding if It would be a good area for me to farm numbers and start calling around to gauge motivation! I then set followup sequences inside of my CRM which notifies me when its time to give a cold lead a ring again.Ive seen my response rate go from a 1-2% to around a 4-7% increase when i added cold calling! I hope this helps you out if you have any questions feel free to message me! 

@Ryan York I have created caller scripts but I encourage my cold callers to use the script as a guide but actually have a real conversation about the property with the seller. They have certain things i have listed that are really important info to gather from the seller as long as I have that info im good to go check out the property! Hope this helps! 

@Ryan York I have found it to be easy to hire a few callers and have them work under your supervision! I have multiple skip tracing tools but the one that is most effective is TLO, It cost $255 a month. I have up to 3600 searches within a 12 month span. We've have the most success from "high equity absentee". Yes i inform them i have mailed them in the past about their property! I usually let them know that i use public databases and have tools that help me locate phone numbers Im trying to make money I have nothing to hide lol!!! 

@Derrell Barton thats great i hope it goes well for you if you have any questions feel free to message me ! 

@Ryan York Im a firm believer that direct mail alone without a HUGE budget.Will not get the job done. Have you considered farming the phone numbers on your list with skip trace tools and dialing potential sellers directly? I have started using this technique and it has helped my direct mail gain recognition and also i have found motivated sellers through my skip tracing and cold calling efforts. What has work for me in the past is just picking a few target zip codes pulling how many cash sales are in that area then deciding if It would be a good area for me to farm numbers and start calling around to gauge motivation! Ive seen my response rate go from a 1-2% response rate to around a 4-7% increase when i added cold calling! I hope this helps you out if you have any questions feel free to message me! 

@Jorge Borjas we currently use "TLO" among other services, but we have our own database we've built over two years. 

@James Syed have you ever put thought into farming phone numbers using skip tracing tools and launching a cold call campaign along with your direct mail? This way you can contact some folks in your target market directly instead of just waiting for the phone to ring from your direct mail. Ive added cold calling to my direct mail efforts and have seen up to a 7% increase in my response rate. Which is wonderful because the response rate for direct mail alone sits around 1-2%.Hope this helps! Feel free to message me if you have any questions on what running one of these campaigns would look like!

@Pratik P.No problem at all how accurate are your searches? Our numbers are usually 85-90% success rate! I started skip tracing my entire list to gauge  motivation before i mail sometimes im able to find the motivated sellers that way instead of spending thousands on direct mail consistently.

@Nic A. Congrats on your first 3 transactions!! There are many ways to generate leads, one of my favorites is targeting a specific area i do this buy targeting specific zip codes. Once ive found a zip code I would like to saturate with marketing I do a google drive for dollars and just use google maps as a tool to walk up and down streets i may be interested in purchasing property. I put all of the properties addresses i have interest into an excel doc. Following this step i check the local tax accessor site to pull the deeds and find the names of the property owners on the deed. After I have a healthy list of properties and the property owners on my excel list I use skip tracing tool to locate sellers phone numbers. After adding the phone numbers to my list I cold call all my leads to see if they have ever considered selling. Following this cold call campaign i may send out direct mail pieces to my list as well,as i see fit! Cold calling in conjunction with direct mail have to led to countless deals for me. I will warn you that nationwide direct mail receives about a 1-2% response rate so adding cold calling with your mailing efforts is imperative if you ask me! I truly hopes this helps you and wish you the best! If you have any specific questions feel free to message me.