All Forum Posts by: Shane Foster

If you are taking the calls yourself it's always best to do no more than 500 per a week. You will get around 25-75 phone calls (depending on your list and area). That will be pretty manageable. I would look into using patlive to field the calls. 

BTW, Folding, stuffing, and putting the stamps on are the hardest part. At best you will be able to do 150 per an hour. 

As for performance. We get 12% response rate with this letter (depending on this list- I find probate pulls the best).

On average of 1000 letters we get 60-125 phone calls (depends on the list). On average 25-35% of them truly want to sell. And from that we make an offer on 30-50% of them (75*.35)=  26 actual leads.  12-17 Offers from that bunch. We close about 1 in 22 offers. 

 Finally!!! You hit the nail on the noggin. 

Direct mail is a competitive beast. Why? Because it's the easiest lead generation method out there. The ones who have dismal results all have something in common. They either did a terrible job acquiring their list (absentee owners are getting multiple direct mail pieces a day from investors) or they tried being a copywriter and wrote a terrible message. 

The best thing to do for direct mail is create a budget and a plan. Stay consistent on the system (IE first monday of every month we send out last month's probate, then 6 weeks later we send out another direct mail piece to the same list). I like to hit the same list every 6 weeks and rotate the marketing piece. The money is always in the follow up. Do not alienate tire kickers. They let you know your mail is working.

Here are the list we work

Ultimate Motivated Seller List:

1. Probate- get from county or state (just google what court handles these cases and call to find out)

2. Evictions

3. 2 or more years late on taxes, then run it through my software to find the vacants. Find who handles your the taxes and then file a Right To Know (if applicable)

4 60, 90 days late on mortgage

5. Notice of default (foreclosure).. constantly stay in their ear , from start to finish.

6. discharged/dismissed bankruptcy cases (get from pacer)

7.Tax lien sale- published in legal news papers when auctions come up

8. Divorce- get from court

9. 25+ years owned or more for owner occupants with equity (list-source)

10. Code Violations

11. Vacant properties (drive for dollars)

12. absentee owners 3-5 years owned (most landlords sale after the first 2 years, and with prices climbing its a perfect list)

13. inherited properties: some states do not require heirs to go through probate if the will was recorded prior to death. these properties are sold through under a special deed

14. Expired listings. 

You can skip trace them to make sure the address is correct. You can also call them if their number is listed (and on the do not call list).

Search skip trace, I just posted about it last night with another investor.

Here is the letter I send on the first go around

I would not mail them out all at once. The worst thing you can do is let leads sit around. I would mail 500 every two weeks. You will  most likely get roughly 25-50 phone calls per a drop. You will be surprised on how many people just do not answer the phone, return calls, and even follow up. It's like 90% of every wholesaler shows up for the series, goes 3 and out and then they walk off the field and quit. 

If you have the money you can set up callfire.com to track your calls. Or just create a master file in excel and highlight who called you.

As for the YL, stick to the normal letter (attached the photo). You want phone calls (they let's you know people are getting your mail, opening it, and reading it). 

The best advice I can give newbies is create a budget. Find 3 different mailing list (vacants, probate, evictions, etc) and mail them consistently. I mail the same list every 6 weeks 6 times. Over all just stay CONSISTENT. 

Good Luck,

Shane

These guys are really good to. I have a few clients you use them and are great. http://liveanswer.com

Congrats on noticing this is a fatal flaw, 75% of people do not leave VM. The best and most reliable is patlive. They are experienced in handling real estate calls. Depending on your package it's like 1.15-1.25 per minute. 

your time and effort can be used else where. You need to put yourself in front of people who need your service. Nobody gives a hoot about "10 ways to close quick". You need to focus on targeted traffic (people searching for help). Social media is great if your product can be offered to the general public, but last I checked you can not target "people who need to sell fast" on facebook 

Hi Ron,

Yes sir. That is not a problem.

If you need anything else, please let me know.

Thanks,

Shane