All Forum Posts by: Troy Lilly

Any "Listsource" list is a good idea in concept for a list, but because of overuse, it has oversaturated the market place. I focus on Probate lists and Absentee Code Violation Lists. Check my last post in the forums to see the importance in focusing differently.

@Jill DeWit

While I do like that direct approach, I do think you get less bang for your buck, compared to mailing better lists that are more pre-qualified. Multiple ways to skin a cat, especially in a market with such abundance, such as real estate.

@Jill DeWit

If you're not just soliciting a product you plan on bringing to the market place, do you care to elaborate? It sounds like an interesting thing!

Also would like some input to carry the conversation out with what you think of the topic on lists and leads and direct mailing different leads!

@Account Closed

Monthly, the way that I qualify my leads as inheriting or already inherited property, I only pull 300-500 per month. It's only worth it to pull it monthly. So on September 1st I get all of july's leads, and on October 1st I get all of augusts leads. It gives a buffer time to make sure the list is perfect. It takes around 70hours for a va to put the list together correctly. 

@Ray Lai

I see what you're saying, but perhaps what I said was either misworded or misinterpreted. 

2 campaigns for me equals 10 mailings. 5 mailings each campaign. Each mailing costs me about $500. $5000 in total. Of that $5000 spent I am about to land an 8th deal. The numbers aren't round in reality, some mailings costed a bit more, some a bit less. 

No one said my list is cheap either, just cheaper than competition. I haven't really sold my list as a practice, just from popular demand in my market place, and that lead me to wanting to sell me list for a fair price, yet making it worth it for me by easily funding campaigns.

I think you're coming from a lot of investors point of view, but on this list there are an abundance of deals to be made, and like I have mentioned, for some reason some marketing lands different deals. While it may increase the competition, it hasn't affected me getting leads or converting. In my hypothetical example comparing to listsource, I believe these leads have way more people wanting to sell soon. I could never land even 100 from a list of 1000, and at least 100 are probably selling in some way.

In conclusion, selling my list at a fair but worthy price, allows me to fund campaigns for virtually free now but not get deals "stolen" from me (I don't worry for deals being stolen, I was taught by a good mentor about the abundance of deals in any marketplace). The investors that buy my list, absolutely love it. All investors Dont direct mail either, I have one guy I sell to who aggressively cold calls and door knocks, he reaches deals I may not have ever gotten close to getting a response from. And of course more motivated sellers have More options and higher chance of being found in a time of dire need, which is why we are here anyway, right? To provide value. I think it's glass half-full vs glass half empty. You may see a lose-lose, but I can only see a small potential loss, and an even greater consecutive win.

Another note, I birrddogged and co-wholesales for 2.5 years prior to my 2 campaigns that I worked alone on. So I have been in some way practicing lead conversion and finding the best leads for awhile. Since I was taught the list is the most important part of a campaign, I spent more than a hundred hours finding code violations and personally digging through probates, asking lawyers, and finding out each case type/each documents meaning. During networking events instead of mooching, I was always (in my low experience) able to provide a ton of value talking to others because of this knowledge. It built a buyers list and credibility. Both wholesalers and flippers were telling me to send leads there way after talking about the leads that I market to, and even asked to buy the list in he past. 

@Justin Silverio

Great comment and perspective! My main thing is I would be similar but sell to 4 other investors and market it myself to make 5. My experience with these quality of leads is that there is more to go around than the usual list. There is no shortage of deals. Having people fund my campaign will eliminate my worries to fund a campaign, and I will still land at least 1 deal from each list per month. Currently in Houston, I do sell the list to 2 others, and I haven't noticed a decline of response or conversion. They've landed deals outside my response. It's interesting and I wish I understood the science of certain sellers responses to certain pieces of mail. In conclusion, if 80% of these people had true motivation, mailing them 7 times, I'd still only connect on max 14-21, and there's way more meat on Thebes's bone out there. It's worth giving up the risk of maybe losing out on 1 deal in the long run. Plus it's my 1 way to add extra value to the investor market place!

Thanks again for the comment!

@Account Closed

I pull monthly, and I scrub while pulling the new leads. More importantly I filter the leads that I pull. I try to get vacant and inherited properties, and if I can get out of state, all the better!

@Shawn C. 

PM me if you'd like to see a sample of what I am working with in Houston. It'd be awesome to see what you think of the list and it's potential in Austin. Austin is my next move for my brother and I with both wholesaling/flipping and working in the market place, and we already have our favorite Houston lists, Vacants (scrubbed code violations) and Scrubbed probates underway in Austin. Currently just increasing quality of leads and I will be finished with that next week!

@Shawn C.

I totally agree with all your points!

That's what I left out of my post. My current conversion rate is $650 spent in marketing lands me 1 conversion. That is from 2 campaigns, so it is a smaller sample pool. 

But what I have learned, and I can attest to is that response rate isn't nearly a good of measure as conversion rate for a campaign. 

With that being said, in list of importance, in my opinion, is the list you are mailing, the number of times you hit the target with a brand, and then the piece you hit them with (as long as you have a brand to market with).

Thanks for the Three Cents worth! Lol. Great point made, thanks for continuing this potentially knowledgeable discussion!

@Andrew Allen

You beat me to it man! I've already thought that one out, I would only sell to 4 investors in the market place to keep competition low. I'd find 4 investors that I deem trustworthy. 

As to answer my personal gain? In my experience in the Houston market, There is such an abundance of deals with these leads that I'm still connecting while sharing the leads. Think about a list of 1,000... if the hypothetical 800 are motivated to sell, I would never connect on all of them! I may as well leverage my campaign by selling the lists and using the money from the list to fund my campaign! this way 5 trustworthy people tackle the same list, we would even know our competition in some cases!