I’m mailing letters to people in foreclosure but is there a better way to contact these people.
Thanks
Visit or call them.
Yes… the questions you are asking have simple answers. How can you mail letters for cheaper? What do you mean? Postage is 39 cents and a letter is practically free if you print it yourself. Plus maybe a couple cents an envelope and you have less than 45 cents per letter invested. I see no way of getting that cheaper, except for maybe bulk mail rates, but even those are hardly worth it mailing to foreclosures as you just don’t mail enough.
A better way to contact them than mail? Well there really are only 3 ways to contact someone, mail them, knock on their door, or call them. What else could there be?
Chase
why would you go knock on people’s door? i know the so-called experts find it’s a great idea, but c’mon STRING THEORY. get them to come to you. put up some signs, mail, use google adwords, etc.
Why? Because signs, mailings, and google adwords all cost money. Doorknocking is free. Also by door knocking you can really hone in on the good deals. Research the top 10% of the properties on your list and only knock on those doors. It definitely works.
Door knocking is the best way to get deals. Hands down. It’s easy for someone to throw out a mailing or hang up the phone. It’s also easy to shut the door, just for arguments sake, but if you are a good salesperson, you can hammer deals out face to face much easier than any other way. If your not a good salesperson, you’d better learn. You just need to know how to approach people.
What you are asking is more of a marketing question. I would also check out the marketing thread on this board.
As to marketing to those that are facing foreclosure, there are several methods, and to be honest they have been discussed at length on the marketing board.
Here is my quick recap
- Direct Mail
Both Postcards and letters work here and by far is the most cost effective way to reach people. The key here is multiple mailings. In anything you do, there must be 7 times to memory. If I say something 7 times during a speech, that is when most listening will actually remember the concept. So repeat the mailings. So, let’s just look over cost for mailing. Let’s say you did postcards, postage .24 for a postcard. Printing of postcards is cheap from a site like Overnight Prints or such, you can get 2000 postcards for 279 adding in shipping estimate that comes to about .15/card. So you can do one mailing to one potential seller for .39. That would mean that 7 total mailings to one potential seller would cost you, hold on to your hat… 2.71.
How is that for being cost effective?
- Door knocking
This requires your time. So calculate how much your time is worth for driving to the property just to knock on a door even if someone is not home. Calculate gas costs, etc.
Now I agree, that I can get sellers to sign more often if I am there, but if they call me, I can schedule an appt for then they are actually home
- Classified ads
Not a bad investment in a paper, but it requires the homeowner to actually get that paper and look into the classified. Now of course, if they are looking in the classifieds they are for sure motivated to sell.
- Bandit Signs and Public Marketing
Homevestors has this marketing down. You can do the same, is it cost effective, not as much as Direct Mail. Why? It isn’t targeted directly to those in foreclosure.
I hope that helped.
You can vist or call besides mailing letters. I heard someone doing a seminar and advertising it in the newspaper. Lots of people in foreclosure. They put it in the Pennysaver where people get it at their house for free.
Just getting started in the pre-foreclosures. I am a realtor in OK and would like to know some ideas on letter or postcard
samples.
Thanks
hi ,
I’m a new! question how does step by step foreclosure works, till you own your property
I agree with the ideas above. I personally use the direct marketing and I send them something 3 times a week. Sadly though, Texas has 20 days window and I tend to get most of the calls a day or two before closing.
I mailed this month to 225 people, got about 10 calls from interested sellers, negotiated 3 short sales, 2 fell through due to the timing, and one I am waiting on a reply from the lender to see what went on. 10% of the mail came back. Total marketing cost was about $1500 including paying someone to do the mailings for me.
Another idea I am considering is hiring a bird dog to knock on the doors for me and I would pay him $500 on each house I retail and $250/wholesale.
Honestly that is a very basic question that you can find the answer for in a book or a post.
- Basically the home owner defaults on a loan
- Lender sends notices of default to the home owner
- If home owner does not pay the back payments, then the lender files for foreclosure
- if by foreclosure date the back payments and fees were not paid, the house is sold on court steps or taken back as an REO
You can buy the house directly from the seller before foreclosure. You will need the finances to either bring the loan current and take over payments, get a loan and pay it off, or pay it cash.
You can buy the house at the court steps. You will need cash or funds readily available. This is not for beginners
You can buy the house from the lender directly or through MLS listing. At least in my town, REOs goes for much higher than I care to pay for the home.