I have been sending direct mail to NOD’s and the results are disappointing to say the least. I was getting about .5% response, but the results are declining and conversion rates are proving unprofitable. What have other investors been sending and what are the response rates? I want to target the distressed properties before they are listed. I have tried yellow letters and they don’t seem to work for me.
How can I get more Bang for my Marketing Buck? :banghead
Thanks,
Dave
DM’ing NOD victims with ‘standard’ yellow letters and “foreclosure notice” postcards is a waste of time. Why? In no particular order, NOD victims…
— are on to the “help” offers (they’ve got our number, in more ways than one)
— are in perpetual denial about their situation; hope springs eternal
— banks are taking months, if not years, to pursue trustee sales anyway
— are behind for several years before an NOD filing, much less an NOTS filing.
— there’s a psychological threshold that many victims have crossed
that creates apathy, if not fatalism
— are waiting for cash for keys
— have again received so much junk mail offering loan mods,
short sale offers, credit repair, cash for keys, refinancing,
and what not, that your mail just represents one more scam offer.
So, the real solution? Rise above the competition. How you do this all depends on your ability to face risk. Here’s some ideas:
It’s way more complicated than this, of course, but the gist is taking more action than the foreclosure seminar suggests is necessary.
It’s nice to think that the seller just knows we want to ‘help,’ and will call us and be all proactive about getting real, and solving their problem. However, that rarely happens. If they were that proactive, they’d already, at least, be in negotiations on a short sale, if not a loan modification.
So, the solution is… get there early, knock on the door, and offer cash for keys …with a two-second expiration period.
OK, I don’t recommend this, nor have I ever done this, but it’s fun to mention…
One nameless investor developed a system of offering NOD victims short term loans. If they don’t qualify (which, of course, none do) he offers his short sale solution. The real objective then is to fill the pipeline with short sale prospects, not to make loans to iffy borrowers. His response rate is through the roof 100% of the time. He rises above the competition.
Though he’s quite successful, he never mentions foreclosure, or default, or anything negative to the prospects in his mail. He just makes a loan offer, like a so-called “pre-approved” credit card offer, and then sets out to nail down a short sale candidate.
That’s all I got for now.
Have you tried email marketing already? It may boost your percentages and may even get more prospects at hand as well and better results.