I was told to hand write the address on the postcards that I am sending to people on the NOD list. This way it doesn’t look like it was mass produced. But if I am sending to 50 people, then handwriting is taking up much time.
Will typing/ printing out the address work as well or is it less effective?
Joseph
Howdy Joseph:
The NOD’s get 10 to 20 letters. Make yours stand out. Hand written is better. Only 50 You should be able to send out that many in a few hours. Get some help if you need. Maybe some labels for the return address. REO had the idea of putting tissues in the envelope to make it look interesting. Then he writes something like here are some tissues for you tears because you are about to lose your home? Something like that?
Thanks for the reply.
Okay well let me do that math here. Say at 50 post cards at .37cents X 2 twice a week X 12 weeks…that is alot of money.
Plus each week there is a new NOD list. So by the second week I am sending about 200 cards. The 3rd week 300 and so on?
Does that seem right? The information I have says to mail the NOD list folks twice a week until they get on the TS list. In California it takes 12weeks or 3 months before they get on the TS list.
Is twice really effective or should I just send it once a week?
Joseph
If you are sending postcards then you should pay the postcard rate. I think that is .23 currently. Check the post office. However, I know post cards are less than the standard 1st class .37. That should save you some money. 
And don’t think of it as costing too much, think of it as marketing which is an investment.
So let’s do the math: 50 postcards x twice a week x 12 weeks x $.23 = $276. Let’s suppose that you do one deal out of the 50. How much would you make on one deal? $5000, $10000?
$276 vs $5000. Do you think it is worth it? ;D
total for 12wks: $1794 and would have sent post cards to 600 people. Don’t forget I didn’t include the price for post cards.
Is the above logic correct?
When should I ask myself if I am doing something wrong? If I don’t get any deals by the 4th week should I rethink my strategy or keep sending post cards to the NOD people?
thanks for all your reply,
Joseph
Joseph,
OK, you spend $1794 over 12 weeks. You will have sent 3900 postcards. Assume that you get an overall response rate of 1% = 39 people call you about their house. Out of the 39, say that you buy 10%, or 4 houses, which you just wholesale for $5000 each profit. $20,000 profit for $1794 investment. Sounds ok to me.
Now, from your post I infer that you don’t think you can meet the above ratios, that you will send out 3900 postcards and not do even 1 deal. What makes you think that? Just one deal will get you $5000 which is almost 3 times your advertising investment.
If you have the money, budget at least for 6 months, should be about $5000. Make sure to follow up on all of the calls, even if they say no the first time. Keep in touch, track their progress.
Meanwhile, start lining up some money if you can. Talk to hard money lenders, small banks, friends, other private money.
If after six months you haven’t gotten any response, then stop advertising and figure out another way. If you have gotten responses but no deals, find another veteran investor to share your responses with in return for teaching you how to close the deals.
That’s what I would do.
Thanks Idrews!
Your read my mind correctly as I don’t think I’d get any response. I’ll try to keep sending them out and will let the forum know of my progress. I’ve only sent out 2 sets.
Joseph