Has anyone worked with Equity leads? Had any success?
Found a website selling them for $.39 a lead.
How do they find these leads?
Try “listsource.com” Click on 'Build List" and then start defining your list. You can sift for loan balances, equity, location, etc. Not cheap, but better filtering than your source, I’m betting.
Thanks 
So 955 leads in my hometown with 50-100% equity costs about $155 or $.16/lead.
Doesn’t sound too bad. But now the question is, is it worth buying and sending them yellow letters asking if they’re interested in selling for cash?
Unless you’ve got a way to sift for motivated sellers, I think you’ve got the best list possible. Otherwise, if $155 is too big a risk, direct marketing won’t be a good fit for you. Just saying.
It’s not too big a risk but I am definitely being conservative with my marketing budget b/c I’m starting out and want the most bang for my buck.
Do you recommend any specific marketing piece to this target group, rather than yellow letters?
I think it’s wise to be careful with your money… But like I said, unless or until, you can sift out the unmotivated sellers on your list, you use what you have. It’s wiser not to gauge true response rates until 90 days have passed, not a week and a half, and give up. You should split test your mail pieces at the get go simply by changing one element in each piece, so after 90 days you can see which pulls better. And then you continue split testing until you retire, or Moses comes back, whichever occurs first.
We depend on postcards mostly. They’re impossible not to read. They require no opening, and if our message is correctly expressed, the exact prospect will resonate with our offer. Envelopes? Not so much.
Even if we’re sending card size envelopes with a handwritten address and a flower stamp and our return address is written on the back in purple ink, like it was a wedding invitation… it requires more steps to get read.
And then it has to be ‘read’. And then we’ve written the letter in cutesy handwriting that is obviously faked off a copy machine, with a nice yellow, lined paper, which at first glance, all looks suspiciously like a high school student’s “Dear John Letter.” Any letter I’ve received on lined paper contained bad news. Just saying.
OK, I’m painting a bad picture. So what’s the alternative?
Stay with postcards, but do whatever works better, regardless of my opinion. Split test with postcards and card-sized envelopes and gauge for yourself.
Changing gears…
I think something that surprises a lot of newbies is the fact that mailing is not a one-off effort. These folks mistakenly believe that they should have an instant, critical mass of responses. That’s rarely true unless they’re over-promising results.
Meantime, we have to continue mailing on the last Friday, or Saturday, of every month like clockwork. Gradually the response rate grows. Why? Because we’re catching prospects eventually as they ripen; we’re becoming a familiar, credible, if not a friendly presence; our message finally resonates with a particular prospect and we become the first company/person they feel compelled to call (for a specific reason).
Another small thing we recommend is aging the mail pieces so that the prospects begin to notice how long they’ve received mail from us. I think we learned this from Susan Lassiter Lyons.
As an aside, a little but of humor is good to include in our ad copy. It’s so different from the average real estate related marketer out there, who’s attempting to be serious and/or professional to the point they come off with the charm of a funerary service.
That said, silly is different from a joke and is different from an insult of the reader’s intelligence. Stating the obvious in a funny way is probably a good start. Use your imagination. What would make you laugh?
When seller’s call us, they often first mention that they called, because they remembered the humorous statement we wrote on the mail piece. So, we keep using it.
Regardless of what mail piece you use, make sure you have a striking benefit/headline; immediate call to action, and a clear contact number.
Now, you can still be professional, but frankly the “Private Investor” approach in our minds and experience is still the best approach when marketing to residential sellers. Residential sellers are scared of “professionals.” (Commercial sellers are not, and they don’t want to read a low-budget, mom and pop style card/envelope cutesy handwritten letters. Just saying).
So we don’t include company logos and slogans and any other tells that might give away that we’re systematically equity stripping the entire neighborhood.
Instead, we’re just Jay and Jim (my actual business partner’s name) and we’re buying houses in your neighborhood, and if you’re interested in unloading that eyesore on 5th Street, we are ready to save your eyesight today. You can reach us at (cell number) 24/7.
When prospecting for sellers we use no websites or email addresses. We want the prospects that will overcome their resistance to calling us, because that helps sift out the unmotivated.
That is NOT what you hear from the average guru out there. But our time is actually valuable, and sellers will call the next guy who offers to buy houses, if we fail to make ourselves easily available on the phone.
This has turned into a novel, because it’s hot outside, and I don’t have any appointments scheduled.
:biggrin
I hope that gives you some idea(s) of which direction you can go.
:beer