David,
You said you have a answering machine that screens the calls from your signs. Mind sharing what the message says? I thought that most people would just hang up if they did not speak with a live person?!
Not an answering machine… A voicemail system… I’m a big proponent of web based voicemails… you can see how long the caller stayed on the line etc…
Which helps in the tracking, knowing if your message works…
I currently use ringcentral.com…
The voicemail message I use mostly… is currently on the number 214-764-4120…
You can download the message script at Banditsigns.com/voicemail…
It was originally created by Joe Kaiser… I modified it a little bit to my tastes…
I’ve got a few more working… but, not perfected…
I’m probably not as seasoned as most of the investors on this site, but I am willing to share my marketing results as I have tried many things including bandit signs, newspaper ads, billboards, online stuff, and direct mail. I have done 8 deals since I started REI and I have a 50/50 split between bandit signs and direct mail.
My thoughts on what hasn’t worked yet: Online stuff was too time intensive and becoming increasingly expensive, newspaper ads and billboards were not only very costly but seemed to only get other investors testing my wares. I think bandit signs are a must. I think direct mail is valuable if you can get the right mail company.
Fortunately, I have a friend who is a printer and gives me big break with the bandit signs and the direct mail company I work has been a big help too. I am sure my vendor selection has helped me a great deal, unfortunately, I have heard some horror stories from other investors about the quality of their vendors.
Daburner:
The key to this business is having several nets out their to capture motivated sellers. In terms of your direct mail, that is a great source of deals. There is a company called Emmatek that will give you a disc of every homeowner in your area and a software program to manage your mail campaigns. It is pretty cool because they will print our your letters in a mail-merge format and keep track of your mailings. I started using is about 6 month’s ago and it is like having a full-time assistant. Gone are the days of having the title company give you a ‘Farm Package’ of all the ‘absentee’ owners in your area. Then manually having to sort thru all of them and try to implement a mailing system. I have been testing a new system where I sent out 1000 letters to a group of ‘absentee’ owners and then two weeks later I sent another letter to that same group. "Hi it’s me Jeff again, I sent you a letter two weeks ago. I am still interested in purchasing your property from you, I can pay cash, close quickly, handle all repairs and will take the property with the existing tenants even if they are not paying rent! I also refer them to my website where they can get a free report on “How to sell their house in 7 day’s or less”. I have had great success with this campaign so far. I have also been printing their name on the outside of the envelope with no return address and a 37 cent stamp. It saves time and is working!
I would recommend you get some type of website for credibility. For example, if you are marketing pre-foreclosure, you can send them to your site for a free report to “Stop Foreclosure”. In order to get the report, they have to fill-out their information as well which you have routed to you by email…
So don’t get discouraged. It is good that you are split-testing. At least you are not throwing away your money!
By the way, you can check out the mailing system by www.emmatek.com. It is called “Fortune Maker”.
You can do a test-drive online. I highly recommend it. It has helped my business tremendously!
Best Regards,
Jeff Adam
Jeff,
Just curious, but what was your response rate to the 1000 absentee owners?
Julieann: 1-3% on the initial mail-out and even higher on the 2nd mailing. This depends on a lot of factors though such as the type of market, time of year, neighborhood I am mailing etc… I have one neighborhood that I mailed 1000 letters to and only 3 people responded. This was in an area with a super-high appreciating market that was getting ‘farmed’ by a lot of agents. The owners knew what they had and were not very motivated to work with me.
I have at times had a 4-5% response on the 2nd mailing. Typically, I can purchase at least one house with this two-step mailing campaign. Sometimes more. The key is how you follow-up and deliver your offer. I deliver mine using the “Justification Letter” format. Meaning I supply them with a breakdown of what their ‘actual’ cost will be to sell using a real-estate agent, including all the junk fees, rehab, etc… I also attach low comps to help support my offer.
Best Regards,
Jeff Adam
Thanks Jeff for your informed answer.
Hey JT
You have sparked quite a lively discussion here. I think you will find that people cant agree on thier favorite method of finding sellers. The idea of multiple sources or leads is also a very valid one.
However, no one has really addressed YOUR question about the easiest way to get STARTED in marketing. I have no preferences, but I believe you would be better served by starting out with bandit signs. Here’s Why:
Bandit Signs are easy - you put them up at busy intersections all over town where people can see them and then you field calls and make deals.
Direct Marketing is NOT hard but it has more component parts that you would be served to study before you bellyflopped into it. For your records Richard Roop has a pretty simple system that is already adapted for REI you can find it at RichardRoop.com. Now Roop got all his stuff from a guy named Dan Kennedy who is a tremendous all around business resource, but bills himself predominately as a copywriter. He is at DanKennedy.com. Now Dan Kennedy learned to write his sales copy from a guy named Gary Halbert (thegaryhalbertletter.com). So there you have it. All are worth studying and all (while being terribly flawed) have different talents that you would be smart to learn.
So to be explicitly clear, start with bandit signs because they are brain dead simple, do deals from those calls and studying copywriting in your sparetime. When you feel comfortable with writing an ad and have done at least one deal start up your Direct Mail arm and run it alongside the Bandit Sign operation.
Best of Luck,
Ryan
"The truth about bandit signs…
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