Post Cards/ Direct Marketing

General Real Estate Investing
1

Members:

I need some help. I am new to REI and am looking for advice and opinions on marketing. Any help is greatly appreciated.

  1. Postcards or letters? Which has worked better? Or should I combo them? Or should I not even waste my time and money? My budget is limited.

  2. Should I wait until the house has an auction date set (21 days before the actual auction here in Ohio) to mail something or should I mail something at first notice of default?

I am looking to focus on the pre-foreclosure market to combo it with short-sales and wholesaling the deals out or rehabbing/retailing them myself.

If any of these questions sound silly please forgive me as I am still wet behind the ears when it comes to creative real estate and absorbing any information I can get.

Thanks,
Mark

2

If I was new with a limited budget there’s no way I’d get involved in the pre-foreclosure market. a) it’s saturated and b) it’s complicated. Not exactly a recipe for quick success.

As far as marketing is concerned. I get 3 - 4 times the response with postcards over letters. But if you don’t have several thousand dollars to spend on marketing before getting your first deal, then I would recommend picking up the phone and calling sellers. It’s free, it’s good practice, and I get a much higher response rate than any other marketing.

i.e. if I send out 1,000 postcards I expect at least 100 calls. But if I call 1,000 sellers I expect to speak to–and thus get my message through the clutter–at least 700 - 800 (the others never answer their phone). Considering my conversion rate is the same whether they call me or I call them, the higher contact of telephone prospecting means more deals. The drawback is that phoning takes more time and guts.

The key to a good phone prospecting campaign is a very brief script that gets right to the point. I found the scripts commonly floating around the forums and courses don’t work, sellers get irritated because they’re so long-winded and ask so many questions. And they’re a waste of time from the investor’s perspective too because you can spend 30 or 40 minutes talking to one person before finding out that they have no interest in what you’re offering anyway.

I’ve cut mine down to 3 questions that work for my niche (which is lease/options):

  1. Are you the owner?
  2. Are you willing to rent to own?
  3. When do you want to sign?

There’s no need to ask about room sizes and the color of the curtains, all that will be discovered with a quick in person visit.

3

Doug,

Can you expand on what kind of message you’re using
with your postcard campaign?

I am not asking for an exact wording, just what your ideal
approach is. Is it personal card asking similar questions as
per phone script or something more official (company look),
is it fancy card or very simple with no pictures, graphics?

Thanks in advance,

Thomas

4

Thomas, absolutely… simple and direct. If you can pick a single highly qualifying question for your particular investment niche, print that on your postcard. Whatever you do RESIST the urge to add too much to your postcard.

I like using bright yellow cardstock with black printing. It’s cheap and it stands out.

5

Any problems with Do-Not-Call lists? I have a list of out-of-state owners…am I in jeopardy by contacting them?

6

I’m in Canada so we have different telemarketing laws. However, from what I understand about your federal DNC is that it only applies if you are trying to SELL something.

I wouldn’t use telemarketing for finding buyers, but for sellers you should be fine.