Second wholesaling mailer

Bird Dogs, Wholesaling
1

My first mailer was 1,500 letters. It yielded nothing. What could I have done differently? I’m not sure except for the one call where I just woke up and was groggy and she didn’t think I was serious because she thought I should already know her address because it was on the letter.

Second time around:
I’m going with 6" x 9" postcards. They will be in color and I’m getting them through a service that has their own bulk mailing permit so I won’t have to use mine or spend any time at the post office.

I have a licensed realtor who wants to help me in her spare time that runs comps for me and will go see the houses and I will give her 6% commission? Is this lazy? Well I’m trying to prepare for when I’m sending out 30,000 postcards/month and physically can’t see them all.

Someone told me target this way:

  1. Out-of-state owners only (not just absentee)
  2. Built between 1949 - 1980
  3. 3+ bedrooms
  4. Assessed value under $150,000
  5. Send to city of Orlando only and ignore the rural spots and suburbs for now.

What do you think?

2

Why don’t you stick with suggested methods that are proven to work?
Simple personalized handwritten post cards. 8 1/2 by 11 card stock cut in 4ths with first class postage.
Or go with a proven service like yellowletter.com? The also do post cards.
You’r unwilling to drive neighborhoods, your unwilling to recruit bird dogs. Your unwilling to pass out brochures or door hangers, your unwilling to follow advice.
Your unwilling to put in the time, work and effort. Are you reading any books on salesmanship and motivation?

Young and dumb, I was there once, now I’m old and chewed, but I know how to get shit done, and listen and follow directions of more experienced investors.
Let us know when your ready to listen and learn and get serious.
I’ll be in my cave, it’s getting cold here.

3

Here’s what you should do:

  1. Send me your absentee owner list with 1,000 names/addresses in an area of Orlando you want to work in

  2. Send me $1000

  3. Be prepared to receive so many calls you can’t handle them all.

Youre just spinning your wheels with everything t else.

4

Okay and how would you do that?

With that yellow letter you said you were going to show me?

The postcards I get are cheaper than the ones on yellowletters.com

5

I’ve mailed out over 1,000 post cards this month from my bird dogs with only a few calls from sellers wanting full price even though the houses were older and they needed a lot of work. It does get frustrating, but when that one money call comes in it makes it all worthwhile. And sometimes I get calls on letters or post cards I sent out over 2 years ago, some of these homeowners will hold on to it.
I also know that buying and selling Real Estate always seems to slow down in the cold winter months here in California. But I did do a few deals last winter, so I keep at it.
Persistence, focus, & optimism seems to work for me.
Let’s make some Money…
rando

6

I just don’t want to run out of marketing money before I get one

7

Issue: You sent 1,500 mail pieces, and weren’t prepared for the one response rate you received.

Issue: Response rates are different from conversion rates.
Response rates means nothing, until you experience a conversion.

Issues: You don’t need larger postcards.

  • You need better lists, which may include better sifting criteria. Otherwise, mail pieces are not designed to convert a prospect, but simply to announce what you offer.
  • Suspects are either motivated, or they aren’t, when they read your postcard. Your job then is to catch him as they ripen, not attempt to ripen them.
  • Never mind, you’re not the only one prospecting absentee owners in the City of Orlando, so you must spend the extra money becoming familiar to your audience.

NOTE: This is good reason to plow your profits back into marketing, and not eat your marketing money.

Issues: Don’t limit your demographic range at the start.

  • You can’t afford to sift out houses that don’t fit into that 40-year window. (Really old houses are by nature the best rehab/flip candidates.)
  • You can’t afford to sift out the ‘dingbats’ (1 bed houses). (The pros know how to force appreciation on these obsolete structures.)
  • You can’t afford to ignore rural areas. (That’s where the fewest investors are looking.)
  • You can’t afford to sift out local area absentee owners.

If you must, create unique mailing lists, and consider each as a niche of prospects. Continually mail and split test to each, until you discover which list produces the most conversions.

8

I can get postcards at $0.42/card and yellow letters at $0.48/letter.

Which should I use?

9

Put it this way, you’re not attempting to make someone thirsty, with a picture of an ice cold glass of “EZ Diabetes.”

Instead you’re simply letting people know you’re ready to buy their hell hole …for whatever reason.

People either want to sell, or they don’t at any given point in time. Since you’re not attempting to persuade someone to sell, but rather expressing ready-ness to buy, I would do what’s least expensive.

As an aside, you’ll find all sorts of people out their selling marketing sugar water, suggesting that you have to use their magic words to convert sellers into motivated sellers. I mean, they’ll tell you to treat sellers like morons, by giving them a reason to sell, that hadn’t occurred to them.

As a result, you start including a list of ‘suggest-sells’ like ‘getting divorced?’, ‘having a management headache?’ or ‘a death in the family?’ and any number of allegedly not-so-obvious motivations for selling in your ad copy. Pffft.

Sellers don’t convert from ad copy. They’ve already converted, and your postcard tells them that you’re ready, willing, and able to take advantage of that conversion.

Otherwise, can you imagine an unmotivated seller, suddenly becoming motivated to sell, just because he sees your card that mentions his ‘grandma’s death,’ his divorce, or perhaps his landlord problems? Pffft.

Just tell the prospect that you can buy for cash, and do it fast, and include something in the ad copy that catches the seller’s attention. I like humorous things, and I also like things that ‘age’ the mail pieces. For example, Merry Christmas in December, and Happy New Year in January, etc.

Prospects are more likely to keep the mail piece around. Then they might get an abatement letter from the city, and about the same time, the house becomes vandalized, and only THEN does the prospect become motivated to call YOU. And they call YOU, because they think they know you, because you’ve sent them a dozen cards, and made it clear what you can do, and how fast you can do it, and now wants your help.

Meantime, all you’ve done is send a series of fugly postcards with text that told him what you can do for him, and either made them laugh, or made him rethink about holding on to the house where Grandma has been laying on the floor for nine months.

FWIW.

10

What do you think about getting my lists from the property appraiser instead of from any other source, like Listsource.com?

11

Read this thread.
http://www.reiclub.com/forums/index.php/topic,62048.msg287300.html#msg287300

12

I’m not trying to argue with advice just for the heck of it, but what about Listsource’s lists make them better than the property appraisers?

I can filter using the same criteria.

13

I’m always right except when I’M WRONG.
I always tell the truth except when I lie.
I know everything except when I know nothing.
I’m always hard working except when I’m lazy.
I’m always rational except when I’m crazy.
I never ask too many redundant questions except on days that end in a y.
I never question experts proven advice except when I’m off my meds.

I’m going frikin insane here.
My fellow humans, ther is no helping this guy, he dont listen, he dont do anything you suggest, he questions your proven methods, he will drive you to co-habitate with me in my Northern Idaho cave, I got room

14

Do you pay over $1000 for 1,500 leads from Listsource?

Wouldn’t you like if there were another way?

I think Luke agreed with me at one point about using the property appraiser.

If I remember correctly, you said you weren’t even aware that you could get such a list from the property appraiser.

15

You’re listening to conflicting advice, and I consider myself second-guessed here, and in no mood to defend what I’ve advised. So, do what feels good to you. I’ve already explained what feels good to me.