1,500 letters triple-folded. I have my bulk mailing permit, so I only pay around $0.30/stamp.
What if I get no calls?
Should I send to the exact same list next time? Should I send a new list once per month? How long should I wait?
Has this always turned a profit for anyone who’s done it?
All right Red star, it’s good to see your taking action. My first mailing I spent about 4 grand and made back 2 Grand, Luckily I didn’t give up and most of the time I double or triple my expenses. Back then I really didn’t know what a deal was and now I have better buyers and my negotiation skills have improved.
But if I got a bulk mail piece I probably wudnt open it.
Every direct mail instructions I’ve got tells to use first class stamps only.
this is not the place to go cheap, a piece of paper folded in thirds? why not a good looking post card to grab attention, or a nice envelope and yellow lined legal pads? I buy mine at Walmart for cheap.
Being cheap can cost you more than saving a few cents on postage and quality materials.
But you will eventually learn, hopefully before you give up.
Good job dude, you just might get some deals going.
rando
Gold River suggested I do it this way. I wonder what he thinks about this?
Hi,
Yes I recommended using a single sheet of yellow paper, folding in thirds and addressing it as bulk mail because redstar is on a budget and it was the most cost effective way to reach out to a wide audience.
I considered your Orlando market, the fact you are looking to operate in the affordable home market and the demographic of your market.
Had you wanted to get into a middle class or upscale market I would have suggested envelopes with a letter and still recommended you send them bulk mail as the rate is less than standard stamps!
GR
Will do.
Do you think I should send to this same 1,500 next time around? It is from Listsource.com
I am about to get every listing in the county from the property appraiser, which is more letters than I can afford to send.
Hi,
Remember you can get out on a Saturday morning and probable place a couple hundred of your letters with blue painters tape on doors in a neighborhood in 3 or 4 hours. If you did this Saturday and Sunday mornings every weekend you could put out another 1500+ per month for basically the cost of printing.
I would do a completely different market each time as we know your response rate to your letters is less than the number of letters!
Good luck,
GR
According to the post offices bulk mailing unit, in order to properly seal my letters, I need 1.5" “wafer seals,” which are basically round, clear, stickers.
I ordered some from an online catalog. In the meantime, what do you think of my letter?
Nothing sexy about it. Plain black type on plain white paper.
"To (owner)
My name is (my name). I am an investor wishing to purchase your house at (address).
I will buy your house in " as-is" condition and purchase in cash. I would like to buy your house as soon as possible.
Please get back to me if you wish to do business.
Sincerely,
(my name)
(my number)
(my email) "
And above the return address on the front says
“WE BUY HOUSES
$$$ - Get Cash Today - $$$”
Hi,
Why an online catalog? They are available at Office Max, Staples, Office Depot, etc. just 5 or 10 or 15 miles from your home!
Turn door key, sit down, start engine, put car in drive, vroom, vroom, right blinker, left blinker, stop sign, stop light, pull into parking lot, get out of car, go into office supply place, grab 1.5 inch wafer seals, walk back down isle to cash register, pay cashier, go back outside to car, open door, sit down, start car, back out of parking space, accelerate forward, vroom, vroom, right turn signal, left turn signal, yield for pedestrians, stop, forward, stop sign, accelerate, stop light, forward, get home, park, turn off ignition, get out of car with wafer seals, lock car, walk inside, sit down at table, seal envelopes!
That trip would take 20 to 35 minutes round trip and you would have sealed every envelope by bedtime!
There is nothing like procrastination! What’s more surprising is you telling us about it?
You don’t need to have their address on your letter, they will tell you their address if they call? You don’t have to have the owners name on your letter part, just on the addressed to part! Way to much labor / time to key all that info into a form letter.
Hi,
My name is Gold River and I help you solve problems!
I buy homes as is / all cash! I help you with any situation!
I want to buy your home at a fair price! Call Now for a no
risk evaluation of your home and circumstances!
I'm just a phone call away 123-456-7890 EST
I am available 24 hours a day 7 days a week!
Gold River
grrebuyer@gmail.com
I would get a second phone number on your cell phone! Google second cell phone lines, E Voice is one company that can place a second line on your cell phone!
GR
Staples didn’t have them in this quantity or for the same price.
I could switch to your letter, but I use mail merge anyway, so it doesn’t take up much time.
Don’t I have to go in reverse first to get out of the driveway?
And you forgot cranking up the Slim Shady on the way.
How do you find out if this technique is legal in your area? Call the County?
I’m getting ready to do another round of post cards. I found this company on line that will do them for 49 cents or 60 cents using first rate stamps. I’m done with doing them myself. After all the blank cards I ordered and Ink and paying my sister 10% to do them, this is actually much cheaper, what was I thinking?
Standard postage on 2500 post cards comes to $1,250 and first class is $1,500 That what I can do them for, plus paying 10% off the top? You Idiot.
Well, I’m going to give them a shot. They also have templates or you can use your own, and they have fonts that look hand written.
I need to take a class on Direct mail 101.
You can teach an old dog. yellowletters.com
Let’s make some Money…
Rando
The only thing I can offer is that bulk mail stamps are around $0.30/piece.
On 1,500 letters, that’s a savings of $255 than if you would have paid $0.47/piece.
Plus, you can buy a “stamp imprint” so that you can print something that says “Bulk Mail Permit #534” directly onto each piece, instead of having to stick on a stamp.
I think you could get more listing from the property appraiser/assessor rather than listsource.com. That’s what I’m going to do.
But then again, I still haven’t made a penny so what does it matter what I think.
I use yellowletters.com. The owner is a guy named Michael Quarles, listen to some of his stuff on YouTube. The guys a marketing genious. I’ve got a script he uses on sellers, it works like magic.
Yellowletters.com says $0.77/each.
Mine come to $0.52/each.
On 30,000 letters, that’s a difference of $7,500.
The only difference is that my paper is white and doesn’t have “faux” handwritten letters. Still not sure if that would result in more responses.
Also, I might be able to save more if I went to a print shop because I would get lower ink prices.
From what I’ve heard there is a better response rate with handwritten. Haven’t tried anything else so I don’t know. A friend of mine is doing so much mail that he bought a $100K printer that prints, folds, stuffs, and stamps.
Microsoft Word has handwritten fonts. I could try that next time.
I’m buying 5,000 sheets of plain white paper for about $55.
I haven’t even been able to find any sufficient quantity of yellow lined paper. Where do you get yours from and does it fit in a printer?
For font I used myscriptfont.com. It’s free and it uses your own handwriting.
The mailings that I do myself, I just used plain white printer paper. Then I use a normal #10 envelope, I don’t seal it. I tuck the flap inside the envelope.
Wal Mart sells this stuff: https://www.walmart.com/ip/School-Smart-Short-Ruled-Newsprint-Theme-Paper-Without-Margin-8-x-10.5-Yellow-Pack-of-500/36754548
I’m not sure if I can fold a yellow letter in three and mail it.
I’m not sure if I want to use envelopes as they are expensive and would require more printing.
I am pretty sure that I’m going to have to use the services of a professional printer. I currently pay someone to print, fold, stamp, and seal. This will work 1,500 at a time, but probably not for 30,000, which is what I plan to be doing this time next year.
Also, on Monday, I will be purchasing all addresses from the property appraisers of the 5 nearby counties.
Do you physically inspect every house you get a call for? Is there a way around this?
I went to Walmart and. they had 600 sheets, in the form of 12 pads with 50 each. They didn’t have what was on the website.
Either way, I’m hoping the success of this business doesn’t rely on using white versus yellow paper, and I don’t think it will.
I just ordered list of all parcels for the 8 closest counties. I can make absentee owner’s lists out of these.
I will have far more addresses than I can afford to mail to, probably numbering over 100,000.
How can I target this list more accurately?
What do you think about sorting it by zip code and mailing to the “less fortunate” areas of town?
And while we’re at it, I might as well give back to this forum that has been so gracious to me.
I haven’t gotten all the data, but I expect to get well over 100,000 leads for a total of $185 by contacting the property appraisers.