I have heard so much about the yellow letter campaigns from a guru or two as well as several posters have mentioned them i was wondering if any of you are willing to share your letter with the fellow members… to the brave souls that will, i thank you in advance! (there is more than enough business & opportunity for all of us!)
I sent this one to about 350 homes and it got me just under an 11% response, but it yielded no deals. Actually one guy was ready to sign but his realtor wouldn’t release him.
[i]Hi, my name is Doug Pretorius, I’m a private investor and I’m interested in buying your house.
If you are moving and faced with the prospect of making payments on 2 houses at once; I can help by taking over the payments on your old house now and paying off the mortgage in the near future.
I promise there is no obligation and I am not a realtor. Give me a call at xxx-xxx-xxxx and let’s chat.
Thank you for your time.[/i]
I wouldnt use that one .
Michael
Hey Mike
I am sure you would probably use one from you do-it all software… :smile
btw… in order to get your software you have to buy a franchise, right, please advise as the software truly looks to be a killer app for investors!
I wouldnt use that one .Neither would I, again.
if you wouldn’t use that one, Doug, which one would you use… or maybe that’s one that you don’t want to share with us…
I haven’t done any direct mail for quite awhile. I’m getting all of my houses through cold calling. It takes more time but I can reach a higher percentage of the prospects and of course it’s free.
If I were to do direct mail again, for my niche I would probably send something like:
“If your house doesn’t sell, I’ll rent it.”
That’s marketing at it’s best as I understand it. A single sentence that highlights the prospect’s problem and my easy to understand solution.
For the record, I do not use yellow letter concept anymore not because it is not effective, but because I have enough leads coming in from more cost effective methods but of course I have a big mouth and free time so I will comment on this post anyway.
The magic of yellow letters is that they command attention. They get your prospects to open the letter and see who is it from. This is your chance to sell them on calling you to sell you their house.
I see many pitch very short message while others pich longer one. I believe each has its advantage and depends on the type of people you are marketing to.
I personally believe the letter can be as long as you want it to be as long as it is not boring and keeps them reading. I personally like to answer all their questions and concerns and inject some rage in them and drive them to call me.
Last time I used Yellow Letter concept was to find my lost ferret. It was a page long from top to bottom. I did not get many people calling me, but I manager to find a ferret. Wasn’t my ferret, but he was cute and I took him in. A month later my other ferret ran out TWICE and people in my neighborhood brought him back to me, so they knew me from the letters! (one charged me $100 for the reward money I offered grrrr).
One thing I do not mention in my marketing is how I intend to purchase the property or for how much. Using the right negotiation tactics, you can talk them down on price and buy it anyway you like.
I use $Cash$ and Michael’s yellow pad type explanation of my offer (I don’t use the yellow pad, but I do explain my offer if they are reluctant), and I use the take away technique of negotiations to get it subject to existing loan. Again, this is done AFTER I agree to come and look at their house.
This is one of 16 different handwritten “Mary” letters we use…
Hi,
My family and I are looking to buy a house in your neighborhood and I was hoping that you might be thinking of selling. If so please give me a call.
God Bless
Mary
Michael Quarles
PS No License required… It available to everyone
Ron Legrand says to use this on his yellow letters:
Hi [homeowners name],
I am interested in buying your house at 123 Elm St. My name is Stevie-o and my wife is Jane. Please give me a call at 123-456-7890.
Thanks,
Stevie-o
HANDWRITTEN OF COURSE…
Those kinds of letters got me calls too but every single time they said: “What do mean you’re going to rent (or take over my payments)? I thought you were going to buy my house!”
So I wouldn’t use a “I’d like to buy your house” letter or card if your intention is to take over their payments or lease/option the house.
Heres one we used for a short time that worked
My Fiance and I were in the area and noticed your home. We are interested in making an offer to purchase it. Please call me back at your convenience.
It worked because one of our partners was engaged, and people would talk to him all about being married etc…
I usually tell them I buy on owner financing to reduce the closing cost. Sellers understand owner financing in general and since I explain to them that I am an investor and I only make my money when I resell it, they tend to be ok with it.
Here is a strategy that could work for you, but needs little negotiation skills/smooth talking.
Credibility
Talk to your church, or any other church and start a joint program to help those who cannot sell their house sell their house. This is a selling job on your part, they get the credit of helping people out and getting their name out. You get instant credibility by being associated with a church. I would imagine this works best in the southwest regions.
Who to target
Just about any list… Expired Listings, FSBO, FRBO, Preforeclosures, Lawyers,…etc. That is the beauty of this positioning
Type of deals
This targets those who in need of selling, not like to sell. This letter looks for sub2 or lease option type of deals.
The sale pitch
Here is something you can say in your letter, your ads, or anywhere else:
"Hello Dr Doe,
Please execuse my intrusion, but I have been working with the XYZ Church to help our fellow San Antonians who are trying to sell their house by making their mortgage payments till the house sells. Don’t worry, there is absolutely no cost to you!
Call me right now though! We have sent similar letters to all of our church members, but our resources are limited and we can only help 4 of you. Pick up the phone and dial 210-555-1212 right now. If I am on the other line, do leave a message! I will call you right back.
God Bless,
James Bond
P.S. If you are seriously thinking about selling or worried about your mortgage payments, this is for you! don’t wait!
P.S. Again, there is no cost to you! we handle all the paperwork, pay all the fees!
P.S We are working with XYZ Church, and we truly wish you the best"
Explanation
First, let me just say I do not believe in short copies because they do not tell a story. There is no such thing as long copy, just boring copy. If you noticed, my sample is about a page long if hand written and spaced right and would look more like a letter.
Now, lets start from the beginning and analyze it:
- I made it personal letter by my style of writing and appologizing for the intrusion. This does spark an interest to read on.
- I have associated myself with a church, BAM! instant credibility and provides a solid reason why I am doing what I am doing.
- I am making an irresistable offer! (making their mortgage payments on their behalf!)
- I answered the main concern my sellers always worried about… how much will it cost them to use my services?
- I provided a call to action by not only telling them to call me, I even gave them the steps they need to take! pick up the phone and dial my number! This is important!
- I used scarcity negotiation technique… We can only help so many, so if you want in, you better call now or you will lose great opportunity!
- I used series of P.S. statements to emphesize and REPEAT my offer!
What is missing
One thing I did not do here is add a headline. I like to add a headline to all my marketing, including letters. I didn’t do so because you need to think about headlines since they are 80% of the marketing message. But since this is a yellow/mary letter then we can get away without providing one.
Hope this helps
fadi…
i see we are kindred spirits and you MUST be a Dan Kennedy disciple, judging by this and other comments you have made!
For all who are interested, Fadi just provided a great marketing lesson that will go extremely far in your business if you take heed and apply it…!
Yes, by all means I am a huge Dan Kennedy, joe Vitale, and the likes fan/student. When someone gets paid $15k+ to write a single sales letter, he must know something I don’t and is up to something so I should listen 
yeah i knew that was the case, it was apparent… are you getting the new series they released this month “How to Think to Get Rich” from reading the salesletter on it, these are recordings from the last Platinum Mastermind meeting with 14 of the members… it will be on my list of educational investments for February/March…
anyway I found several cool handwriting fonts online, that I will employ on my yellow letter campaign for February… but since February is best known for Valentine’s Day I think the first letter in my sequence will be themed as such…
(Dan loves marketing centered around a theme… - stealth marketing)
Dan Kennedy is to marketing what Michael Gerber is to small business.
He’s my favourite legend.
No I’m not… just received the marketing material for the bootcamp, and I usually don’t like to go to expensive bootcamps and this one in particular will have too many speakers so there will be lots of upselling (expected anyway) and shorter topics to be able to focus on.
I am listening to his copywriting seminar in a box now a days.