I need HELP.
I been sending yellow letters every week around 500. But the responce rate is not the same as all the marketing guru’s say about yellow letters. They say you should get about 25% return. But iam not even comming close to that, i get 1%. My letters are hand written and hand addressed. Any advice???
Good to meet you…
1% is fine 2% sometimes… Keep on mailing… MAIL MAIL MAIL
happy hunting
Michael
Forget about Yellow Letters and do what most investors aren’t willing to do. Put up bandit signs. The sheer number of people who see them dwarf the amount of leads you get from mailers. Not to mention, if you find a way to pick up the signs after the weekend is done (recycle the signs), it saves from losing the signs to people or code enforcement. I put in an order 9 months ago for 100 signs, and I have about 65 still left. Got countless leads and many many deals from those “recycled” signs. If you don’t like putting them out and taking them down, hire someone to do it for you and just work the leads. So you spend your money ONCE, and not do the direct mail method. Dollar for dollar, if you follow what I suggested above, you won’t be able to keep up with the leads, AND you get way more leads, AND save huge cash. Can you “recycle” direct mailers? Of course you can’t!
To me it sounds like response rates and success rates will vary from one location to another. I’ve had mediocre results with bandit signs, and my yellow letters get about an 8% response. I’d consider that to be a pretty good return, I know I can do better, but 8% is a great number to start from!
What does your yellow letter say? Who do you mail them to?
1% isn’t bad, and 1% is much better than 0% (or not doing them at all), so maybe try narrowing down your list to a very specific group of people (out of state owners who have owned for at least 10 years and who have greater than 40% equity and own houses with either 3 or 4 bedrooms, for example…) and/ or try testing a different message.
Mine say:
[i]Dear [FirstName][LastName]
My name is Chris and I’m interested in purchasing your house located at [Address] in [City].
I really like the neighborhood and would like to buy soon. I pay cash and can close quickly. Obviously by selling to a private buyer (me), you won’t be paying expensive Realtor commissions and fees, and I will pay all closing costs as well, saving you even more money.
If you are interested in selling your house quickly or learning more, please give me a call at [MyNumber]
If you are NOT interested in selling your property yet, hang on to this letter in case things change and you do decide to sell at some point in the future. It never hurts to have a potential buyer lined up in case you do decide to sell your house!
I look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
[MySignature]
P.S. Please call today at [MyNumber] if you are interested in selling your house![/i]
I also print mine in blue ink not red like most people will say to do. I personally like the way it looks in blue better than red, I haven’t tested though to see if it makes a difference…
I have to agree with all of the responses on this one. In order to keep your pipeline full you must utilize all forms of effective marketing methods and they vary by the market. So depending on your goal either it be monthly or yearly - you may be satisfied with 1-2% from mailings. If not, then I suggest doing a couple other methods to ensure your pipe is always full. Here are a few: realtor referrals, postcards, skip trace phone numbers to known addresses and call them directly (I have been doing this after the first or second mailing), hire a researcher to aid in finding qualified leads, deliver marketing package directly (AKA door knocking - increased return percentage, but more work) and divorce and bankruptcy attorney’s.
Personally, I do electronic yellow letters using custom red font on letter and envelopes, skip trace to allow me to call the potential lead and custom postcards. All of these generate between 3-5%, which for right now is adequate for my business. This may seems low knowing the fallout, but I thoroughly scrub the lists so the calls I do get are highly qualified.
Hope this helps.
Chris
BTW the 1-2 percent is Actual prospects not just calls… Heck calls are closer to 10%…
You have hangups, remove me from the list, suspects and prospects… All filter to contracts…
I do know that the response rate varies a lot depending on the list you mail to. For instance if you mail to pre-foreclosures your not going to get a very good response rate especially since everyone else is mailing to them. But atleast they are good calls when you do get them. If you mail to zip codes you will get a great response but most of them will not be good prospects.