Yellow Letters and the Sheriff's Department

[Scott Dixon]

Only about 300 yellow letters into marketing for motivated sellers and just had a county sheriff stop by and talk to me about a concerned home owner who had reported me for trying to scam her. I wouldn't think that this is common but has anyone else ever ran across this?

I sent a standard yellow letter just stating that I would be interested in buying their house and sounds like someone was so concerned after receiving one letter that they "called the cops." I have a P.O. Box so the police had to at least to a simple check to see where I lived to come by my house and speak with me.

In the end I showed the officer what I was doing and put her on the "do not contact" list with him watching over me while I typed it into excel. The officer seemed to want to tell me not to proceed with sending anymore hand written letters out but I had stated that everything was public records and I was doing nothing outside the bounds of the law. So, he accepted the comments not to contact this concerned home owner and went on his way.

Has anyone else ever got the cops called on them for sending out yellow letters. I guess this is the day and age we live in with everyone so paranoid about people trying to scam them.

Chalk it up to an interesting experience in my young investment career.

[Bill W.]

Bizarre. Tell them you have a pizza coupon you received in the mail that you want them to open a case on.

Seriously though, in the future if this ever happens again, I would advise that you don't let the police into your home when being questioned. Be polite but tell them you don't have anything to say on the matter.

Mailing someone a yellow letter is not illegal and certainly not an issue for the Sheriff's department to get involved.