Direct mail marketing or cold calling for a primary house?

[Heeyeon Chung]

Hi, everyone!

We are hoping to buy a primary house in a nearby neighborhood this year. Our current house is getting too small for my family of seven. 

I have created a list of properties that meet my buy box from the neighborhood (about 20 in total), and I am wondering what my next step should be. 

Would direct mail marketing work well in this case? I am not going to make a cash offer...most likely I would be using VA loan to buy the house.

Should I try cold calling? I am not sure what would be the best approach in my case. Thank you so much!

[Michael Dumler]

@Heeyeon Chung, just a fair warning, it's going to be very difficult to acquire an off-market primary residence. Is the inventory that bad in your area that no on-market deals suffice? I would recommend working with a real estate agent to source you and your family a primary home so you're not doing all of the leg work. If you do decide to approach a homeowner, you need to incentivize them in one way or another. I would recommend informing the homeowner that you will pay market value for their property and they will not need to worry about brokerage commissions. We're still in a seller's market so most homeowners are more geared toward listing their property on market.