What are good companies for Direct Mail?

[John Walker]

I'm looking for some feedback on what are some good companies for getting started with Direct Mail. What do you guys think?

[Account Closed]

What type of campaign are you thinking? Did you have a quantity in mind? 

[Claire Trammell]

@Account Closed, I concur with Nick: What type of campaign are you thinking? Did you have a quantity in mind? I'll also add the question: do you have a budget planned?

There are a lot of different ways to go when it comes to direct mail. These three questions will help get you pointed down a possible path.

[Account Closed]

Thanks @Claire Trammell we can start tag teaming posts! haha 

[John Walker]

@Account Closed

I am looking to find off market, distressed properties that I will either flip or use as Buy and Hold. I was thinking of getting some sort of tax lien list or absentee owners list. I have never done this so any feedback would be great. I don't really have a quantity in mind. I haven't obtained any lists as of yet so I'm not sure. I live in an area where the population is probably 75-100,000 people. 

I am a licensed agent so I have MLS access but I want to find more and better deals in this area.

What are you guys thoughts?

[Claire Trammell]

@John Walker

I'm a fan of absentee lists, but also some owner occupieds. The criteria I recommend looks like this:

1-3 Bedrooms

30%-100% Equity

4 yrs. Ownership

SFR

Median Price Range for your area

Absentee

Owner Occupied

No Corp

No Trust

I also like to pull these lists from ListSource.com. Once you have a list to mail to, you can begin a campaign! 

There are two things that you should ask yourself that will help you determine your mailing quantity:

1) Your budget

2) Your ability to handle the calls

It might help you to answer these questions if you had an idea on what to expect in respect to the response rates. Here are the average response rates we have seen based on our customer feedback as well as our own mailings throughout the years:

Yellow Letters- average response rate of 8%-9%, all kinds of calls (angry calls, curious calls, tire-kickers, quality calls)

Postcards- average response rate of .5%, mostly quality calls.

Zip Letters- average response rate of 2%, mostly quality calls. (Great for follow ups)

Greeting Cards- average response rate of 2%, mostly quality calls. (Great for follow ups)

Direct mail tends to work best when you send a campaign of 5-7 different pieces, 4 weeks apart from each other. Follow ups are key as the average person takes 3-5 touches before picking up the phone to respond.

Hope this is at least a little bit helpful. Let me know if I can help any further!

[Ron Olivera]

Originally posted by @John Walker:

I'm looking for some feedback on what are some good companies for getting started with Direct Mail. What do you guys think?

 I just sent off my third mailing using @Jerry Puckett and although I haven't got a deal yet I will say that Jerry has got my phone ringing. I have no doubt that my first deal is just around the corner :)  

[Justin Silverio]

My vote would be for a tax lien list.  There is more competition with an absentee list than tax liens.

[Tony Legendre]

#Claire Trammwel - Very thorough post. Thank you. What is a reasonable size list to expect a deal a month off of? 500, 1000, 5000?

[Claire Trammell]

@Tony Legendre

First of all, welcome to the BP Community!

Secondly, there really isn't a magic number of mailers for getting a deal. It is actually more dependent on your negotiation skills and the type of deal you are searching for. Some people are lucky enough to get a deal after mailing 500 pieces, while others mail 5,000-10,000 before getting a deal.

My suggestion is: do your homework, find a script for when the calls come in, and answer the phone when it rings. It sounds simple, but in some ways it does take practice and skill.