Direct Mail Campaign

[Jose Guillu]

Hello everyone, I'm preparing my first direct mail campaign in the Chicagoland area.  My budget has allowed for 12,000 mailers over a 6 month period (2,000 per month) with repeat mailings.  My idea is to target distressed homeowners, zero mortgage, and absentee owners.  The four categories for distressed owners are Lis Pendens, Notice Of Default, Notice Of Foreclosure sale, and Notice Of Trustee Sale.  Are any of these options better than the other? Is it too late to mail to "Notice Of Foreclosure sale, and Notice Of Trustee Sale?  I may be buying and flipping, but I may also wholesale.  Thank you in advance for your help. 

[Sam J Mrofcza]

First off congrats on getting out there.  Take a moment and acknowledge how exciting that is.   

Next, I am not an attorney and do not claim to be an expert on foreclosure law here in Illinois, but I will take a stab at answering your question. 

Being that Illinois is a Judicial process State when it comes to foreclosures, meaning it has to go through the court system, the lender has to file a suite against you and there is a timeline of when responses are due and even a redemption period that extends up to 7 months after being served where you can retain the property if the note is paid in full including costs etc.  Now I am not sure how often that happens, there are a wealth of people on here that buy form the courthouse steps that may be able to offer better insight. 

Cutting to the point - Lis Pendens which is Latin for "suit pending"  is the same as a Notice of default, at least here in IL.  Depending on the state it may be called one or the other.  I think because the sites that sell lists are covering many states they may use these two interchangeably.   

Similarly Notice of Foreclosure sale and Notice of Trustee Sale are intertangle.  

I would say target the former, as the latter already have judgements against them.   Its also worth noting that if you have the data mining capabilities it maybe worth the time to try and determine if an owner has equity in the their property but is falling behind for another reason.  Meaning if they owe 300K on a home that's only worth 200K, it won't do them or you any good to try and purchase it.  If the inverse is true, they owe 200K and its worth 300K but they can't make payments because of a loss of job, injury etc, then perhaps a deal could be made that allows them to get some the equity out, and keep a foreclosure off the books.   

Good Luck.   

Cheers