How big of a list - for starters?

[Bob C.]

For the last year I've been beating my head against a wall trying to work short sales via MLS. I've decided finally go the motivated sellers route. I'm fortunate to have capital to be able to jump right into direct marketing and am ready to buy my first list.

I've seen here and understand not to start with "too big" of a list. And also that I need a list big enough to move the needle. So, not too big or not too small - I need something juuuust right. ;-)

How many should I start with to get my feet wet, to refine my message, to get my phone conversation down?

I've gone to listsource and filtered one of my favorite areas to about 1100 names. Do you think that is that big enough to get 1-3 houses from a year (mailing to monthly)?

I plan on adding more towns (potentially 5,000 names) as I refine my message, etc. to get up to my 6 houses per year goal.

[Aaron Mazzrillo]

In my opinion, 1,000 names mailed to monthly will produce a deal or two, but it is way to often to mail such a small list.

The first thing to do when deciding you are going to go the marketing route, is to figure out how much money you can comfortably flush down the toilet every week and you won't lose sleep over it. The next step is to decide how you intend to contact each person on that list. Let's use your numbers. You plan on mailing to 1,000 people once per month. If you send letters, your budget should be $1,000 (if you do most of the labor yourself). If you send post cards, your budget should be about $500. I'll run with the $500 number since most investors new to the marketing game freak out when I talk about spending $5,000 or more a month mailing.

You have $500 to spend and decide post cards are the route you are going to go since your cost of entry is the least expensive. So, we have $125 dollars a week we would be comfortable dropping in the trash and we wouldn't lose sleep over it.

If I planned on spending $125 a week, I would want a list of at least 3,250 names (which is actually still a relatively tiny list.). Mail 250 names each week for 13 weeks. Then, on week 14, you start over. About 10% will be RTS (return to sender) or NIXIE. So, at the end of your 13 week cycle, you might want to grab a few hundred more names. This way, you will stay within your budget and hit your target list 4 times a year with quality prospects.

Since it is such a small list, you should remove the nixies from your list as they come in or put them in a shoe box and do them all at once on week 13 before you add the new names to your list. If you get into bigger lists, say 25,000 names or more, sometimes it is easier just to throw them away or pay a person to do them for you. It just depends on if you want to keep working the same list or plan on pulling a fresh list every 6 months or so.

You say you are going after motivated sellers so I am assuming you mean absentee owners which really isn't a motivated seller list. If you mean people facing foreclosure or upside down on their mortgage, then you would want to hit them more often than 4 times a year. You might decide to hit them every month or every 3 months and therefore you need to adjust your list size.

Good luck!