Help with Content of Direct Mail Letters

[Gary A.]

I need help coming up with specific language for my Direct Mail campaign for apartment owners. Can someone please provide exact messaging that they know to be effective?

I have a decent idea of what I want the messages to say, but if someone can provide insight that can save me time and money, that would be much appreciated!

I'm targeting apartment owners in various counties in California. My campaign will be 7 letters letters sent out once a month. I'm not going to have very specific targets - I will be sending out at least 1K letters each month, so the messaging will need to be relatively general but hit on potential pain points that the apartment owner might have.

Looking forward to getting some awesome advice from the BP community!

[BB Liu]

Hi, I know this thread of out of date, but in case this helps anyone, I wanted to share my experience with the content of direct mail:

Over the past few months, I sent out about 700 first-time letters to expired MLS listings in Westchester county, NY. Westchester is the suburb north of NYC, and it includes some very high-income areas (eg. Chappaqua, where the Clintons live), but also many lower-income areas where a sizable portion of the population rents.

There were two main letter templates I tried, and one got a much, much, much better response rate than the other. I am going to share both templates below.

**** I want to preface this by saying, however, that I am a new investor and I did not close one single deal out of 700 letters, so I am so obviously NOT an expert (!!) But, since I get so much out of the BP community, I wanted to contribute in some small way ...

********************************

The template where I got a very low response rate (around 5%. not counting undelivered letters) was this one:

Dear __,

I am looking to buy a property in southern Westchester, and your property at __ is one in which I am very interested.

• No delays: I would be able to make an ALL CASH offer on your property in 48 hours or less, and can close very quickly
• No repairs: I buy properties in as-is condition, and you don’t need to fix a thing
• No need to remove liens: I will buy the property with lien(s) still attached
• No commission fees: You would save a lot of $$ selling your house yourself
• No obligation: There is absolutely no obligation, and your information is kept completely confidential

To reach me directly [my contact ifnomration].

If I don’t pick up the phone when you call, leave a message and I promise to call you back very soon.

* All cash offer guaranteed in 48 hours or less *

Warm regards,

********************************

In contrast, the letter where I got a pretty high response rate (around 20% not including undelivered letters) was:

Dear __,

I am looking to buy a property in southern Westchester, and your property at __ is one in which I am very interested. I can offer a quick closing because I don’t need bank financing, and I always deal fairly and honestly with everyone.

If you are open to selling, please contact me. Thank you so very much.

Warm regards,

********************************

My personal guess is that the first template was clearly a business solicitation letter, whereas the second template felt much more personal. One drawback to the second template, though, was that although a lot of people called me. many expressed disappointment that I was an investor, as they had thought I was a buyer occupant who fell in love with their house.

Again, I don't have any advice for anyone, but I just wanted to share my experience with the BP community.

(Finally, on a personal note, I had originally started sending these letters in the hopes of landing a deal I could wholesale to rehabbers. But now, I am thinking instead of trying to do a light-moderate rehab myself, and I have already gotten pre-approval from a hard money lender in my area. I am also slowly studying "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs" by J. Scott, and watching online videos about rehabbing. If anyone has any advice for me, I would be most grateful.)

Thank you!

BB