Modifying List after 4 months

[Mike Waltman]

Little over 3 months in on my first yellow letter campaign targeting 65+ owner occupants and absentee owners. One deal so far off the absentee list, inherited property originally purchased in 2008.  My lists target 4 zips in my county and about 1000 letters. I know everyone says don't change your list too soon but I have been noticing some things in my responses that have me debating tweaking things. 

What I'm considering:

Adding Last Market Sale Date prior to 2009 (both)

Reducing Tax Assessed Value from $200k max down to $150k max (both)

Adding 7 more zip codes (only absentee list)

I will still hit 1000 letters

Reasoning behind including last market sale date because is that a lot of my calls have been from landlords who bought after the crash, rehabbed, rented and are now looking to see what they can get for the work put in. This group seems to have very little motivation to sell at a discount because they bought super low, put in work recently, are cash flowing very nicely and want a higher pay off on their time/money invested.

I think anyone who bought before the crash, had to sit and watch their equity drop and is now watching it rebound will be much more motivated to sell at a discount to get out while they're even or ahead. Also more likely there is deferred maintenance and less likely they've recently renovated the kitchen, baths etc. which is almost always the case with this post crash group.

Reasoning behind cutting the TAV down because is because TAV is significantly lower than market value and I've gotten a fair amount of leads with houses worth $200k+ and the numbers are almost always too high to work as rentals (which is my primary concern) even at a 60-70% of value.

Seeing barely any response from the 65+ list and those that do call just want to be taken off the list or talk so I'm willing to dilute in favor of more absentee leads. 

I'm hoping narrowing down these criteria will target higher motivated leads and also allow me to include other zip codes I had previously excluded but would like to include. 

Old break up was about 530 / 470 (absentee / 65+)

New break up would be about 750 / 250 (absentee / 65+) 

Any thoughts on changing things around this way?