Targeted Mailing List To Find Potential Sellers For A Realtor

[Joseph Castaneda]

Greetings, What would be the best criteria for a Realtor to use when creating a mailing list for a neighborhood you are farming and want to target the home owners in that neighborhood who are most likely to sell? Would you target all owners who have owned their home for five years or more? Any other criteria you would use? Just by using the the home owners who have owned five years or more I get about 1,000 home owners which is the size of the list I'm looking to mail to. I'm not concerned if they have equity or not. I just want to optimize my mailing list so that I am not mailing to home owners who have little to no chance of selling. Thanks! 

[Robert Smith]

132 in the last 12 months is actually a fairly low turnover for a farm list, I personally as an agent and as an investor would not farm it. I want a turn over rate that is high (closer to 10-15%) especially when getting first into a neighborhood. Pick an area you know that everyone wants to be in, could be due to schools or jobs, park or new shopping or employment coming in that area. I only market to people who have equity, if they have to pay to sell their home are they really going to want to pay you 6 or 7% without trying to FSBO first? I personally like out of state owners if you still come up with too many homes to market to. If your MLS includes rentals take out any home that recently rented or look on hotpads and zillow for that info. Drive the area and know the dump homes from the nicest homes. Pick homes in the average purchase price range, not the price range you want your commission check to be in. If an agent lives in that subdivision it may be harder to get in the subdivision if they are a top producer. Look and see per farm area what agent sold the most and if everyone when to them or if it was equally divided, that will save you some money. Become top of mind. Don't just mail saying let me sell your home, they want to know that you care before they care what you know. Send out news letters or local area happenings. Visit yard sales in the neighborhood and get to know more people if that is going to be your farm for the next 6 months. I only market to people who bought at least 5 years ago, have not refinanced in the last 5 years, are out of state or non owner occs, and have a tax value lower then the resale prices in the area. Nothing is a sure thing, but follow up is key. Mailings like this have a low rate of return, expect that but press on. Put them in your sphere and make them remember you. Everyone does one small post card that looks like junk. Spend a few extra dollars on a hand written letter and envelope. Put a mint or something bigger in the envelope so it stands out. You can have a VA do a lot of the leg work and gather a list for you, they can even stuff envelopes and mail for you. Check out the rate of return on hand written envelopes compared to a generic post card, it is worth the extra $.50 per mailer. Good luck and stick with it if you start.