Success Marketing to Owners in Redemption Period?

[Alvin Grier]

Has anyone had any success marketing to people that are in redemption period?

I understand marketing campaigns, and the need to "stay the course" before you "throw-in-the-towel", but I'm considering dropping this campaign.

I've been doing it for about 6 months, with minimal results.  

We have been identifying properties with a big "spread" between the sold price from the Sheriff Sale and the ARV comps. Then we pursue them by direct mail and/or door knocking.

We offer to either list their property, or give them "cash for keys."  

Over the months, we got close to doing a cash for keys on two separate properties, however one of them had a second mortgage that was a deal-breaker (which I should've saw before deciding to market to them).  

The other one that fell through had a judgement filed against the homeowner right after we did the quit claim with the mortgagor and were about to close and redeem the property from the person that bought it at the sheriff sale.

That judgement terminated the mortgagor's (and therefore our) ability to redeem that property.

The response rate on our marketing campaigns has been extremely low; south of 1%, in fact.

Our campaigns include door knocking, leaving notes on doors, as well as mailing the property and new addresses of the owners (when applicable).  We reach out at multiple times throughout the redemption period, all the way to the end.

Part of me is beginning to think that foreclosure is such a touchy subject to many people, that many would rather just ignore taking any action, and just let the property go, even though our "cash for keys" and offers to list their properties give them a chance to make something good out of a bad situation.

Conversely,  somewhat seasoned marketer in me wants to stay the course, and keep altering our message until we improve our response rates; after-all, people have been successfully marketing to people in foreclosure and pre-foreclosure for years, which makes me think there is hope to ramp-up response rates.

Sorry for all the text, I'm thinking out loud a bit here.

Has anyone had any success marketing to mortgagors during the redemption period?  If not, what do you think about my method of thinking with this situation?  Thanks in advance