A somewhat of a different approach to marketing

[Chinmay J.]

Whenever I hear about marketing from investor's perspective, I often hear about people sending batches and batches of letters. There are companies who specialize in this. Often the response is a few for 1000s sent, and typically it takes 4-5 batches of letters sent consistently to get any success.  All this costs money. Doing the basic math, it would costs an investor thousands of dollars before they can get a deal under way.  Another method often discussed is bandit signs and driving for dollars. A lot more cheaper than mailing, but still you are directly dealing with strangers, either by the virtue of them calling you or you calling them. And I am not shy about talking to strangers at all, but lets face it. There is no trust factor at all. 

I was thinking of a slightly different strategy for marketing - something I haven't seen discussed at all.

I went to MLS ( I am a licensed realtor in VA) and looked up all the listings in last 180 days under the price of $200 K (my target price) in various counties of my interest that have either EXPIRED or WITHDRAWN, and that are not Condos. I got 458 results. At some point, I will take additional step to weed out the duplicates, and those that got eventually sold. So this number will get shaved off a little bit. I can expand my search easily to 365 days or add another county. Not hard at all.

Once I get my final list, I can approach in two ways. Either send email to the listing agent to see if the seller would consider relisting again, or contact the owner directly from the tax records, which are linked to the MLS listing. Instead of trying to buy lists from places like listsource and hoping to find a motivated seller, why not just talk to someone who was motivated enough, at one point at least, and make them an offer. I like the idea of going through the listing agent a lot better as the seller is more likely to have some relationship with the listing agent than a stranger approaching the seller directly

Has anyone does this successfully? If yes, what was the success rate? Was it better than sending out postcards and letters? 

Lets discuss.

[Sean Dolan]

@Chinmay J. In order to compare the two, you'll need to establish the metrics we're comparing. I assume the equation looks like xTime + xMoney = 1 deal. 

To say that it's better to pull these lists yourself, and visit these people directly would require that it costs less time and/or money to generate a deal. The best way for you to find this out, is to do it. 

Also, everyone has puts a different value on time and money. So if buying lists saves time, but costs more, some investors would prefer that.

Interested to hear what others have tried, but hopefully when folks respond they are specific about the metrics and don't just claim one way to be better without sharing the time and money each took to acquire a deal.