Marketing Campaign Question

[Ryan Whitcher]

Hi BP,

I'm in the process of mapping out my marketing campaign for motivated sellers. I have the budget to send out 1000-1200 postcards a month for the next 6 months. I'm creating this campaign over 2000 miles away from my target area (moving to target area before year's end) so I am somewhat limited as far as being able to actually go to the courthouse for leads, etc.. A friend experienced in flipping/estimating rehab costs will be attending the appointments with the sellers and splitting any profits until I make it over there. 

I will be sending out first class postcards out to the lists with a simple message saying something personal along the lines of "Hi Mr/Mrs _____, My name is Ryan and I buy a few properties a year in the area. I am interested in making an offer on your property, I am able to close quickly with cash. Please call back at xxx-xxx-xxxx if interested, thank you for your time!" 

My strategy/target list is as follows:

1. I spent numerous hours scrubbing my county's Tax Delinquent list, only coming up with about 150 addresses, although I think it is a strong 150. 
2. I have access to a Code Enforcement list from my county, however, it is very clunky: It only shows the last week worth of violations, and I did not see any repeat offenders so I don't see this list being very motivated. 
3. I am about to purchase about 900 leads from List source broken down by:

• Targeting 1 Zipcode (highest Cash transactions within last year)
• 50-100% Equity
• 3-5 Bdrms/ 2-4 Bath
• SFR
• Absentee In/Out of State
• Last Market Sale Date: 1900-2002
• Total Assessed Value: 50,000-200,000 (Median Sale Price ~$170,000) -- **Uncertain about this one
• Exclude: Trustee & Corporate Owned

With all that, I still have about $200 left over per month (this is stretching the budget :) ) and I had a couple of ideas:

• Hire a VA to either cruise Google Maps for Vacant properties and/or Cold Call FSBO ads on Craigslist - If anyone has any experience with this I would love to hear about it.
• Hire bird dog on CL - Cover their gas and pay either per qualified lead and a finder's fee for any closed deals. 

***Any profits that I make from deals will go straight back into marketing.  

I want to pull the trigger on the above campaign before this weekend is over, but I would love to hear your feedback first, thanks everyone! Also, if you've made it this far, then you are awesome.