Direct Mail Re-mailing Sellers

[Mike N.]

I am quickly coming to the realization that I will eventually be running out of sellers to direct mail in my area. Does anyone have experience with re-mailing sellers, and what is the success rate compared to the first mailing? If so how long do you have to wait to re-mail them? I thought I heard someone say they mail out to the same folks every 60 days and have almost the same success rate as the first. I just want to make sure it is going to be worth the money.

Another question, does anyone know if I were to use a company name instead of my personal name on the mailings will that affect the responses? I am getting a little tired of irate people looking my name up in the phone book and harassing me at home.

- Mike

[Sharon Vornholt]

Hi Mike-

I have been using direct mail campaigns for about 20 years. I owned an operated a successful home inspection company for 17 years before becoming a full time real estate investor 3 years ago. I have been investing in real estate for a total of about 12 years.

Absentee owners and probates are my primary areas of focus with my direct mail campaigns. I update my absentee owner list once or twice a year and probate leads are published in my local paper at the same time each month. I have great luck with probates so you might want to give this a try.

I can tell you from experience, that your results will only go up with an ongoing direct mail campaign. The absentee owner that doesn't want to sell today, may become a very motivated seller in the future. It is estimated that 80% of your results will come after about the 4th or 5th mailing (to the same folks). So there isn't a time that you "quit" mailing to them where absentee owners are concerned.

It is not at all unusual for me to buy a house after marketing to someone for a year or more.

In fact, I just put a house under contract this week from one of those absentee owners that I have been mailing to for 2 1/2 years. I knew I recognized her name, but it was only after I checked my database that I knew the exact date I first began mailing to her.

You might ask, why would she call after all this time? The answer is very simple. She wasn't motivated at that time.

This lady lives in California and the house is in my area, Louisville, KY. She originally purchased the house in 1998 for her brother to live in. He has since passed away. She decided to rent the house and the tenant eventually moved out after trashing the house. She then became a very motivated seller!!

The only time I take anyone off my list is if I buy the house or they request to be taken off.

I made the mistake early on of taking folks off my list when they insisted they needed more out of the house than I was willing to pay. In hindsight, they just weren't motivated AT THAT TIME.You can see what I mean.

I mail my letters about every 2 months on a continuous basis. I have my list broken in half so that I mail about half the list each month. I hope this helps.

I have other articles on direct mail marketing as well as marketing in general on my blog if you are interested. You can find it at:

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Sharon Vornholt