Filtering Names and Addresses from ListSource

[Brayan Sandoval]

I have a question, I've been doing direct mail, postcards and spent so much money, over $10k... I'm doing something wrong. Long story short, bought a list from ListSource, Pre Foreclosures. I want to skip trace for cold calling, come to find out after comparing property address and names to what's recorded in the county assessors office; they are different. How do I fix this issue so when I submit the names and address to REI Skip I get the most accurate information? Please Help

1. I could get a VA to filter the names and addresses out for me.

2. I can do it my self, one by one taking a lot of my time.

What would you do in this case?

[Cornelius Garland]

@Brayan Sandoval That hurts...$10k spent and no deals. I'm not familiar with Maricopa, Arizona and unsure how competitive it is, but I don't think your cost per deal should be $10k or more in this market. Even in Phoenix, that cost per deal is relatively high. I agree with the previous posters regarding their suggestions, and I'll add my two cents. 

So the mailing address discrepancy could either be List Source, your county assessor, or a lot of the properties could have been sold already. About how many addresses are different? Is it every property or just one out of every 50 or so? Unfortunately, it's difficult to know if the county is outdated unless you ask other investors in your market. Also, you need to measure how many returned mail pieces you've gotten. Based on my stats when I did direct mail back in the day (2015), there should be no more than 10-20% returned pieces. But, honestly, that percentage is still on the high side. You should send out a batch or partial batch with first class mail to determine your returned mail percentage. If you send your mail using standard mail with no return postage, you have no way of measuring how many addresses were bad. I'm not a huge fan of direct mail when it comes to marketing to sellers, but I understand it has its place. I think newer investors should use direct mail as a way of learning the game before they invest money on the other techniques that get you in touch with sellers more directly. It's a form of pull marketing so the sellers that call in and leave voicemails most likely want to hear from you. Those conversations are a lot easier to have than a cold call, which could be overwhelming due to not having any prior experience.

I'm not a huge fan of List Source data. It served me well for when I first started, but I didn't use them to pull time-sensitive lists, like Pre Foreclosures. I just didn't trust that it would be that updated, and those lists really only are good for a short period of time. The positive is that a good skip tracing company can conduct your searches with an outdated mailing address. I know when I run my searches, I can search a mailing address from 10 years ago and I still get the most-current phone number and the current address. Skip tracing using the seller's updated mailing address works best, but it can also be done with the property address, although you may get a lower hit rate. If you have to update your addresses just to do a skip trace, then that defeats the purpose of the company conducting the search for you. You're doing all of the work for them! lol. Now, if the names and property addresses are just flat-out wrong, then that's a different issue. Meaning, if the property addresses on List Source and the tax assessor aren't tied to the correct owner, then there is a problem. In this case, your list is inaccurate, and you need to switch list providers. However, if the mailing address is just outdated, you can still do a search.

I'm curious as to why the mailing addresses are different from the property addresses on your Pre Foreclosure list, though. From my experience, most of the homeowners on this list live in these homes. So the property address should be the same as the mailing address for an overwhelming majority of them. But there are better lists to target. I was just discussing this particular list with an investor that messaged me today on BP. Most individuals on the Pre Foreclosure list are in denial that they're behind on payments, and they truly think that they can work with the bank to bring their loan current. As a result, you'll get pushback from the sellers because of this. If you want to target these individuals, it's best to wait until the auction date is available on the Master of Equity for your county. At that point, I would skip trace these leads, cold call them, and door knock. You still have 30 days to make a deal happen, which is plenty of time. In some states, you can actually put a contract down and provide proof of funds to extend the auction date. You'd have to check with your state regulations on this, though.

You need to stop the bleeding and not spend more money on lists or marketing until you narrow down your current list, or scrap it and pull a more-targeted one. I can share some laser-tight criteria that you can pull in List Source to get the best return on your money. Just let me know, and I'll make a followup post here. You want to have a laser approach when it comes to your marketing, not a shotgun approach. If you start off unfocused, you're setting yourself up for failure. Start off on the right foot, and it will make your marketing campaign and acquisitions process so much easier. Hope this helps!