Sent out a bunch of letters to absentees, what do you guys think?

Question

So I sent out 1270 letters to absentees last week. I got 60 calls for a response rate of 4.7%.

To be honest, out of all these calls I only went out to see 2 of the owners, and made a few offers over the phone (mostly out of state owners). Here's a summary of what the calls were like:

About 15% of the people who called didn't want to sell and asked me to stop sending them letters.
About 95% of the people who were interested in selling wanted either full retail price or even higher. For instance a lot of them wanted 600k for a house that would sell for 450k fully renovated.
5% of the callers (maybe 2-3) were willing to go A LITTLE under retail but not enough for me to make profit on as a rehabber.

Do I just suck at negotiating? When I would speak to them over the phone or see them in person I would go over the benefits of selling to me (not having to pay closing costs, bringing it up to market standards, not dealing with a contractor or paying holding costs, etc) but I still couldn't close a deal. I know that no one can expect to close after just sending 1 batch of letters but it's honestly a little discouraging and I wanted to know if maybe there are some things you guys thought I can approve on. Thanks!

Michael Quarles · Answer

Personally, I don’t call, or have staff call I should say. The only rule is if they call 3 times without leaving the info we request.

I have found that calling does two things. Neither of which I want.

1) Wastes time
2) Undermines the relationship my marketing is accomplishing.

IMHO our business is all about lead generation.  People ask me almost daily how we keep track of the "warm" leads and to that I say we don’t.  The people who want to sell at our price and structure tell us.. Those who don’t still get our marketing. It  is a clear message. "When you’re ready we will be here".

The "Deals" want us, they need us. No matter how great someone is in embedded commands, mimicking, pacing, positive and negative feedback or Neuro-linguistics we cannot create opportunity. Certainly we can uncover opportunity however opportunity has to be present first even if camouflaged.

We can absolutely, through communication, build value and create a price point which can be agreed to. However doing so is different than convincing someone to sell who doesn’t want to or getting a fantasy land seller out of their vacation mentality.

Lastly, I think we all must respect the call. Both in calling back opportunity which displays itself correctly and not calling back those which don’t.  Too many untrained conversations will take place talking to people who are not ready to sell today thus ruining future purchase opportunities.

Michael Quarles · Answer

Hello... I wouldnt say you suck at all... Its all about the numbers... On your next batch you may get the "Deal" or two who calls to say they want 70 cents on the dollar?

As a guy close to mail I see luck out of the gate and I also see a ton of on purpose buying from consistancy.

So dont beat yourself up...

The key is finding the "Arnold Horshack" in the bunch....

Words to live by.... Dont squeeze your funnel like a tooth paste tube....

J Scott · Answer

I just sent my first direct mail batch last week (thanks to Michael Quarles' professional help), and my response rate was somewhat similar:

-  1000 letters sent
-  105 people picked up the phone to call
-  60 calls were hang-ups (the phone went right to voice mail for the first campaign)
-  45 calls left messages
-  3 of those messages were, "Stop sending me letters"
-  Of the 42 others, about 1/3 were, "I'm just curious what your business model is," and about 2/3 actually wanted to discuss selling their property
-  Of the 25 or so that had a property to sell, 1 was very motivated (though the house wasn't a deal at $0), 1 we may buy as a short sale, and one or two others were a bit more motivated (but not enough to generate a deal)

So, we may get one deal out of the bunch, or we may get none.  But, even if we repeated this 5 more times and only got one deal out of the entire bunch, we'd make a lot of money.  As Michael said, it's a numbers game, and not finding a deal out of 1000 letters really doesn't mean anything in terms of your ability to negotiate.

Just keep at it!

Account Closed · Answer

J  Scott  I think you know more than you think you do. :)  Michael makes a good point about "untrained conversations" on call backs to hang ups.  That only applies if 1) you have staff and 2) that is untrained.  That's a volume operation issue.  It would be almost impossible to train staff on all the variables when calling back hang-ups.

It's also a volume operation issue to make all sellers self-select by leaving a message.  It will definitely sort through motivation levels of most.  But not all.  My specialty is the "not all" sellers. :) There are a couple of generations that are still alive and well that don't work well with technology, even technology as simple as voice mail.  I work with a lot of sellers with no email accounts and/or limited computer access. It's not always a function of income or education.  It's just not their way.

The hang-up can be just plain disappointment or distrust. I know I hang up if I reach voice mail that doesn't identify itself or sounds generic.  It's my experience that I won't get a call back.  I won't leave a voice mail at my bank because I know if I call back a few minutes later I'll get a live person. Loads of sellers like that.

All that being said, I haven't had a hang-up in a couple of months and I used to have a few every week.  I think part of it is mailing to very specific targets and part of it is higher valued props.

Jessica B. · Answer

Don't forget to call these people back! They called you from the letter for a reason.

Michael Quarles · Answer

LMFAO... 
Aren’t we all members of that fraternity?

IMHO. the difference is basic. Do I want an on purpose and duplicatable business which functions without me or do I want to be a Technician within my business?

And both answers are okay...

Could I uncover opportunity by calling or having staff return hang-ups... ABSOLUTELY however at what ROI. and IMHO the cost is greater than the reward. We should factor "all" costs into the equation not just the hard cost.

And I no longer need to be the "Young Bull" on the side of the hill looking down at a pasture of cows. Its so much easier to deal with people who "want" to sell at a discount and who tell me then it is to deal with the "maybe mentaility".

Account Closed · Answer

Volume mailing requires lead capture filters and systems for efficiency.  That efficiency will pass over some good leads. That's one of the costs of volume.

I've closed deals with several initial hang-up callers.  I think it depends on who the target is.  If it's a mass mailing and the targets are general (NOO, out of area, 75% equity, etc.) then the hang up calls will have a high percentage of no-motivation sellers.  If I have targeted specific distresses and make the marketing specific to the target AND I get a hang-up?  The captured number is now the lead.

Brian P. · Answer

When I started sending to absentee owners no one was doing it In my area, it was all for me. I was an investor and a new broker so I had two chances to make a buck.

A few years later one of my agents was in a horrific accident and when he finally got out of the hospital he was confined to a wheel chair and little movement. He said how am I going to make a living and I let him in on my secret source and turned it over to him. and he went to work and did really well in finding business.

And then he made a mistake, he was being interviewed on TV and mentioned his activities, pretty soon absentee owners were hearing from everyone. Even got a call from an agent in the south end of the state who had discovered this gold mine and was keeping it to himself when the TV interview was rebroadcast down there and wanted me to chew out my agent for him for causing all this new competition for him.

The purpose of this post is a teaser, those of you doing this are missing a lot of opportunities because of the basic program you are following. Yes you will get results because some owner will be ready at this time to sell, but there will be be far greater results with an expanded effort. I know I should tell you how but then just like the old days soon everyone would know and you would be just another one of the group and splitting the pie into smaller pieces.

J Scott · Answer

That's a great point...

My thinking above was related to absentee owners with equity -- these people may or may not be motivated, and whether they decide to leave a message or not is an indication of whether a motivation exists.

But, when targeting -- say -- mortgage lates to try to generate short sale leads, it's probably safe to say that most of them are at least somewhat motivated (they are behind on their mortgage).  So, given that there is at least some motivation from the out-set, the hang-up is quite possibly not the result of a lack of motivation, but perhaps something else.  For example, it may be the result of embarrassment, denial, or anger at their own situation.  If you have the communication skills to get past those negative feelings, it's quite possible to convert the lead, I would imagine.

So, yes, despite the fact that I have absolutely no practical experience at this, it definitely seems to make sense that the target of the marketing will help determine how to handle various types of communication, including hang-ups.

In other words, I don't know what I'm talking about, but I agree!  :)

J Scott · Answer

Michael -  you've convinced me to change my policy of calling the hang-ups!

Sent out a bunch of letters to absentees, what do you guys think?

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