direct mail campaign

[Mary Balantucas]

Im a newbie in real estate and I focus now on wholesaling. Im still finding my first deal. I want to send letters to my prospect sellers but I want to ask if its okay to send those letters without your return address? How are you guys send direct mail marketing without having your privacy being invaded and still looks credible to sellers that you can make an offer coz right now Im just renting in an apartment.

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

I've sent tons of direct mail with my personal return address and have never had any problems. Are you worried someone is going to come to your house, just because you mailed them a letter? You need a return address, because a lot of your first batch of mail will be undeliverable. You want to get that mail back, so you can clean up your list. If you are really worried about using your personal address, then just go get a P.O. box. 

[Mary Balantucas]

@Joseph Cacciapaglia

Thank you for giving me idea. I appreciate it. I have another question if I may ask. Right now I live in an apartment, as for wholesaling, what should I do so I look credible in sending letters to the seller to buy their house given that I only lived in an apartment? Im sorry for this another advice that I asked but thank you a lot.

[Amanda Paris]

Hi Mary. Congrats on taking steps toward your goal! As for you living in an apartment, that's not really anyone's business and I would not even share that information with a Seller. You are there to discuss them selling a home– not where you live! That's my two cents... I hope this is helpful!

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

Originally posted by @Mary Balantucas:

@Joseph Cacciapaglia

Thank you for giving me idea. I appreciate it. I have another question if I may ask. Right now I live in an apartment, as for wholesaling, what should I do so I look credible in sending letters to the seller to buy their house given that I only lived in an apartment? Im sorry for this another advice that I asked but thank you a lot.

One of the easiest ways to build a little credibility is to have a simple website and professional looking letterhead. There are plenty of sites that allow you to build a website cheaply. You can get a pretty professional logo made for cheap on UpWork. I recently paid $17.50 for one that I'm very happy with. If you really want to go all out, you can form an LLC too. I recently started a new LLC, set up a website for it, and got my logo made, all for about $1,000. If you're serious about this business, that's pretty low cost of entry.

[Jerryll Noorden]

Don't do DMM.

You are winging it.

Give me just one good reason for your  DMM decision.

If you have not figured out the cost/deal for 3 to 4 strategies, your decision to do DMM is not justified.

The results are terrible for DMM.

Find the cost/deal for PPC and facebook ads, then make a decision.

You WILL regret doing DMM!

[Neil McCarthy]

Jerryll Noorden, since it seems you are completely against DMM, what are some resources to learn more about effectively using PPC and Facebook ads?

[Mary Balantucas]

@Jerryll Noorden

Thank you for your response. It seems like your not really in favor of dmm however, Im just starting out and don’t have that enough amount to start on ppc or facebooks ads coz I heard its a little bit costly than ddm.

[Neil McCarthy]

Jerryll Noorden, since it seems you are completely against DMM, what are some resources to learn more about effectively using PPC and Facebook ads?

[Joshua Mellor]

@Jerryll Noorden I haven’t done dmm yet but I have bought a list of 400 multi family units with the goal to find a least one for a buy and hold property. Do you think direct mail marketing would be good for that? I was also thinking of sending 50 letters out a month till I have all 400 plus houses receive a short letter introducing myself and that I’m interested in buying a multi family residence. I guess my question is what do you think would be most effective for a buy and hold strategy targeted to one area?

[Jerryll Noorden]

Originally posted by @Mary Balantucas:

@Jerryll Noorden

Thank you for your response. It seems like your not really in favor of dmm however, Im just starting out and don’t have that enough amount to start on ppc or facebooks ads coz I heard its a little bit costly than ddm.

 Exactly my point.

This is what you are doing, and correct me if I am wrong.

You will try DMM because you have no money for PPC, hoping you will get lucky and make a deal so that after you make money you will do it the right way correct?

Let me translate that logic into English for you.

"I am going to use a strategy that does NOT get me money... to try to make money, to then do a strategy that gets me money".

See how little sense that makes? You know what is odd?

EVERYONE thinks this way and it is BEYOND me.

EVERYONE and their fleas is doing DMM. Yet SO MANY people are not successful. Why would you want to do exactly what other investors are doing that are struggling hoping to make it?

Can you make a deal with DMM? Of course! Is this reliable and predictable and efficient?

ABSOLUTELY NOT> DMM is luck. 

Do you really think that BECAUSE someone has no mortgage, and lives in a second house and is over 60 years old there is more probability he will sell his house?

NO NOT at all.

If someone with all these characteristics is WILLING to sell their house, yes that may be easier for them to convince to sell. But see the difference? Not BECAUSE he exhibits all these characteristics means he is more willing to sell his house. 

And this is what you are SUPPOSED to do.

Find the cost/deal for what ever strategy you are considering, even if it is DMM.

If you want to have a reasonable chance at DMM that is EXPENSIVE too, you know! Try 4K to 7K mailers if you want a decent chance to get a deal. (that is often more expensive than PPC).

So after you find out what the cost/deal is (how much money people spend in your market using a specific method like DMM, per closed deal) only THEN will you dive in.

Here is what most people do.

"Ohh I only have 2K in my account so I will spend $1K on DMM...

Well guess what. If the cost / deal for DMM = $4K, it doesn't matter how often you will spend that $1K / month, chances are you will not get a deal... ever! Are there exceptions? Of course. But these come rarely.

Do you really want to gamble with your money time and effort on luck?

All you newbies SERIOUSLY need to stop listening to other "investors" for advice when they themselves don't have crap figured out!

Sheep following sheep.

In order to become successful you REALLY need to be intelligent, smart, work hard, analyse, follow data, numbers, NOT emotion, or desperation or hope.

I know this message sounds harsh, I don't mean to be. I just think you need to get a constructive awakening and stop winging it before even trying to wing it.

Hope this helps.

[Jerryll Noorden]

Originally posted by @Neil McCarthy:

Jerryll Noorden, since it seems you are completely against DMM, what are some resources to learn more about effectively using PPC and Facebook ads?

 Here is the thing about marketing in general.

Most got it wrong. Period.

Marketing is all about waging war on your traffics objections.

That simply put is marketing

Always stay 3 steps ahead on any plausible objections your ideal traffic may have and annihilate these objections before they even enter their head.

So check this out.

What are the obvious objections of a seller.

Lowball offer

are you going to scam me

can you really close in a hurry

are you legit

are you experienced?

Well all these objections should be handled within 10 seconds of your traffic experiencing you. Ideally on your website. Show them you are real. Show them you buy houses (have pictures of you inside a house you bought)

Show them you have experience and show them you can close withing 7 days.. how? Reviews.

See it is all about oblitterating any doubt they may have and never give them a chance to have such doubt. The more credible you are, the more webpresence you have, the less doubt they will have and the easier it is to convert.

Now this is but ONE part.

This is the human part. 

Now you have the machine part. You need to understand the machine. How PPC works, which tools you have and how to use these tools to deliver your message to the right people.

That machine part you can learn from research.

The human factor, don't bother with resources. I have looked and I have yet to find ANYONE that does this part right.

Here is the result doing this correctly.

These are our leads during summer. All these leads are free, and more motivated then any other system can possibly dream of producing. And all this without lifting a finger!

[Jerryll Noorden]

Originally posted by @Joshua Mellor:

@Jerryll Noorden I haven’t done dmm yet but I have bought a list of 400 multi family units with the goal to find a least one for a buy and hold property. Do you think direct mail marketing would be good for that? I was also thinking of sending 50 letters out a month till I have all 400 plus houses receive a short letter introducing myself and that I’m interested in buying a multi family residence. I guess my question is what do you think would be most effective for a buy and hold strategy targeted to one area?

 There are several instances I can't bish too hard about DMM.

1), you want to reach the people that do not have computers or are not savy when it comes to internet (honestly, not worth targeting such a difficult small population)

2) You see a HIGHLY target set of houses you REALLY want. You do not want to wait for them to find your site or your ad and you think this is a super good lead. Sure send them a mailer that is personal... not as in hand written.. but make the mailer personal,m describing   your goals, reason for writing and the particular interest you have in their house.

Use a printed letter with your company logo on it.

If it is such a crazy narrowed highly targeted list, I personally think it is OK to send 50-400 mailers out.

But to target a publicly available list, in general you would have to send a ton of mailers. I wouldn't go lower than 4K mailers

[Mary Balantucas]

@Erin Spence

Thank you Erin! I appreciate your response. How do you do the virtual mailbox? I would love to hear information about it.

[Mary Balantucas]

@Aaron Hicks

Thank you Aaron. I am starting to wholesale single family homes.