Direct-Mail Marketing (absentee owner)

[Andrew DeLorenzo]

Hello everyone,

I asked a similar, more broad, question a few weeks ago without a response so I’m hoping I’ve narrowed down my concerns enough to generate a response.

I’m working on a campaign for February and I’m wondering about all of the absentee owners on my lists. It seems like anyone who has another address listed in public record qualifies as an absentee owner. This would mean any investment property would qualify and obviously not a motivated seller and I probably wouldn’t want to waste mailers on them.

Also my list has hundreds of PO Boxes, should I be concerned?

Otherwise my list is a few hundred distressed properties I obtained from driving around.

I would like to hear from those with success with direct-mail. Specifically how big of a list did you start out with and what kind of response rate is typical?

Thanks

[Braden Smith]

The typical response rate for direct mail is 1-3%, but in a highly competitive market the response rate can be less than 1%. 

You can narrow your list down with an equity filter... mail only those that have 35-40% equity or more.