Just bought list from US LEADS LIST. Hmmmm....

[Silvio L.]

Hi all,

So This past Friday was the opening of the new "quarter" at US LEADS LIST and I decided to get my hands on this highly coveted list of names. I did a fair amount of research and although there is definitely a lot of hype about this company I am still a bit skeptical. For one, it was really expensive! 340 names cost me about $485. But I decided that I needed to take some calculated risk with my marketing budget and so in addition to my trusted absentee list I also bought this one.

First issue - there is only last names and property addresses. What if these people don't live in the home of the deceased relative, how are they going to get my letter? Has anyone had experience with this?

Big issue - My ultimate conundrum is what mailing piece to send. My yellow letter has been working so wonderfully with a healthy response rate between 10-15%. BUT everyone says you should send some special sensitive mail piece that speaks more to this type of property owner. My letter is REALLY simple and literally just says I'd like to buy your house. But it's been working with absentees. Should I move away from my trusted yellow letter... I just don't know. And if I do... to what?

What experiences have you recently had with this type of list? I'm hoping to hear from folks in my area. I've read some older forum posts about this, but I'd like to get some more recent opinions and a renewed discussion on marketing to probates can't hurt.

Any thoughts?

-Silvio

[Jessica H.]

Kim, what resources have you been using to generate your own lists?