First Time Direct Mail Campaign Questions

[Kirk Gore]

Okay so after listening to about a million hours of BP podcasts on wholesaling I've mustered the courage to take the plunge and start a campaign. 

I've bought my first list of 550 addresses (absentee owners out of state) in my city from Listsource. I realize the absentee owners list is considered low hanging fruit but I don't know of anyone else marketing in my area and I'm curious to see the response rate. I also wanted to start with something relatively simple.

Here are my initial questions:

1) I paid to have the equity $ and pre-foreclosure flag included in my list but the columns are completely blank in my spreadsheet. Does this mean that the information is just not available in my area or am I doing something wrong?

2) I'm planning on sending to all 550 in the next 3 weeks then repeating every 3 weeks for 6 months. Is the total number too insignificant to see any real results and should I ramp up my list number or frequency? My goal for now is to successfully close one wholesale deal but ideally I'd like to close 2 a month either as rentals or flips for myself or as wholesales to other investors.

3) I'm also a recently licensed realtor in the state of MS. I know the laws are pretty serious about full disclosure in marketing but since I'll be asking to buy the house as an investor will I be okay? I'd only plan to list the properties as a last resort if I couldn't purchase or wholesale the house in any other way. There really doesn't seem to be much of a difference between listing someone's property on the MLS for a commission and throwing it to a list of cash investors for a wholesale fee. Wholesaling in general also seems very similar to net listings which are illegal in Mississippi and I just want to make sure I have all of my bases covered before I start!

Thanks so much for reading!