Driving for dollars + Listsource direct mail, San Diego

[Julius Dixon]

My friend @Forrest Hull and I are beginning in direct mail marketing. We are looking for deals in San Diego where he is located. He will be driving for dollars looking for properties that appear abandoned, run down, etc. I am located in New York, so I will use listsource to build a list of out of state homeowners within our farm area (I will circle back to this forum with the specific zip codes that we will be looking for deals in). A few questions:

- Besides the zip code and out of state home owner, do you guys have any criteria that you think will help me optimize my list before I purchase? Is out of state the best starting point? I don't want to waste money on a bad list.

- For our mailers - do you guys recommend a different tactic for reaching out based on how we're creating the two lists (him driving for dollars and me purchasing a list on listsource)? Our idea for our first letter is literally just a plain envelop with a handwritten note reading "Hi, we are [brief intro] and we would like to purchase your property for cash. Please get back to us at [phone number/email]." We'll have a burner phone number (probably through google voice or something) that will take messages solely dedicated to REI.

We wanted some forward momentum as we were spending too much time in the "learning" phase, which was definitely helpful, but it's now time for action. We want to each have 12/13 addresses to send mailers by midnight this coming Wednesday. I imagine once we find the first 3 or 4 it'll be easy to go way beyond the 25 total we're shooting for, but we just want a manageable, tangible goal. We welcome any and all feedback from other n00bs and experienced investors alike. 

Thanks!