Direct Mail: How To Streamline Driving For Dollars Process?

[Aaron Sauceda]

Hi All --

I'm posing a question here about the Driving for Dollars *tactical process*, and less-so the strategy or "what to look for" in DFD-type property.

Specifically, if we're already working on collecting property addresses, building lists and sending mail, how can we do that more efficiently? Put another way, does someone have systems, processes, ideas or technologies that reduce the amount of time and manual work needed to go from collecting addresses to getting letters into mailboxes?

For instance, this is my current Driving for Dollars process: 

1. Write down property address in OneNote 
2. Search address in PropertyRadar, add ownership data to a list 
3. Export list to Excel
4. "Scrub" list and prepare Mail Merge letter
5. Print and mail (if small) or use printing service such as letterprinting.net (if larger) 

Follow-up questions:

How can I streamline this process with automation? Is there a way I don't have to look up each property individually, add them to my Driving for Dollars PropertyRadar list and then export to Excel? Ideas for more automation? 

Please feel free to connect with me here on this thread or PM me directly. I appreciate all discussion!

Cheers,

Aaron

P.S. I've read many of the DFD threads on here already, many of them are geared towards the technology and how-to of DFD (such as here, here, here and here)

[Sean OToole]

@Aaron Sauceda - good stuff, thanks for being a customer!

A couple of suggestions on your process since you are using PropertyRadar already.

1. Use our mobile app and our Explore feature to visually see owner occupancy, equity, foreclosures, etc for every house around you while you are driving for dollars. Makes it much easier to spot opportunities that you'd miss with just looking at the properties alone.

2. When you see a property you are interested in, just click on it in Explore to see all the details - owner name, whether or not it is owner occupied, equity, etc, no need for One Note, and no need to lookup later.

3. While you are looking at the property, add it to a List, and take at least one photo - the photo is useful both for remembering the property and for use in marketing to the owner. You can save the photo with the property in PR so it easy to find later.

4. Use our mail merge feature, or one of our direct mail partners to send direct mail to everyone on the List you created in step 3. We'll do the scrub for you. Another advantage of using Lists, is that unlike One Note, we'll continue to update the property, owners name, address, etc automatically so your List is never out of date.

5. Use our owner search feature to find the owner on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and friend them. One of my favorites is sending out of town landlords pictures of their house, especially if a tenant is trashing it, and asking if they knew what was going on and if I can do anything to help.

Lots more possibilities, but that's the most efficient path to DFD that we've found.

Best,

Sean