Wholesaling Direct mail approach

[Account Closed]

Ok new to wholesaling and from my understanding you should take one approach and stick to it. I am thinkning that the best approach for me to start wholesaling would be direct mail. I feel like I will have the free time once i graduate college in May and only work 25 hours a week as a server and then take the time to establish a wholesaling business. I have one multi unit right now and am learning land-lording. My idea is to master direct mail. I believe it is a numbers game and the reason many people fail is they give up after the approach doesn't work the first few times. I plan to master a good letter to absentee landlords, and try to put some houses in contract. This is a numbers gain and I realize I have to play the percentages to get the right deals. Any advice? thanks

[Sharon Vornholt]

John-

I am a full time wholesaler, and I have been doing direct mail for over 20 years. I used it first in my home inspection company, and have used it for years in my real estate investing business. It is by far, my best source of leads. The secret to success, is to never stop mailing. Your mail piece will be there when everyone else has stopped mailing after a few times.

My advice to you is to spring for an Act Database from Sage. You can get this from office supply stores. It is a couple hundred dollars. The program is not specifically for real estate but it works great. This will allow you to keep all the information on each person updated over time. You can set up your letter templates in there and print directly from this source. When you talk to someone or make an offer that is rejected, you can keep the details in your notes right in the program. Then when they call back 6 months later, you can refer to your notes.

I market using direct mail primarily to absentee owners and probates. (Low hanging fruit). I always print my letters and hand wrote the envelopes. Now I also use a service which sends yellow postcards to absentee owners. Personally, I never send postcards to probates.

In my area, probates are printed in the newspaper monthly and are free. In some areas they are online but not here. You can also get a list of your absentee owners ( I ask specifically for out of state owners) from your local tax assessors office.

You might consider outsourcing some of the addressing to save time if you are printing your own mail.

I found a college student that had a part-time lifeguard position at an indoor pool this winter. Hardly anyone comes to the pool, but she has to be there. Her boss gave her permission to address and stuff may mail when no one was swimming. She more than doubled her part time income, and she was so cost effective for me to use. It has been great for both of us.

I have a ton of information on my blog on this subject. Good luck. Sharon