When ListSource Comes Up Short?

[Derek T.]

Hello all,

My city has roughly 400K people in the entire metro population and has one of the stronger economies in the US right now.

I set up a Listsource search for absentee owners with the following criteria:

* SFR
* 40-100% equity
* Out of state owners only
* No commercial or trustee
* Previous purchase price $0 - 200K

I chose the zip code in the center of the city and put a radius of 25 miles on it (I realize this is far beyond a realistic farm area, but I was attempting to increase my returns) and it returned 100 hits.

Through research I was hoping to find 1000 owner to break into 250 mailings spread out over a month...but 100? Did I do something wrong? Should this be a sign I need to increase focus on probate or another type of owner?

As I am new to wholesaling I was trying to really focus on a niche without throwing out a wide net to multiple owner types. Was this thinking incorrect? Is there something else I should be looking to? Does this low number throw up any red flags as to what kind of wholesaling environment is within Des Moines? The low number really caught me off guard.

Thank you in advance for the help. It is very much appreciated.