3 "Lesser Known" Direct-Mail Tips

Starting direct-mail on a budget? These “lesser known” tips can save a few hundred while you’re building your empire.

My first venture into motivated home seller marketing was direct-mail. The initial campaign was unoptimized to say the least. Even worse: I only had a few hundred per month budget. I’ve learned a few “tricks” reading BiggerPockets and re-fining my practices. I wouldn’t call these “unknown” but certainly less used than an “out-of-state”, “high equity”, “last sale date” criteria. Here are three that I apply across the board now:

Tip #1: Owner Count

You can’t build a marketing machine targeting investors. Direct-mail lists universally exclude corporations, partnerships, trusts. However, not all investors use a corporate structure. Investors often own 10+ houses in their own name.

Just targeting last sale date, high equity, and non-corporate – you will spend quite a few bucks sending mail to absentee investors with large portfolios. There are two solutions to this problem: (1) run owner names in the local county property appraiser website to see if they own multiple properties, (2) if you’re buying from a vendor, there is typically an “owner count” feature. For me, I’m not spending any dollars sending mail to a person who owns more than 2 properties.

Although Owner Count should be applied across all direct-mail, this is critical if you’re mailing tired landlords. I still have someone go through eviction leads on a monthly basis for my marketing and I ensure the landlord does not own more than 2 properties. Landlords that only own 2 properties (often their own home and 1 rental) are high value as an eviction is not a normal event. Once a person owns 3+ rentals, eviction is a fact of life.

Tip #2: Customize Everything!

You can completely customize any mail piece. If you’re hand-writing letters, this is obvious. However, even using massive quantities, you can personalize in high detail. It’s fairly common to have the owner name and address called out. You can go a step further though.

Take your excel list and break it down into columns. Make columns for First Name, Last Name, Middle Initial, Address, City, State, Zip, Property ID, Lot Size, Living Area, BR, BA. The possibilities are endless. Once it’s in columns anyone legit vendor (or even just using Microsoft MailMerge) can create highly customized messages, for example: “Hi John, I’m writing about 111 Test Street (Property ID 11111 for your reference) in Miami. I’m looking to buy in Zip Code 00000. I’m particularly interested in this property as it has 3 bedrooms and a lot size of 8,000.” Are your solicitations that detailed? They should be.

Tip #3: Search If It’s On The MLS

This is legwork, but you can save hundreds and potentially land an MLS deal. Imagine you buy a 3,000 lead list off ListSource. ListSource (and most list vendor I’ve dealt with) don’t have the functionality to remove properties currently listed on the MLS. If a property is already listed, it’s unlikely to become a deal directly from the seller. Better to not bother mailing. You can go through each property on Redfin or local MLS if you have your license and remove listed houses. This is also the perfect opportunity, if the home is a fixer-upper, to send a quick e-mail to the listing agent and make an offer.