All Forum Posts by: Alison M.

I still use them for some things, but I have bullet-proofed my postcards over the years and don't deviate from them. I did have one bad experience with their customer service when I ordered glossy postcards and they were delivered with all kinds of smears and scraped-up spots. They blamed it on USPS and denied me any credit.

Moral of the story is, don't try anything ambitious, don't expect decent customer service, and USE INTERNET EXPLORER !!

Steven, I have used Click2Mail extensively and feel your pain. Two tips:

1. The application HATES Chrome. Internet Explorer provides a much better experience.

2. You can have your address separated into different fields if you wish, if your postcard fields exactly mirror your spreadsheet fields. Example - If you have Street Number in a column by itself on the spreadsheet, it must be set up as mail merge field {Street Number} on the postcard. You then map each spreadsheet field to each postcard field in the postcard design window using the Insert function on the horizontal menu.

Hope this helps, and remember USE INTERNET EXPLORER with C2M!

Adrian, have you tried the Maryland Assessments web site? That lists the address the tax bill is sent to. Otherwise it's the usual address look-up sites and asking the neighbors. If you are really interested you can hire private investigator or skip-trace service to track down the owner.

Cheers, Alison

I have a meeting with the local rep on Thursday to get the specifics. The man who called was asking if I wanted to do it at the grocery store in the neighborhood where I live, which is not where I market.

I'll see if I can get info for the stores in neighborhoods where I market and report back.

I just got a call today from someone selling advertising space on grocery carts. I see this all the time for local businesses at the grocery store and wondered how it came about. Has anyone ever tried it, and how helpful is it? Any idea on cost?

Isn't there a "Do Not Mail" registry along with the "Do Not Call" registry? If so maybe those addresses get picked up when you run your NCOA process (USPS process for updating addresses with forwarding info).

I remove folks who ask to be removed. However every time you refresh your list, say annually or semi-annually, those properties may find their way back on if they still meet your criteria.

What a lot of people around here do is schedule a time slot and have pre-qualified parties go through all at the same time. This will work only if the owner and resident both agree to allow it, of course. I have found that the seller doesn't ask too many questions about who the people are. Saying they are prospective partners on the deal covers most bases.

I have done several deals with properties that were in trusts and never had an issue or complication.

If the property is part of an estate, however, and has to be sold in order to settle the estate, then I've run into some of the complexities that James mentions above.

The psychology part for me is to just stay in touch with callers who are not ready to sell today, but may be in the future. Keep mailing to them and put them on a call-back schedule. It's taken me over a year to develop some leads from call to close.

Do you have a good lead-tracking system or methodology for following up? It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive, it just has to work for you. I use a mash-up of Microsoft Outlook, Excel, and a white-board system. There are also threads here on BP about CRM and lead-tracking systems. If you don't save your leads and callers then you're wasting part of your marketing money.

Agree with Michael Q. etc about a deal being a deal. In addition, Justin S. had a good point about reviewing your lists.

List thoughts - are you screening your out of town lists to include target neighborhoods with more distressed properties in general, rather than upscale neighborhoods where out of state owners have lots of cash and options for their properties? A subdivision or zip code review might be in order if you haven't already. You might also need to expand your geographic area so you get enough median-sales-price-and-below homes. I've had good luck with delinquent tax mailings, hope you do too.

Also - are you mailing to the same people multiple times, and do you put the ones who call you on a regular call-back schedule? I spoke to a man yesterday who told me in October he'd sold his house, but I followed up and turns out he hasn't and my offer is looking better. Keep politely checking in with them until they've sold!

If you want to post your mailer here I'm sure others would be happy to give input on that as well.

Alison