All Forum Posts by: Chrissy Parsons

@Jason Stoltzfus You can look at reports to see some stats for your area. For example, for Lancaster County, this is the breakout by home value for Absentee Owners with Equity.

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Owner Occupied with Equity

You can also look at individual zips to see how many are there, based on the range you decide upon.

There are additional criteria that you can use to look at your market such as owner age, number of properties owned, length of ownership or financial stability scores. These can be used down the road pull lists of motivated sellers when you are ready to get started looking for off-market leads.

@Sean Brennan Sounds like you have a good path laid out for yourself this time around. Must have been totally nerve wracking working on a line of credit without a full time job to get started. 

@Michael Randle - Jerry is right - I'm a list broker and utilize the Acxiom Real Property files. But I disagree with his opinion of the financial scores. We have had a lot of investors testing and coming back to get additional lists. Nice thing is that it can be mixed and matched with so many other combinations. 

@Vic Iyer It is pretty common in the hot markets around the country for bread and butter lists to get over-used. Absentee Owners might be getting offers every week.

@Dean Iodice - You do need to find Off-Market Leads. Mailing is a good way to do this - both in FL and Memphis.

@Autumn Alexander, When doing a direct mail campaign, consider your audience carefully. There are many levels of motivation - you want to find some that work for your area.

You can work with a list broker to get some suggestions.  It shouldn't cost extra money and it's much easier than going online to figure out what you want.

Some might be Seniors with Long-time Ownership and Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores. Both have homes that probably are behind in updates and repairs so they won't be expecting top dollar for the house.

Always be sure that whatever list you get that it has been run through the National Change of Address (NCOA). You don't want to waste your postage dollars mailing to old addresses.

Who is your target market in DC? It's a pretty busy market for investors.

@Cory Wells as @Jerry Puckett says, KS is a "non-disclosure" state. There are plenty of counties around the country that do not report real estate information under freedom of information, but KS is the only full state that has put it into law.

 A good mailing list broker will know how to utilize information that isn't protected by the state law from a consumer list. You can still find motivated sellers who are owner occupied. I'd suggest Seniors with Long-Time Ownership and Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores. 

These lists are on the up and up and are great alternatives, even for people who are marketing to areas that have absentee owner info available - particularly when there are dozens of investors all sending offers to the same absentee owners.

@Joseph Corria, I agree with Jill that mail is a great way to find the off-market deals. You can work with a mailing list broker to come up with some effective lists for your area. Be sure that any list that you get has been put through the Post Office's National Change of Address (NCOA). You don't want to waste postage on old addresses if you can help it.

There are several printing and mailing companies that offer canned letters and post card templates for investors. You can also look at creating your own letter to personalize.  Here's some ideas if you are looking at Seniors with Long-Time Ownership (ready for downsizing or transition to assistance.) biggerpockets.com/blogs/10944/74462-you-want-to-buy-their-home-but-how-do-you-get-the-attention-of-senior?

@Melvin Hazelton If you want to be proactive in finding off-market deals, I'd suggest that you look at direct mail campaigns. You should work with a list broker to find some alternative lists as the Atlanta area is pretty hot and it's likely that most absentee owners are getting a lot of offers from a lot of other investors.

@Nakaash Bhasin The letters or postcards that you send out should reflect the audience that you are mailing to. 

Charlotte is getting hotter, so I'll bet there are a lot of investors mailing to the Absentee Owners. Time to find another target. Think about Seniors with Long Time Ownership an Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores.  You can work with a mailing list broker to get suggestions - and not pay more than you would doing it on your own on the on-line systems.

These are both groups that have probably gotten behind in the updating department and possibly deferred maintenance. This will give you opportunity to buy at a bargain in nice neighborhoods. 

Here's some blogs that might help with a message. 

Yellow Letter HQ and Go Big Printing