All Forum Posts by: Gary Parker

Welcome!

Throwing my 2cents in more for possible feedback than what to do, as it it would be difficult to add to what has already been said. Marketing to NOD is tough. If they have equity the best approach is, as stated, "I want to buy your house". Trouble is few houses in default have equity. I market to foreclosures with a 100 other people looking for short sales on homes that need a lot of work. I never offer to help with the foreclosure, as it is the easiest way to stay out of trouble. I come right out and state I am looking for people that want to sell. I am a licensed agent, so I am looking for listings unless a good short comes along. Unless one is marketing to other "lists" I would consider trying something else before foreclosures. Oh and having a great partner that can do the short sales is a must.

Type of letter does depend on who who are writing to in most experts opinion. @Sharon Vornholt advocates more of a professional letter to probates and @Jerry Puckett & @Michael Quarles would probably suggest a more mom & pop look with a hand written yellow letter to absentee owners. While I am not the expert the people mentioned are, for lists like absentee owners it really is more of a numbers game where when mailing to probates the letter probably is more important. It is my opinion that unless one is mailing thousands of letters to the same list every month, tweeking the letter is not as important as mailing letters. You will have days of very good reading ahead of you just by reading posts by the above three people.

When starting out it can be advantageous to knock on some doors. Not just any door but figure out why someone would be motivated to sell and target. For example, if your county web site is free or low cost, look for notice of defaults. Look for run down houses in foreclosure. Team up with an investor that can work the short sale. It takes a ton of time per lead and you have to knock a lot of doors in the same manor one needs to mail a ton of letters. Foreclosure is only one motivation, and there are several others. I dont DK much anymore because I am sending a lot of mailers, but I started that way years ago. Oh and a tip: if your time is short, DK on weekends or evenings. More people home that way.

@Jerry Puckett and @Michael Quarles Offer mail services as well as many others. I would imagine either one of them have ways to update your mailing lists as mail is returned. Shop around and talk to the providers ofthe services you want.

Just talk to more people. It is somewhat of a numbers game; and by-the-way, always call back people that dont leave a message.

I tested marketing to 30, 60 and 90 day lates a few years ago, but I didnt go through list source. I went with a company called Blackbook Data. When I was testing, I tested maybe 4 zip codes in areas that might be prone to late payments. For 30 day lates I would get hundreds for just a few zip codes and the numbers went down as I moved to 90 day late.

One of the things I was trying to determine is if I got a 60 day lead how long did it take in real time to turn into a NOD (notice of default). I wanted to know the same thing for 90 day lates. Just because someone is 90 days late doesnt mean they will gt a NOD right away. I tracked things for 6 to 8 months and found something very odd. None, not one, of the 60 or 90 days lates ever turned into a NOD. I was actually checking my purchased leads against the new NOD's that were recorded daily.

Im guessing there are about 50 to 60 new NODs a week in SL County.

Make friends with one of the HVAC or other people that mail a lot of advertisements. You will know who they are because you get their mail. Ask if you can have their returned mail. Maybe they will give it to you if you offer to clean up their mailing list for free. Just thinking out loud.

100% true at least in my case. Good relationships have enabled me to have instant buyers when I need them and the type of projects I like to rehab when I need one.

Welcome @Jared Christian