All Forum Posts by: Marcus Robinson

As a beginner, one of the easiest ways to direct market is with a yellow letter to absentee owners. These absentee owners are people who own properties (for a variety of reasons) but do not live in said properties (landlords, inherited, etc.). This is essentially the bread and butter target criteria for direct mail. 

Before you buy a list and shoot out a mailing, I would definitely recommend having a marketing plan first. Find your budget for mailing and buy a list that you can mail to about once a month for 6 months because you'll rarely get a deal on your first one or two mailings (don't be mislead like I was). Also, if you're able, try to find the areas where you notice the most market activity in your county/city.

The criteria I use for sellers is people who have owned properties (in my target area, try to avoid sending a whole county mailing) for longer than 10-20 years (--last market sale date--) (higher equity that way), Single Family Residences (for starting out), no corporations or trusts and make sure these people do not live in the properties (there's a bubble to check for absentee owners).