All Forum Posts by: May Emery

@Michael Zacher If you get an absentee owner list it should come with the owner's name, their mailing address and the property address.

You might consider working with a list broker to guide you and suggest other lists that might work for your market area. In the more competitive areas, the Absentee Owner lists have been over-mailed and you will be competing with multiple offers in their mailbox. Some of the new lists for motivated sellers include Owners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS) or Seniors with Long-time Ownership.

Be sure that the list you get has been put through the National Change of Address (NCOA) so you have updated addresses.

@Terrell Dyer While DM will take time, it can certainly be do-able. One big advantage is that you are getting your own leads. When you are "on the list" you will be competing with other investors for the same properties.

The same competition can be true with DM as well if you get the same list as everyone else. Think about working with a mailing list broker who can provide some of the new lists for motivated sellers. These include Owners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS) or Seniors with Long-time Ownership.

Make sure your lists have been updated recently and that it was put through the National Change of Address (NCOA) so you aren't mailing to the old addresses of people who moved.

@Joseph Crunkilton I agree that driving for dollars can be very time consuming - both the driving part and hunting down the owners.

Consider working with a list broker where you only pay for the lists you are getting and not a subscription that you pay every month. You can also get some of the new lists like Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS) or Seniors with Long-time Ownership.

Be sure to find out the "last update date" so you aren't getting old data. Also ask if a list has been put through the National Change of Address (NCOA) so you don't get old addresses for people who have moved.

@Paul Witte I will PM you since we are unable to promote - especially ourselves on the forum.

South Carolina has recently passed laws prohibiting the use of public data for marketing. Unfortunately, this means that we are no longer able to get Absentee Owner information in the state.

Fortunately, I am able to provide motivated sellers with our consumer list that doesn’t have the marketing restrictions. These are owner occupied only

Owners with Low Financial Stability Scores

Seniors with Long-Time Ownership

Visit re-investorlist.com to learn how you can work with a professional mailing list broker. We offer bulk skip tracing in addition to mailing lists.

@Nicole Holcomb EDD is cheaper to mail, but they have more rules about the size of the mail piece and how to bundle and drop off at each post office. 

If you want to target areas with good rental potential, you'll need to know that the EDD post card will go to the person living there and not the owner. 

Getting a list of homeowners - targeted to ones who might want to sell can work better for the long run. You won't be getting crank calls from the renter - and you aren't wasting money on printing and postage sending to people who don't have a house to sell - or maybe who bought last month to raise their family!

A list broker can help you decide the type of list best for your goals. Some might include: Owners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS), Seniors with Long-Time Ownership and Absentee Owners with Equity.

The list broker can also do bulk skip tracing to add in phones and emails where available.

Good Luck

@Paul Witte Mailing list brokers can provide lists - generally between 7 and 10 cents per name. These are somewhat pre-qualified. You can customize the characteristics you want. For the property; home value, single/multi/condo, beds/baths. The same thing for the owner - how long they have owned, absentee or owner occupied, their age, do they have equity. You can even specify that they have Low Financial Stability Scores! 

The same list broker should be able to then do bulk skip tracing to add in the phones and emails where available. That should be in the 7 cent range.

Expect to have a minimum order requirement. It will probably be between $95 and $200 per order.

@Christopher Brown I'm with @Anthony Thompson on this. It is best to market directly to motivated sellers - and most investors have found that even if mail is more expensive, it is the most effective.

However, you need to think about the list. Absentee Owners have been the go-to list for years, but as the number of investors have grown, so have the number of letters and postcards crowding the absentee owners' mailboxes.

Think about working with a mailing list broker. They can make recommendations for the motivated seller lists and you only pay when you buy a list. Quite often they will also be able to add on phone numbers to your list.

Some new off-market leads include: Owners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS) and Seniors with Long-Time Ownership.

Good luck!

@Xavier Bruce Congratulations getting started. A lot of investors find that it can be better to look for "off market” deals. These are homeowners who haven’t taken the time and made the investment to fix up their homes before putting it on the market.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Mailing is probably the best way to find your own off-market deals. These are people who share motivational characteristics of people ready to sell, but haven't yet done all the work they think they need to list property. The best way to find them is to send out mailers.

Some good lists to target are Absentee Owners with Equity, Seniors with Long-time Ownership and Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores.

You can work with a list broker to optimize your list for your area. From there, there are a lot of companies that can help with the printing and mailing. Be sure that you highlight that "selling your house can be easier than you think". Focus the advantages of working directly with you instead of the more traditional route.

Good Luck

@Devin Rodriguez Today as before, the list is of paramount importance in the effectiveness of a campaign. Investors have been sending to Absentee Owners for years. People are still recommending it. With the increase in the number of investors over the past couple years, the result has been that absentee owners are getting multiple offers. In some competitive markets I've heard some get several a week. It's hard to compete.

There are some new lists that are catching traction and proving effective but haven't yet gotten over-mailed. Some include:

Owners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS)

Seniors with Long-Time Ownership

You can work with a list broker to optimize your list for your area. Be sure that you highlight that "selling your house can be easier than you think" and list the advantages of working directly with you instead of the more traditional route. Focus on the benefits to the seller.