I have bandit signs, business cards, flyers to hand out and now my last step is going to be the Yellow Letters.

I used to have a professional photographer go do this, and then make them into little books to hand out to prospective customers.... 

Re: fixers - I'm not surprised; seems like a lot of 'em would hand out high estimates.

I like your ideas about a contest to capture leads, because that way, I am not just there to hand out gifts - it comes with a price, huh?

Now for your instance, hard to say, all depends on your scope of work, how many trades, how long the down-time is, and what you have agreed with your GC.

I  can give yu some good pointers though PMGood Luck"@Jason - I was intrigued by your response because my partner and I was literally talking about the very same topic today (absentee mailings).Part of our discussion was mailing to "owner occupied" properties with equity.Obviously there are some minor disadvantages of course such as "waiting for them to move (longer close times)", etc but I agree with your methodology of "thinking outside the box".I'm seriously interested in what you are "doing different" in terms of mailing parameters for these "owner occupied" properties.I don't expect you to "give anything away" nor am I expecting any handouts but my partner and I have dissected this subject over and over and it would be nice to have some insight from someone who is actually having success with these "owner occupied" lists.I'm local here to the SF Bay Area as well and I can't even begin to tell you how many calls I get from people who complain about receiving so many different inquiries from others trying to "buy their house".Any additional insight you can provide on the forum or via PM would be GREATLY appreciated..Jimmy

This can equip you with some handouts etc that provide everyday real estate terms.

Likewise, the people who take the government handouts who do not want to work, they have no financial freedom. 

I have spoken dozens of times over the past 12 years at three different REIA's and trade shows covering three states.

I don't want a handout, but a hand up.