My target market is really hot right now, so 'winning' is too expensive for the numbers to work for me.Obviously if its your residence then the only thing that matters is if its worth it to you.

A buddy gets wholesale deals going door to door i the areas he targets, he speaks to everyone on behalf of the local politician he ends asking if they know anything coming up for sale or thinking about selling, he offers referral fees.Reading a book is good, getting the best real estate CPA and attorney is much better.Remember reality shows are staged the numbers and stories are made up, not real and designed to create drama.

If you haven't yet- be sure to setup some "Keyword Alerts" to get into conversation in your target area.Seeya around!

I have certain area of the city as my target for marketing.

That's 500 letters a month.If it were me, I'd start with a laser targeted list of about 300 and hit them twice a month for two months.

I want monthly cash flow and want to target a specific cash-on-cash return.So typically, I know people reply and give great ideas on how to beef up one's knowledge in real estate.

Consult some good financial management advisory council in Toronto like KPMG and hit your target.

First its all in teh list and the more targeted the list the better the results.So a list that targets all home owners is going to not do as well as a list that might target something specific like:Out of State Owners - where you might get people who have moved away or inherited a house they don't want or burned out landlordsUnpaid Taxes - where people are in financial difficulty and going to loose their house to unpaid taxesOwned for a Long Time - where the people might own free and clear orHigh Equity Owners - again free and clearOr even other lists that you might build yourself -Expired MLS LIstings - people who want to sell but did notNOD - people who are have received a notice of defaultLate Pays - people late on their mortgageGarage & Estate Sales - people moving out of their houseAs for a good letter, I have recently used a yellow letter company for a simple I want to buy your house and they make a "handwritten" letter on legal pad paper, fold it weird to put in a thank you card size envelope, with a "handwritten" address, and grandmaesque return address label.It gets opened more, but we do get a lot of calls with people saying they don't want to sell or that we should say we are a company.We tested the straight Dear Mr Jones, we want to buy your house at 123 mainstreet with out our company name or website, just to call us . . that generated more calls than the letter that just went out that added in that we are an investment company and they can call or visit our website . . . can't tell if the results were much different.And personally, you can get all kinds of results, but it comes down to it, you want the motivated people to call you and those people are going to find you letter or not - if you have a website.

I believe I'm at the point where I need to start developing a business plan so I can have a hard target to aim for as I accumulate my first down payment!  

I feel as though our inexperience made us easy targets.