My acquisition manager and I feel as though we are pros at cold-calling and generating buy appointments, given our combined 40+ years in all manner of competitive sales, but we don't like going into something new without some advice and direction from those smarter than us in specific arenas.

I only measure closed transactions as lots of deals fall apart due to title issues etc.Inbound generally produces about 8-10% average with some people hitting around 20% on the high end.Cold calling off a list has the lowest for most people at around 5% but I do have one client that kills it with cold calling and converts about 25% off of one list.Driving for dollars is pretty effective as well.Believe it or not MLS is still pretty effective in several markets as most investor are ignoring it.

Now to direct mail them and cold-call them.Do you guys know of any good apps that let you rent numbers so they don’t get your actual phone number?

WE typically charge more if the tenant wants to go month to month, since they cold give notice in the winter months and that is harder to rent. 

Does anyone have any experience with this in cold weather, what’s worked best and not extremely expensive.

So when I get that consumer cold calling me & demanding "sweet spot loan amount" rates/fees for that bottom of the barrel loan amount that they actually want, yes you bet your rear end that I'm quite happy to get off the phone and move on dot com.

@Quinton HuntleyWhen I was 19 I sold life insurance which included cold calling, door knocking, and working 7 days a week.

My wife and I have been hot and cold with this real estate stuff over the past few years as we both have full time careers. 

It should cool the downstairs a bit because cold air falls.  

Hi Juanita, great question -- to be honest, as your neighbor in the midwest (Chicago, IL) I imagine things are pretty cold up there in Detroit during the heart of the winter just like Chicago.