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.

You've found the best place on the web for learning about investing in real estate.  

SHOW ME BIGGER POCKETS IS THE BEST REI COMMUNITY ON THE WEB TODAY!

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!  

We all have the inter-web so while you can help anyone you will bring the most value if you can be "boots on the ground" to help with some of the in person stuff.  

I feel as though our inexperience made us easy targets.  

What type of areas are you targeting?

Welcome to BP, the forums is probably the most valuable free REI source on the web.

These strategies will be broken down to promote the brand and to market to specific target audiences to develop business for our key areas of focus for Real Estate Investing.Branding and Marketing Strategies Online Branding-Website1.Squeeze pages- lead capture sites-Social Media1.Facebook2.LinkedIn3.Google+-SEODirect Marketing-Clipper magazine ad-Small monthly circular mag/paper-We Buy Houses Signage on our building-Car magnetWOM Marketing-Pittsburgh REIA and ACREStrategies -Wholesaling-Rehab/Flip-Supportive Housing-Note Brokering/InvestingTarget Markets -Greater Pittsburgh area in 35mi. radius-Where are our buyers buying, wholesale or otherwiseCosts -What is budget?

That will allow you to target some of your marketing.